Music Supervisor Frankie Pine On Turning the Cast of ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ Into Rock Stars

Daisy Jones & The Six music supervisor Frankie Pine talks to Awards Daily about band camp, featuring “Gold Dust Woman” in the series, and the concert the cast put on for Amazon executives.

For Amazon Prime’s Daisy Jones & The Six, music supervisor Frankie Pine was tasked with turning a group of actors into rock stars, which is more intense than it sounds.

“It’s all about training,” says Pine. “We put them in an intensive, every day of the week besides Saturday and Sunday, where they’d come in for lessons on the instrument they had to play on the show.”

For Sam Claflin who plays Billy Dunne and Riley Keough who plays the titular Daisy Jones, it was guitar and voice, while Suki Waterhouse’s Karen was keyboard, Sebastian Chacon’s Warren was drums, and Will Harrison’s Graham was lead guitar.

“It was lessons every single day. Some people had more lessons than others, just because of their skillset. We did it in a space so they were all together, because I felt it was really important for them to hang out as a band as well.”

Because how else do bands form? The group would eat lunch, listen to music, and enjoy coffee together, which made for an environment that really caused them to gel as a group, kind of like hanging out in the garage.

“At the end of the lessons after lunch, we’d get them all together on stage, and they’d practice.”

Book Songs Reinterpreted for Amazon’s Daisy Jones & The Six

Fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s book for which the limited series is based on might have noticed that some key songs from the novel, including “Impossible Woman” and “This Could Get Ugly,” are missing from the show. But they’re still there—just with different song titles.

“It was about allowing the idea of the song, like what ‘Impossible Woman’ was about, and allowing our amazing music producer and songwriter [Blake Mills] to take the feeling of that and turn it into a song he created. Some of the titles worked for what he was doing and some of the titles didn’t. We wanted to give him that creative outlet of taking the essence of what ‘Impossible Woman’ was about and turning it into what he felt it was about and in today’s terms.”

The Magic Moment of ‘Look at Us Now (Honeycomb)’

In the third episode, Billy and Daisy collaborate on “Look at Us Now (Honeycomb),” and everything starts to click in the series, including the dynamite chemistry between the two. Pine describes what it was like on set.

“All of that took place at Sound City [Studios]. I got so excited about what was happening visually for them. To me, having all of those little looks and those moments, and the thing about band camp was we wanted them to be so good at the music, that they don’t have to look at their hands or worry about what they’re doing with the guitar. So when they were on set, they only had to focus on acting.”

Of all the biggest rock star glowups, Claflin might have had the biggest transformation.

“He said he wasn’t a musical guy,” says Pine. “I gave him a shot of moonshine before he went into his audition to ease his anxiety, and he went in and sang. [Music consultant] Tony Berg was there, and he said, ‘Let’s try to sing something else, like The Beatles.’ Sam didn’t know what song to do and didn’t know The Beatles that well, which is interesting for an English dude. Then Tony played something on guitar and Sam sang and I thought, ‘I know he can do this.’ Thankfully, we didn’t have to use any TV magic. With COVID, he really took the bull by the horns and took advantage of the time. He kept the lessons going and was so dedicated to wanting to learn how to do this. When we finally came back together face to face, he was a transformed person.”

Yes, that’s Stevie Nicks You Hear

Since they’re loosely inspired by Fleetwood Mac, Daisy Jones & The Six exist in an alternate universe where Lindsey, Stevie, Christine, Mick, and John don’t. But yes, that’s “Gold Dust Woman” you hear in one of the episodes.

“When we initially started in on this, we were like absolutely no—we cannot put Fleetwood Mac in the show. But as we were starting to cut that scene together [involving Daisy waking up post-drug overdose] and that super dreamy slow-motion kind of movement, it just kind of worked way too perfectly. We couldn’t deny the use. We went with it!”

And yet, Daisy Jones & The Six don’t sound like a Fleetwood Mac rip-off. They have their own distinct sound (the first faux band to reach No. 1 on iTunes!).

“We wanted the songs to all kind of live within the world of the ’70s, but we also wanted them to be authentic and fresh. One of the things that was so great about the music from that time, people weren’t making records and albums to create singles like today; they were creating an album as a musical journey and experience. And that is one of the best things that Blake Mills does. That’s why he was the perfect choice for creating this music. We wanted it to be reminiscent of the time period, but we also wanted them to be able to stand on their own today. I hope it brings back a resurgence of going with your authentic self and doing your own musical journey, rather than asking, ‘Is this going to be a Top 10 hit?’ I think Daisy Jones & The Six has kind of proven that.”

After band camp and COVID downtime to hone their skills, Daisy Jones & the Six actually performed for Amazon executives on September 10, 2021, before they even started filming.

“They were in full costume. We announced them like they were a real band, just to give them that experience before we started shooting. I’ve heard a lot of them say in their interviews that it was such a high for them to be able to do that, because it really made them feel like rock stars.”

And what’s the key to looking like a rock star from the ’70s?

“It all was about your legs being spread and your body thrust up against the back of the guitar. That was always something I was yelling from the audience, just to keep reminding them that there was a very specific look of the ’70s.”

Daisy Jones & The Six is streaming on Amazon Prime.