Q&A: Tish Ciravolo of Daisy Rock guitars!
The story of how I discovered Daisy Rock and this Q&A.
It was about 2002 sometime. I'd been playing a Gibson Les Paul Special I had refinished using pink glitter nail polish and I called it the princess. No guitar company made a pink glitter guitar. I presumptuously contacted just about every guitar company and proposed a model in pink glitter with a Les Paul shape and star fretboard inlays, really flashy. The only company to contact me back was Daisy Rock. Then-PR lady Karissa Read said she couldn't offer me my own model, but that Daisy Rock would endorse me and I could pick a free guitar from their lineup. At the time, they didn't make a lot of guitars. I chose the Elite because it looked the coolest and it was a sweet guitar. Fast forward a year or so later I think, and Daisy Rock introduced the Rock Candy guitar- Les Paul shaped and 2 different types of pink glitter with star fretboard inlays! Needless to say I was thrilled. Finally a guitar company made a pink glitter axe! In 2005 I ended up picking one up in Atomic pink, and it was great. Daisy Rock had improved their sound and quality and it was a great axe. I used it recording and playing live, on my "Live Dallas 2007" CD and featured it on the cover of that CD. I ended up selling that one to my friend Mandy in California who loves it, and I am playing another pink glitter Rock Candy you can see in my live photos. No other guitar company makes a pink glitter axe, let alone one with a super fast and slim neck. Daisy Rock continues to improve their guitars and quality and now boast a stunning array of guitars and basses that rival any! They also now boast a great roster of endorsed artists (including my friends Jay of the Prozacs, Jay Dee of Johnie 3, Rebecca of the girl group Lovie, and Cera of Screaming Red). Fast forward to now. When I started this blog I was in contact with now-PR lady of Daisy Jessica Murillo. Jessica's been such a sweetheart and very supportive. I asked her if maybe I could do Q&As with some BIG name Daisy Rock artists. Lo and behold she sets me up with the biggest name of all in the Daisy Rock world- Tish Ciravolo, the head honcho, VIP, Queen of Daisy Rock! I'm proud to be on board with her company and so are my friends, and if you haven't tried out a Daisy Rock guitar, you should, because you will love them too. The guitars look cool, play as sweet as ice cream and sound hella rad cranked up. Tish has revolutionized the guitar world and made it gobs of fun again with her sweet guitars. Get to know Tish with this Q&A! Read on.
Q: What made you want to start playing guitar?
Tish: my best friend, Barbara Haughey in high school played acoustic guitar because her big sister, Ann did, and she was the coolest girl we knew…… then I saw Suzi Quattro on Happy Days playing bass as Leather Tuscadero and I thought that whatever she was doing, she was super cool……..
Q: Did you ever think when you started up Daisy Rock, that it would become what it has today?
Tish: Never in my wildest dreams…….
Q: Which guitars do you personally play and like the best, and why?
Tish: I play the Daisy Rock Rock Candy Silver Sparkle Bass. Because it is the easiest bass to play I have ever owned.
Q: do you have a room in your house like Nigel of Spinal Tap, with tons of guitars filling it up?
Tish: I have about 15 guitars in my little collection…. And no, don’t even look at them!
Q: Do you play any other guitars other than Daisys? Surely you're a guitar nerd like the rest of us.
Tish: Do other guitars exist?
Q: What sort of amplifiers do you use?
Tish: Gallien Krueger, Line 6, Bogner
Q: do you use any effects pedals?
Tish: I love Chorus, Flang and Distortion on Bass
Q: Tell us a bit about your own musical projects you have going on for yourself.
Tish: Currently, I play bass and sing in a band called sASSafrASS, which includes members from the Daisy Rock Girl Guitars staff. This past March, we played the annual Daisy Rock Girl Guitars benefit called Pretty In Punk, which was held as the infamous Los Angeles venue The Roxy. It was so much fun to get to play a bill with some of our endorsed artists in a night celebrating The Runaways, with proceeds of the night going to charity. And I got play bass in the BANGLES!!! And Vicki sang with my band!!! Even Cherie Currie made a special performance of The Runaways hit tune “Cherry Bomb”, with sASSafrASS playing back-up. Here’s a video clip if you wanted to check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWHD3c6YCWI&feature=channel_page
Q: What is your job like as the inventor of Daisy Rock? Trips round the world, giving fun people cool guitars? Almost like a guitar santa, making people smile everywhere you go?
