WONK mesmerizes Georgetown University with a diverse mix of sound.

In a packed room Saturday night at Georgetown University’s Bulldog Alley, The six-member art-rock Georgetown University student band Wonk played with kinetic on-stage energy and a sound that blends Jazz, Spoken word, and art rock.

What began as a solo musical pursuit by Daisy Casemore, the band’s lead singer/guitarist and exchange student from Edinburgh University, soon turned into a full band with Violinist Christina Pan, Drummer David Patnuade, Clarinet player Elliot Anderson, Pianist Griffin Elliot, and bassist Manya.

The group played alongside local acts such as Pinky Lemon and Baltimore Avenue and Sense Memory, student bands from the University of Maryland and Georgetown respectively. The benefit concert, which was raising funds for medical aid in Palestine, raised $1,086.63 that night.

Frontrunner Magazine caught up with the genre-bending band at Georgetown University a day after their performance in Bulldog Alley.

(This interview was edited for clarity and length)

How did WONK form?
Daisy: I’m on exchange from Edinburgh University and my band there were on a hiatus while I’m here for a year. I came in (Georgetown University) knowing I wanted to carry on playing music, but I didn’t know if that was going to be in a solo capacity or with a band.

So I started off doing solo stuff at the start of last semester and then me and David met each other at a party.

David: We (Daisy and I) met at a meeting for The Indie, which is a magazine on campus where I was wearing a Black Country New Road shirt and you noticed me because of the Black Country New Road shirt.

Daisy: That’s how we met. It’s our love story. (Chuckles)
We were a trio for a second and then we met Christina. We had class together last semester and then at a Halloween party.

Christina: and then I sent you a voice message.

Daisy: Yeah, Christina said she played the violin and then sent me a voice message the next morning. I woke up thinking, “What is this voice message anyway?” and I was like, “Of course you have to play with us.” Also, I was like in awe of her during class anyway, because she’d make intelligent points all the time.

Then Griffin came along. We had met but had not really clocked each other properly. I saw him performing the Battle of the Bands and I thought he’s an amazing keyboard player and also songwriter. I was like, we have to do something together.

So I was like, “hey, Griffin, join the band” and so he joined. Then this semester, Manya joined on bass, which is super exciting!

Manya: I was friends with Daisy beforehand last semester. I think just because we’re both from London and you can find each other from the accents and then realize that you have a lot in common.

When Daisy was looking for a bassist, she asked me to come try out playing with everyone and it was a lot of fun.

Elliot: That’s kind of how it went for a lot of us, though… it started off with me, you (Daisy), and David for about a month where we were just kind of playing music and we weren’t entirely sure this was going to be a band. But then by the end of (the month), we realized that we were sure on doing something. I think you (Daisy) just kind of invited Christina and Griffin over for practices and I don’t even know if it was like a for sure intention that they were going to be part of this. But as soon as we got there and things started happening, it was just instant. We knew this was going to happen and that’s very much what happened later on, too.

What’s the meaning behind the name?
Manya: The Wonk name was your idea. (Gestures to Elliot)
Elliot: Oh yeah (chuckles) I mean, it was really your inspiration, Daisy, that you wanted a single short one syllable name. We weren’t really sure where to go with that and then I suggested Wonk because I love to collect really strange and weird words that just sound fun. I threw it (the name) up there and it kind of clicked
Manya: It’s random. (laughs)
Elliot: there is a meaning to the word Wonk. I’m pretty sure it’s like someone who’s extremely like skilled or knowledgeable about a certain subject or something like that.

So, according to the good friends at Cambridge Dictionary, Wonk is described as “a person who works and studies too much, especially someone who learns and knows all the details about something”. What’s one subject or musical genre that you could geek out and go in full detail about?

Daisy: The first thing that comes to mind, which I spent a lot of time researching, is the band The KLF, who were like a duo from the UK.
They burnt a million pounds, fired out guns at the Brit Awards, and dumped a dead pig outside the after-party. Their (The KLF) whole thing was like capitalism, creativity and (the two ideas) working together. I wrote a project about them. So, The KLF, it will be for me.
Manya: I would say a specific band at the moment. I am enamored by Fontaines DC and I love everything about them, musically. They (Fontaines D.C.) create such interesting music and their Skinty Fia album is like a concept in itself. I just think it’s so interesting.
David: I used to be a big Beatles head like I know all the trivia. But if it were a subject, like… I’m a nursing student and I just absolutely adore the endocrine system.
[Laughter]
Griffin: I’d like to say Tom Waits because I really got into him probably like eighth grade from my older brother. I listened to his first album, which is like loungy jazz with a voice that has smoked too many cigarettes but it’s not like a wood chipper yet. Then, later on, it just becomes… like gravel in a blender, like industrial music. He has maybe the most genre-spanning variety of any artist that I know or at least any artist that I like. He’s infinitely interesting (and) I love his interviews.

