Latest / The Bob Lefsetz Podcast / Larkin Poe

Transcript

Larkin Poe · The Bob Lefsetz Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: My guests today are Rebecca and Megan Level of Larkin Poe.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Good to have you on the podcast. I got to
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: ask the obvious question, the name Larkin Poe, where does
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: it come from?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: So Larkin Poe is the name of our great great
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: great great grandfather, and since we're sisters, we wanted to
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: take on a name that has family significance, so we
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: thought his name was really cool. And he's also a
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: cousin of Edgar Allen Poe, so we'll take that distant connection.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Well, let's start at the beginning. Did you grow up
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: with this legend of Lark and Poe?
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: We did, actually, I think coming from a Southern family,
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of stories that are passed around, so
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: I remember as children hearing a lot of stories from
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: our aunts and uncles about their father, their grandfather, their
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: great grace all the way up. But to be honest
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: with you, we didn't actually know about the Edgar Allen
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Poe connection until we were already in our teens and
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: had read a lot of Eggar Allan Poe, and so
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: we were especially titillated by the connection.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: Based on the fact that we were fans.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: So how did you find out the connection?
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, through a cousin, Linda Sinka.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: She's the family genealogist, and so she just sixth and
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: time and mapped out the family tree.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you had a group with your sister, the
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Lovell Sisters, and then you started your own act Blues Rock.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Was Larkin Poe like the first name or did you
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: go through like twenty five names and decided on Lark
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: and Poe?
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: You know, I think that we committed pretty quickly.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: We knew we wanted to have like a family name,
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: so that definitely narrowed the herd. But we definitely didn't
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: premeditate the fact that it would be so hard for
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: people to pronounce. Like running joke is you know which
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: one's Larkin, which one's.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: Poe or Larkin and Po.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: We've actually rolled up to the theaters before and had
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: our name on the marquee as Larkin and Po. And
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: it's like, at what point did you or did you
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: not read the contract, mister promoter.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: The other two members of the band on stage, are
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: they full fledged members of Larkin Poe?
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: No, Larkin Poe is Rebecca and I from the ground up,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: and we have always hired members to come along with us,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: and it's normally always been a pretty stripped back operation,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: like on stage where lean mean rock and roll machine,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: you know, just the four of us. So we've got
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: drums and bass that come along.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, Well, how long has the members been with you
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: now and what's the turnover?
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: Like?
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: You know, up until this last year, we had a
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: six year stand of the same musicians. So our bass
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: player Arka Layman, he's been with us now for about
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: six years. And the drummer Ben Satterly, that was only
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: I guess the show that you came and saw us
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: perform in Los Angeles, that was his tenth or eleventh show.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: So he's the newest member to the outfit and he
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: is just showing up like a powerhouse.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was great. It is great. How did you
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: find him?
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: We held some auditions.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Actually, we decided we wanted to make a change, and
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: being in Nashville, you know, there is such a community
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: of incredible musicians here in town. So we just sort
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: of sent out a call to some friends and friends
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: of friends and friends of friends of friends.
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: And he was actually the first guy.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: We had two days set aside to run through with
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: a bunch of different musicians and just learned three songs,
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: and he was number one of day, number one, and
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: so he set the bar incredibly high for everybody else.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, we had the carl She'll say that Brandy Carlyle
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: is basically herself in the Two Twins. So is this
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: a democracy amongst the four or the two of you?
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Very definitely the bosses.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: I gotta say we are the bosses. Yeah. The two
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: of us have a very strong idea of what we
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: want to do and what we want to say with
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: our music and where we want to get to. And
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: the way that we have accomplished that is by being
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: very set in ourselves, like we you know, produce ourselves
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: and we run our own record label, and that's worked
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: very well. It makes who we are very distilled.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: Granted that that hasn't always been the case. I think,
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: you know, the fact that we do feel so self
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: reliant at this point and feel confidently self reliant is
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: the fact that we did go through periods of time
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: in our late teens, you know, early twenties where we
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: would get in the studio with producers and I think
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: being chameleon musicians, having grown up being side guys and
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: other artists endeavors, we know how to, yeah, we know
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: how to like puzzle piece ourselves creatively into situations. So
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: it really was a trial and error journey for us
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: over the years of learning how to say no to people,
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: of removing people from the inner sanctum, and having it
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: truly be just the two of us, so that we
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: knew that every creative decision that we were making was
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: coming from our hearts and from a very true part
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: of who we are.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Well, that raises the question, what is it like being
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: a woman in rock and roll music, which is very
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: heavily male dominated.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: I don't think that we're alone in our experience of
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: certainly getting misjudged. I think we over the years would
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: oftentimes roll up and be the only female artist on
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: a festival bill, and so it was a little bit
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: isolating and a little bit exhausting sometimes to have to
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: explain yourself to people that you know, no, we're not
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: the girl friends where the front men, and it's okay,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: we know how to tune our guitars and all of
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: that nonsense. But I do think incrementally we've seen shifts
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: and it's so wonderful now to roll up and see
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: so much incredible female talent finally getting I think, you know,
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: the just deserves like it's so much more interesting now
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: because I think the industry has shifted in allowing more
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: space for the female perspective.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, but to what degree if you had me too moments?