Tish: My job is so varied, but you are right! One day I’m dealing with a lot of business things – sales, supply, factories, importing, balance sheets and then the next I’m doing an interview on a blog!!! We also support so many causes and getting girls to play guitar and enjoy music, so there are a lot of events that I get to go to and I love it when I hear the stories from girls about how guitar has changed their life. :)
Q: What other things do you like to do besides guitaring? are you into fashion or any sorts of hobbies? Do you go to lots of concerts? surely your presence is demanded by many.
Tish: I do get invited to go and have fun at a lot of different things, but I love to be a mommy and hang with my two girls and we love to shop and eat and watch ‘gilmore girls’! And I love fashion, but 80’s rock and roll/goth/cowgirl/’50 vamp – Grease style fashion… huh? See! Very original. I love to write. I love rock shows, especially when they are closer to my age – no Jonas Bros for me!
Q: Does it give you a thrill when you see people playing your guitars?
Tish: It is so cool to see people playing my guitars, and I even keep a Family Photo Album section on www.daisyrock.com as a running timeline of pictures I’ve received by mail. I welcome anyone to submit photos of how they Daisy Rock to info@daisyrock.com, as well as posting under our Fan photos album on Facebook. Staying connected to our community is also very important to me, so hearing and seeing people with their Daisy Rock Girl Guitars via social networking channels as MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube has been fun.
Q: Can you tell us anything about the R&D and manufacturing of the guitars and that process?
Tish: Every January and July we debut new guitars at the Summer and Winter NAMM shows, so R&D and manufacturing is always in the works year round. Developing guitars has been really fun and really challenging over the years, and some guitars have stayed and some have been discontinued due to low popularity. More recently, we have been going directly to our artists and community asking them what they would like in a Daisy Rock Girl Guitar, what color, what features, etc. and their suggestions have been useful in mixing with our development ideas to create the freshest new guitar specifically designed with the female player in mind.
Q: What does the future hold for Daisy Rock and yourself?
Tish: World domination! Every girl plays guitar! We rule the world! Guys get so frustrated, they all of a sudden become the ‘well, he’s pretty good for a guy’ and then we have won!!! I’m kidding :) . But not about the world domination part.
It was about 2002 sometime. I'd been playing a Gibson Les Paul Special I had refinished using pink glitter nail polish and I called it the princess. No guitar company made a pink glitter guitar. I presumptuously contacted just about every guitar company and proposed a model in pink glitter with a Les Paul shape and star fretboard inlays, really flashy. The only company to contact me back was Daisy Rock. Then-PR lady Karissa Read said she couldn't offer me my own model, but that Daisy Rock would endorse me and I could pick a free guitar from their lineup. At the time, they didn't make a lot of guitars. I chose the Elite because it looked the coolest and it was a sweet guitar. Fast forward a year or so later I think, and Daisy Rock introduced the Rock Candy guitar- Les Paul shaped and 2 different types of pink glitter with star fretboard inlays! Needless to say I was thrilled. Finally a guitar company made a pink glitter axe! In 2005 I ended up picking one up in Atomic pink, and it was great. Daisy Rock had improved their sound and quality and it was a great axe. I used it recording and playing live, on my "Live Dallas 2007" CD and featured it on the cover of that CD. I ended up selling that one to my friend Mandy in California who loves it, and I am playing another pink glitter Rock Candy you can see in my live photos. No other guitar company makes a pink glitter axe, let alone one with a super fast and slim neck. Daisy Rock continues to improve their guitars and quality and now boast a stunning array of guitars and basses that rival any! They also now boast a great roster of endorsed artists (including my friends Jay of the Prozacs, Jay Dee of Johnie 3, Rebecca of the girl group Lovie, and Cera of Screaming Red). Fast forward to now. When I started this blog I was in contact with now-PR lady of Daisy Jessica Murillo. Jessica's been such a sweetheart and very supportive. I asked her if maybe I could do Q&As with some BIG name Daisy Rock artists. Lo and behold she sets me up with the biggest name of all in the Daisy Rock world- Tish Ciravolo, the head honcho, VIP, Queen of Daisy Rock! I'm proud to be on board with her company and so are my friends, and if you haven't tried out a Daisy Rock guitar, you should, because you will love them too. The guitars look cool, play as sweet as ice cream and sound hella rad cranked up. Tish has revolutionized the guitar world and made it gobs of fun again with her sweet guitars. Get to know Tish with this Q&A! Read on.