Elliot: I told this story probably three times in the past three days, so I think you guys (WONK) are probably sick of it but there was a time in my life, I think it was like 10 or something, where I was on a road trip, and we were listening to the radio. I heard Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, and then Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots back-to-back. I remember saying to my mom that there’s just got to be something better out here (group laughter). So that day, I got my mom to bring me to the game store and I bought Beatles Rock Band. For the next two or three years, I was absolutely obsessed with the Beatles.
I know everything about them. So if you want a band where I know everything about them, it’s probably them (The Beatles).
Elliot: I’m also a huge Black Country, New Road fan if we’re talking about very modern bands right now. I probably also know pretty much everything about them and every lyric as well. So those would be my top two answers. I’m also a biology major. I know David’s nursing, but still same kind of thing. I don’t think I’ve got a favorite system, necessarily.
[laughter]
Christina: I have this thing where when I like a song, I’ll listen to it at least 100 times. I’ll know everything about it. Also, I try to selectively listen to it each time I’m listening.
For example, if I were listening to one of our songs, I’ll re-listen and just listen to one line or I’ll listen to one rhythm pattern. There’s been a couple of pieces I know really well.
Most of these pieces are classical, because I’m classically trained. But there have been a few songs where I remember “Oh, this is a way of listening to music.” I’d say Amy Winehouse, maybe. One of the first artists I keep listening to and there’s s a really nice violin sonata I really love. Then for topics outside of music, I’m studying literature, so I love to see how music relates to other things. And I brought a little book… This is Your Brain on Music. It’s a nice book It has some endocrine systems in here, I bet, along with biology.
[Laughter]
Christina: There’s a section I was reading today (in the book) that was about what makes a
good musician. Like is it (talent) inborn or trained? He (Daniel J. Levitin) has some really good aspects on it. it’s also, (about) like, why do we emotionally attach to music, how does it connect to other aspects of our life and why can we, speed up or slow down music in our head? one other thing I like to do, is I really just love going to concerts and seeing the musicians move. Sometimes I draw the musicians as they’re playing. If it’s a good drawing, I give it to them and they’re usually happy.

What artists would you say influence you individually and how would you describe the
band’s sound?

David: On the drums, I’m very influenced by Ringo. Just in the way that I do fills and stuff. I think that, honestly, a lot of my drumming influence comes from jazz. When it comes to just the beat. So, jazz (for the) beat and then Ringo (for the) fills.
Elliot: I’m sure, already from David’s answer, and as we go around, something that you could notice, we’re going to hear a lot of very different answers and what inspires us. I think that is a lot of what makes Wonk tick. Daisy, you’re pretty much our primary songwriter and there’s definitely a lot of British post-punk art-rock influences in there. Also, I think we all bring our own little pieces to that and so it kind of shapes us into whatever our own genre is.
Elliot (cont.): Personally, I’m a keyboard player. I’ve played clarinet for a few years but that’s definitely not my main instrument. So trying to get into a band where this is what I was going to be playing, once we figured out that that’s what we wanted to do was really interesting…I just started to watch a lot of different clips and videos and try to take from that kind of style and see how I could fit that into my own. I know that we already mentioned Black Country New Road, but Lewis Evans, the saxophone player, is definitely probably my primary inspiration for my style of playing. There’s a lot of classical and even neoclassical stuff that I’ve listened to, or like jazz.
Frank Ticheli has (also) been a big inspiration, in terms of his writing.
Oh, in terms of guitar, Neutral Milk Hotel is easily my number one inspiration for guitar playing.
Christina: For inspirations on how I play the violin, I think my first teacher was my biggest
inspiration. He’s a Russian teacher; kind of very strict, but also very sweet. There was a
description of the violin I looked at in a magazine. It’s the instrument that can do all sorts of tones with its voice. It can sigh, it can whisper, it can do all these things. I was very moved by that description. So, I think there’s so many possibilities to be done with that instrument.
I also stumbled upon another interview with a violinist I admire. He’s Swedish, Daniel
Lozakovich. He’s classically trained, but he’s played for, I believe, K-pop groups.
I forget what the exact song is called, but he always described it as the most beautiful
instrument. the instrument that had this otherworldly sound and I still always think that.
The violin is very pretty to me.
Griffin: For me on piano, my background is basically I’m self-taught. Most of the time I was doing it because I wanted to write songs, liked singing when I was a little kid, and wanted to be able to just do it all myself. a lot of my approach is just from having to accompany myself playing at restaurants and stuff like that. Generally, I like to span a lot of the keyboard (and) take up as much of the harmonic space as I can. In this band, I get the chance to just kind of do little decoration stuff too, like in the soft bits (and) high-end stuff.
Daisy: I think in terms of who influenced my sound, I really enjoy big sweeping soundscape songs like Godspeed You, Black Emperor, Alice Coltrane, (and) all these huge waves of songs. I think I’m influenced a lot by those sorts of movements in songs. Hence why you’ll hear a lot of build and depletion in Wonk songs because I really like to lean into that. In terms of guitar playing, I think Joni Mitchell, of course. I love the way she plays. In terms of lyrics, Elliot, you’re right, the UK post-punk scene right now is so exciting. So I have taken a lot of influence from that. I would also say that I love Wilco, absolutely can’t get enough. (other influences include) Big Thief, of course, Black Country, New Road, and also the Sundays, which is a little bit more, I guess, digestible for a regular ear. Harriet Wheeler’s voice is amazing.