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: You know, we've I think that we've been very fortunate,
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: and I actually I really love to hear your feedback
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: to this as well, But we have been incredibly fortunate
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: to work with a lot of really respectful and supportive men.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, over the years, getting hired into bands, you know,
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: and having a lot of faith creatively placed in us,
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: and having everything feel very approbate, and so I think
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: that we we certainly have had a pretty positive experience
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: all told.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: What do you think that?
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Not that we haven't had moments, but I think that
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: we've always been of a mindset of moving forward. So
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: even if there have been moments that we could have
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: called people out, I think that we've tended to just
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: be like, you know what, we are not defined by
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: what the people around us think, and so therefore we're
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: just gonna just gonna kind of power on and whatever success.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: We find it's kind of defined by by ourselves and
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: and yeah, just kind of moving through it.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and strengthen numbers too.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: I feel really lucky that my sister and I have
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: been able to move through this many years. I mean,
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: at this at this point, what we just talied up.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: This is our eighteenth year of touring, and I haven't
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: never gone anywhere without you.
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: Like, we're definitely a package deal.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: So I think to be able to have someone who
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: explicitly and implicitly has as you're back at every turn
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: that has that has really kept us in a great position.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: So we're fortunate.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: And what about fans. Have you had any rabid fans
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: who crossed the line?
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Oh, definitely, and that I think again, as Megan said,
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: you know, you got to be willing to move forward
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: because one thing that we refuse to have happen is
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: to have our sense of faith and humanity removed. Because yeah,
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: you can have run ins with bad eggs, certainly, and
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: we've had stalkers, We've had people invade our privacy at
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: our homes. We had to get security systems, we have
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: to put up gates, and that can be demoralizing. But
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: also you know, it's funny. I find it a similar,
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: you know, comparison. When I'm on stage and singing, I
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: can get really caught up in the moment and mess up,
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: you know, like four or five words in a verse,
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: and I beat myself up about it, where I'm just like, oh,
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: I can't believe I forgot literally the first freakin' verse
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: of my own song that I wrote, like.
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: What is what is wrong with Me?
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: And one evening, Megan we were on the bus and
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: she came to me and she's like, you know, but
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: you're never keeping track of how many words.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: You get right. Every night.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: You get literally like ninety eight percent of the show
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: correct with your lyrics, So why are you focusing Why
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: are you dwelling on that small percentage that didn't fire correctly?
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: And I think that for us, we've chosen to dwell
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: on the fans that we do have, that are so
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: wholesome and so pure and so supportive, and that I
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: think again has served us as well. You know, we're
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: eighteen years in and still a little like, I don't
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: think we're quite jaded.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: So that's great.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's go back to the beginning. You grow up
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: in Georgia, in Calhoun or a smaller birg where in Georgia.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: We grew up in Calhoun, Georgia, and we grew up
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: out in the sticks on seventy acres of land. Our
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: parents real do it yourselfers. They built their own house
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: out in the country. So we had a pretty idyllic
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: childhood and that we were. We were definitely tomboys and
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: had a lot of space and time to follow our passions,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: which was music from the ground up. Like we you know,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: we were classically trained violinists and pianists, but in our
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: early teens that's when we really discovered the joy of music,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: and that kind of came in the form of bluegrass
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: music and folk music and roots music.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, okay, let's not Let's slow down a little bit.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: So were your parents hippies? Why did they live on
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: seventy acres of land or what kind of background did
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: they come from?
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: There? They are very unique. Our parents are actually both
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: in the.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: Medical field, but they were very counterculture, very hippy ast hip.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Oh actually, I don't think this is a word, but
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: I'm excited to say it if I can get it
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: out right.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: Hippy ish stick, hippie ish tick.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I don't think you'd have the I think just hippiistic
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: would be good enough.
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: The hippiistic dig it.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: So they actually, yeah, they lived on seventy acres.
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: They even before YouTube.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: They would go to the library and like borrow friggin
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: books on how to build a home.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: And they homeschooled us as well.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: So they had some really out there ideas for the
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: early nineties, that's for sure.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: And how did they meet.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: They met on the campus of their college in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: And were they from Georgia? Were they from Tennessee? Where
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: were their roots?