Q: What made you want to start playing guitar?
Tish: my best friend, Barbara Haughey in high school played acoustic guitar because her big sister, Ann did, and she was the coolest girl we knew…… then I saw Suzi Quattro on Happy Days playing bass as Leather Tuscadero and I thought that whatever she was doing, she was super cool……..
Q: Did you ever think when you started up Daisy Rock, that it would become what it has today?
Tish: Never in my wildest dreams…….
Q: Which guitars do you personally play and like the best, and why?
Tish: I play the Daisy Rock Rock Candy Silver Sparkle Bass. Because it is the easiest bass to play I have ever owned.
Q: do you have a room in your house like Nigel of Spinal Tap, with tons of guitars filling it up?
Tish: I have about 15 guitars in my little collection…. And no, don’t even look at them!
Q: Do you play any other guitars other than Daisys? Surely you're a guitar nerd like the rest of us.
Tish: Do other guitars exist?
Q: What sort of amplifiers do you use?
Tish: Gallien Krueger, Line 6, Bogner
Q: do you use any effects pedals?
Tish: I love Chorus, Flang and Distortion on Bass
Q: Tell us a bit about your own musical projects you have going on for yourself.
Tish: Currently, I play bass and sing in a band called sASSafrASS, which includes members from the Daisy Rock Girl Guitars staff. This past March, we played the annual Daisy Rock Girl Guitars benefit called Pretty In Punk, which was held as the infamous Los Angeles venue The Roxy. It was so much fun to get to play a bill with some of our endorsed artists in a night celebrating The Runaways, with proceeds of the night going to charity. And I got play bass in the BANGLES!!! And Vicki sang with my band!!! Even Cherie Currie made a special performance of The Runaways hit tune “Cherry Bomb”, with sASSafrASS playing back-up. Here’s a video clip if you wanted to check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWHD3c6YCWI&feature=channel_page
Q: What is your job like as the inventor of Daisy Rock? Trips round the world, giving fun people cool guitars? Almost like a guitar santa, making people smile everywhere you go?
Tish: My job is so varied, but you are right! One day I’m dealing with a lot of business things – sales, supply, factories, importing, balance sheets and then the next I’m doing an interview on a blog!!! We also support so many causes and getting girls to play guitar and enjoy music, so there are a lot of events that I get to go to and I love it when I hear the stories from girls about how guitar has changed their life. :)
Q: What other things do you like to do besides guitaring? are you into fashion or any sorts of hobbies? Do you go to lots of concerts? surely your presence is demanded by many.
Tish: I do get invited to go and have fun at a lot of different things, but I love to be a mommy and hang with my two girls and we love to shop and eat and watch ‘gilmore girls’! And I love fashion, but 80’s rock and roll/goth/cowgirl/’50 vamp – Grease style fashion… huh? See! Very original. I love to write. I love rock shows, especially when they are closer to my age – no Jonas Bros for me!
Q: Does it give you a thrill when you see people playing your guitars?
Tish: It is so cool to see people playing my guitars, and I even keep a Family Photo Album section on www.daisyrock.com as a running timeline of pictures I’ve received by mail. I welcome anyone to submit photos of how they Daisy Rock to info@daisyrock.com, as well as posting under our Fan photos album on Facebook. Staying connected to our community is also very important to me, so hearing and seeing people with their Daisy Rock Girl Guitars via social networking channels as MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube has been fun.
Q: Can you tell us anything about the R&D and manufacturing of the guitars and that process?
Tish: Every January and July we debut new guitars at the Summer and Winter NAMM shows, so R&D and manufacturing is always in the works year round. Developing guitars has been really fun and really challenging over the years, and some guitars have stayed and some have been discontinued due to low popularity. More recently, we have been going directly to our artists and community asking them what they would like in a Daisy Rock Girl Guitar, what color, what features, etc. and their suggestions have been useful in mixing with our development ideas to create the freshest new guitar specifically designed with the female player in mind.
Q: What does the future hold for Daisy Rock and yourself?
Tish: World domination! Every girl plays guitar! We rule the world! Guys get so frustrated, they all of a sudden become the ‘well, he’s pretty good for a guy’ and then we have won!!! I’m kidding :) . But not about the world domination part.
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