Also, I feel like people can be the judge of what Wonk’s sound is. I don’t know how much we can decide.
Manya: it’s also hard to define an exact sound to Wonk because of how disparate our influences come from. specifically for me on the bass, just having grown up on my dad’s music taste a lot, I think that I would be remiss to ignore the fact that there is definitely some Green Day (influences) and a lot of Green Day in the way that I go about trying to make a bass line. Like the bass line in Longview or the bass line in the middle of Holiday in their American Idiot album. That sort of thing. Radiohead as well, even though that’s not such an obvious one. When I was playing in an old band in secondary school, we were playing Karma Police and I was doing the bass solo at the end. I still copy a lot of motifs from that when I’m making songs with the bass.
As more general influences, I just play.. again, obsessed with Fontaines DC. Their bassist,
Deego, amazing. Even the guitar sounds in it, so I feel like I try and emanate those sounds just because they have an amazing different collection of sounds. (Also) Cameron Picton of Black Midi, also very cool on the bass I must admit. I feel like I’m definitely forgetting some, but I’ll never be able to sort of encapsulate everything because I listen to so many different styles of music, and I don’t want to restrain myself to one corner of bass playing, but I feel like, as far as influences go, those sort of cover some of the bassists.
Manya (cont): Oh wait, two more important influences: The Pixies and The Stone Roses. Just for any bass player, I think those (two bands) are so important and for me as well.

Your lyrics have poetically abstract vibes. What’s the songwriting process like
and are there any themes in your songs?

Daisy: I’m still learning a lot on guitar. Every time I learn a new song or technique, I try to
incorporate it into a new song that I’m writing. So that’s how the music side of it develops.
Words always come separately because I find it really helpful for there to be a storyline,
narrative, theme before I sit down with a instrument. It fleshes out more neatly in my head for me. Then (I) omit words or add some (and) see how it works with rhythm. I’m not a big fan of rhymes so I’m not restricted by that. It’s good to have this stepping process because it takes different sides of my brain.
Daisy (Cont) : (chuckles) It sounds so pretentious but like it takes creative sides of my brain until it becomes a song. For themes, well, I didn’t realize it but then, who said it?
Manya: I think we were all just pitching in how a lot of the songs had wedding motifs.
Daisy: Yeah, That’s so true!
Daisy: I’m never writing anything with an intention to say anything though, or to make a social comment. I just write about what I feel. It’s there for other people to interpret too.
Elliot: Yeah, I was gonna say, I think you (Daisy) said the other day that there are a lot of your songs do have a certain meaning or like inspiration you can attribute to them.
Like “Media Mogul Superstar”, I believe that you said that there was some inspiration you said both about your roommate Nancy and then also about the busyness of American life
Daisy: Well, not busyness. More like the corporate greed.
Elliot: So there are definitely are inspirations, but I think that you make it very important that the meaning of every song is dependent on the listener, not necessarily what you’re saying.
Daisy: Like you (Frontrunner Magazine) said abstract vibes leave space for people to interpret.
What’s the point in spelling it all out? There’s no mystery.
Manya: I think if you want to convey a message and you want people to understand that, like, you could be very purposeful and blatant, but that’s not as necessary when you want people to have their own interpretations. I feel like that’s part of the enjoyment of the listening process of music as well. Being able to think of your own definitions as opposed to having it being, like, laying out in front of you but I think there’s value to both of them.

Elliot: I think another thing that can’t go without saying for our songwriting is that there’s a lot of improvisation involved in it. Either you (Daisy) will bring a song directly to the band, or you’ll pull, Griffin, David, me or someone else aside and be like “hey, can we work on this?”. Then once we get to the whole band setting, there’s no “It’s this chord, and then this chord”. It’s kind of like gotta figure it out. We all do a really good job at just meshing together and figuring out what’s in all of our heads and how we can get it together. I think that’s a lot of what makes Wonk tick is that we all are always just on the same page getting things together super, super fast.