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, our mothers from East Tennessee.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: So she's right kind of at the in the foothills
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: of the Smoky Mountains, the stomping grounds of Dolly Parton.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: And her name, honest to God, is Teresa Joe Lean,
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: which is like the most classic Southern bell name. Love
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: it East Tennessee girl. And our dad is originally from Atlanta.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: And so they were both sent to school by their
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: families on a conservative college campus just outside Chattanooga. And yeah,
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: they they hit it off and and and we're lucky
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: that they did.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: When you say conservative college, is that something you grew
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: up with? Some sort of conservative background.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: They both came from a conservative background, but they did
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: not raise us that way. I think at the time
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: they were kind of coming to terms with the idea
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: of religion and where they're where they would sit in
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: their own faith, and so they gave us the option
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: to go to church, to be involved if we wanted to,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: But it was never something that that that we were
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: forced into and it was never really a part of
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: our childhood.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, how many kids in the family.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: Three of us girls at the outset, and then like
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: eleven twelve years behind was our little brother.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: So what's up with your little brother?
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: That is a very good question, Bob, That is a
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: very good question.
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: I think that he's finding his way.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: And as you can imagine, you know, having such a
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: young sibling with three elder sisters, because it's Megan and
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: myself and our eldest sister, Jessica, So he had three
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: little mothers in addition to his mother that are always
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: in orbit around this young man. And we're definitely we're
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: trying to coach ourselves on how to be gloves off,
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: you know, let him figure out his own way.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: We can't solve his problems for him. As much as
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: we wish that we could.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, do you take him on the road.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: You know, it's funny. He actually toured with us way back.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: When when he was a baby.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like strapped into the car seat and we'd be
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: out in the fifteen passenger van, which is the vehicle
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: that we learned to drive in. We as a band,
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: we bought a fIF We put some money away and
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: we bought a fifteen passenger van and he would go
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: into the car seat. And I think he was about
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: four years old, and he came to the family and
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: he informed our mother that he was in fact allergic
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: to Level Sisters tours and he couldn't participate anymore.
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: So he's a real homebody. I think we kind of
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: burn him out as a baby.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: I feel bad about that.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, you say your parents are in the medical field,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: a little bit more specifically, what do they do?
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: So our father was a pathologist and our mother was
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: a physical therapist.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: And so your father was an MD. Okay, so you're
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: growing up on seventy acres, how far from civilization.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: We could drive about fifteen minutes and get to a Walmart,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: so not too Yeah.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: But you didn't drive when you were a little kid,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: So how far are your neighbor's house to the et cetera.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a mile down the driveway to get
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: to the double wide across the street. And we didn't
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: have any neighbors really, not especially not any neighbors with kids.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: So that's I think.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: Also an interesting dynamic is the fact that not only
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: are we sisters and creative.
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: Collaborators, but we really are each other's best friends. Like
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: since the.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Jump, Okay, so you're growing up, I mean, are you
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: having friends over or is it just the three of you?
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: Interestingly enough, I think it's I think it's safe to
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: say it was fairly isolated, and whenever we started to
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: to get heavier into the music, I think that that
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: was always the big basis for our relationships. So we
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: would go out and have homeschool harmony groups that we
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: took part in and had some really incredible experiences in
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: learning to stay harmonies through that. And and then, of course,
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: as Megan mentioned earlier, our classical training allowed us, you know,
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to which bless our mom for driving us
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: like to ten buck to and back multiple times a
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: week to take part in orchestra and symphony.
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: The performances.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you were homeschooled. Now you're old enough to
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: look back. Thumbs up or thumbs down on homeschooling.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: In our case, thumbs up because we had a very
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: special situation I think where we were in a rural
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: county where there weren't many options for good schools, and
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: so our parents just they just wanted us to have
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: the opportunity to be able to move at our own pace,
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: and we were able to move through our school school
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: work fairly, click quickly, and that allowed us to be
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: able to do something like music, and then allowed us
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: the space to be able to tour and take our
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: schooling on the road. So for us it was really
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: really great, and we also were able to interact with
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: a lot of different kinds of people and got socialization
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: that way. I think it can be very isolating in
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: certain circumstances homeschooling.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, your parents are highly educated. What they say about
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: the three of you in.
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: College, I think they never would have anticipated.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: I think, especially from our dad's perspective, since he was
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: one of the first in his family to ever go
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: to college and to have higher education.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: The fact that we took a little bit.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: Of a regressionary move backwards and not going to college.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: I think that was disappointing.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: But also I think he sees our passion for what
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: we do, and he's incredibly proud, so both of our parents,
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: I think, even though it took them a while to
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: fully get on board. I mean, I think the biggest
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: mantra that we heard in our childhood and teens whenever
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: we were like starting to tour more aggressively, was don't
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: put all your eggs in one basket.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: This is not your job. This is your hobby.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: This is your hobby, like underlined, italicized and boldened.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: This is your hobby.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: But then I think, you know, with time, they saw
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: the flexibility, they saw our dedication and the fact that
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: you know, we've been crafty, we've been what is it
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: gentle as doves, but you know, wise as boxes when
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: it relates to our business and to being able to
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: build a situation that is fulfilling to us, to really
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: have our passion be our work.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you talk about this classical training, what was
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: it exactly?