Over $1000 was raised for the medical aid of Palestinians during the show. How did the idea for a benefit concert come about?
Daisy: I wanted to do one last semester, but didn’t have time and it didn’t actualize then. I knew that I wanted to do one. I did one last year too with my friends back home and it was really successful.
I wanted to do something for everything that’s going on right now (in Palestine). I just felt a bit helpless. Like how much can an Instagram infographic do? Not really much, you know. It’s important that we were raising money that goes straight to medical aid.
If you could live inside any of the songs that you performed, which would it be and why?
Griffin: Mine is “I So liked Spring”. I think the first time I heard you (Daisy) play music, you played that song and I was hypnotized by it. I think it’s the closest to the style of music that I listen to and when I write on guitar, It’s close to the kind of thing that I would write. Like the soft major, dreamy, folky, fingerpicking, acoustic, that kind of thing. I would curl up in that song for sure. That’s a great question.
David: I would do “The Last Chinese Cigarette in Scotland”. Well, besides the fact that there’s one left presumably (laughter). I would love to smoke (the last cigarette). Also, I’ve never been to Scotland. My parents went there for their honeymoon and they said it was awesome. So, I would love to go and just imagine like a hazy evening maybe with some drizzle. (I would be) smoking a cigarette, leaning up against the wall waiting to be done after a couple of pints
Manya: Pints of what?
David: Of ale.
[Laughter]
Elliot: I don’t know why I thought this would be such a surefire answer just off the bat. My
instincts immediately and this is not necessarily about lyrics but just about the way it makes me feel is “The Pedestrians”. I feel like that song is so singular. None of our songs sound anything like that, but it’s so grand. “Pedestrians” is so plotting on and constantly moving. It just transports me to a place and a location more than any of the other songs. It almost feels like an M.C. Escher painting.

Manya: For my song, I think I have not had the pleasure of listening to any of the songs the full way through from a third-party perspective. We’ve never really had a solidified recording done of these. I am the newest entrant to the band, so these songs are all significantly fresher to me. All I have to go off in these songs are the bass line, drum part, etc. Because (I am) following the drums and the guitar for the most part I think “Silence of Sound” is really fun to play. I am thinking about the variety that I play on the bass in it. there’s like a little space for some jamming in there and there are different sections. Sometimes it gets darker, sometimes it’s more light. I think that’s a cool variety to have. If I were to live somewhere, I would not want it to be by any means to be a monolith of a place. Maybe the place is like London; you have a little bit of everything in there.
Christina: I’ll say “Silence of Sound” as well. The swells in the song are really big and the dips are really low. It’s my favorite thing and there is a silence in the song, isn’t there?
All the band members in Unison: Taking Up Space, Bam Bam!
[Laughter]
Christina: When you go to a live concert, there’s always a silence at some point. I’ve always loved it like when it gets really quiet in the concert and you can’t hear anything. Everyone’s breath is held and it’s a really powerful moment. That’s why I like Silence of Sound.
Elliot: I want to go off that point because this struck me during the concert. Genuinely, my
favorite moment of playing up there was at the very end of “Money, Mother”, when Daisy almost screams the last “out, out, out” and you (Daisy) were breathing during that, and you could hear a pin drop in that room. Not because the audience was not enjoying it or anything. It was just so striking.
Daisy: Well, I’ve been thinking about this when everyone’s been answering, but there’s a pretty scary element to all the songs. I think they all have dark undertones. Even in “I So Like Spring”, the end bit [Daisy hums the tune to the song’s end]. It’s like a music box, it’s so creepy. So I think in terms of living in a song, I feel like I’m already living in “Media Mogul Superstar”. I wrote that about living here (in America). But if I would want to live in one, It would be “The last Chinese Cigarette in Scotland”. The end of that song is so gentle.

What’s the future for Wonk?
Manya: We’re on a time limit unfortunately because Daisy is going to return to Edinburgh
(University) after this semester and I don’t think there can be a Wonk without Daisy.
She’s a fantastic songwriter, singer, guitarist and has fantastic ideas.
I guess that sort of saves us from not really knowing how it’s gonna go. We have the ability to enjoy it within a given time frame and do our best we can to enjoy it before it’s done. Unless we get Beatles-level famous and blow up.
[Laughter]

Daisy: The plan is also to record. I would love to release an album of all the songs we’ve written, but that would have to come before we get Beatles-level famous. (chuckles)
It’s sad but I also hope everyone continues to play together even when I’m gone. Who knows what the future holds. I feel we’re all going to be in each other’s lives, (and) I hope for the rest of our lives. I just feel incredibly grateful and I never expected to find friends like these or experience being in a band like this.

You can follow the group on Instagram.