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: Suzuki method?
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Okay for violin, give me a little bit more.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we went to lessons once a week.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: Well, I guess technically twice a week, once to piano
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: and one once to violin every week.
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: And we didn't love it.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: I mean I remember, yeah, Mom having to like chase
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: us around the piano to get assist at that in practice,
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: So we certainly didn't didn't love it.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: So we started ages three and four years old, and
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: you know, we took took lessons for many years, and
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: then once we were proficient enough, we were able to
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: take part in symphonies, which you know, some some colleges
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: will allow younger folks to come in and join and
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: as long as you can pass an audition process, and
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: we did so we were a part of part of
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: their like junior symphonies.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: M hm, at what age.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: That was probably age.
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: Ten, yeah, ten, eleven, twelve, Yeah, they'reabouts.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: And how much performance was there with a junior symphony?
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: You know, there was actually quite a bit.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: I mean it kept us really busy, you know, in
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: terms of lessons in orchestra and performances, probably what two
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: to three days, three days a week on average.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, you're both very proficient with the guitar. When did
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: you start playing the guitar?
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: That would have been right about fourteen fifteen years old.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: So of course, like you know, we really we defined
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: ourselves as musicians because of our love of our involvement
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: in the whole classical scene. But it wasn't really like
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: a joy I remember getting like like throw up sick
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: for recitals and stuff like that.
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: It just yeah, it was.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: It was definitely something that like we were doing because
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: our parents told us to. But then we went to
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: a bluegrass festival with some family friends when we were
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: right there at the cuss fourteen fifteen years old, and
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: we were mind blown. We thought it was so interesting
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: that there were people up on stage that were jamming,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: that they didn't have sheet music on stage, and the
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: authenticity and the and the spontaneity and like the cross
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: section of singing and playing it just I think, really
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: yeah really captured our imagination. And so that's when we
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: started to make a transition into picking up other instruments.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: Megan went to the doughbro when you were about fifteen,
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: and I picked up thirteen probably, but yeah, yeah, okay, yeah,
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: we you know, our parents were also always playing all
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: different kinds of music growing up, like classic rock records,
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: you know, along with the classical you know, Bach and
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: Beethoven and folk music, and you know a lot of
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: like roots music, Alison Kraus and Union Stations. So we
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: were growing up with the sounds of Southern music in
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: our heads and being able to play some of those
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: sounds with the actual instruments that were creating that. Like
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: hearing us slide guitar and then actually seeing us like
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: guitar being played was just incredible, and I kind of
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: knew immediately I really really wanted to pick up pick
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: up the doughbro.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you pick up guitar and doughbro. How long
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: after that does it become an act? We were performing live.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Really pretty quick.
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, within a matter of months.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: There's actually some really crappy vhs of our first performance
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: ever as the Level sisters and so Jessica, our eldest sister,
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: was still on violin. Megan, you were playing the doughbro
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: and I was playing mandolin and banjo, and we had
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: to sheet music on stage because we still were like
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: struggling to make that leap. And really, I think that
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: that leap from the classical methodology of reading everything off
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: the page and then transitioning into a completely different perspective
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: of playing by ear of improvising. That has taken us
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: so many years to really like move territories. But yeah,
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: the very first gig we ever played, we were like
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: reading it off the page, bless our little Hearts. But
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: we were bound and determined we wanted to do it,
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: and surprisingly, I think, given how fresh we were, it was,
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: it's surprisingly entertaining, like we were actually executing pretty well.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: So I look back and I'm like, oh, bless our
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: sweet little baby hearts, we were doing it.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Two thousand and five was the first year we toured.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you go on the road, how does that
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: even come together? You decide you want to play live
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: and it's a thing. I mean, that's not what your
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: parents did. Where did the drive come from? And how
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: did you put the steps together?
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: So probably the same family friends that took us to
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: morrole fests suggested that we submit a demo to Garrison
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: Keeler's A Prairie Home Companion teen talent competition that he
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: had going on air, and so we did. We kind
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: of put together some some music and sent it in
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: and we were selected as one of the competitors for
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: the show. And because we played on that show and
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: this was one of our first gigs ever and there
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: were four million people listening. Suddenly we were just inundated
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: with touring opportunities right off the bat, and so that's
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: how we were able to basically tour full time just
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: from the jump from our first year, which is looking
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: back knowing what we know now, very unusual.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: And how did you get an agent? Did you your parents?
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: The managers? What was your organization? Like?
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: You know, we had we had folks approach us, and
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: we were so green, we didn't we didn't we didn't
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: know anything about anything. So we actually, you know, after
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: our performance on the Talent Competition and winning, we actually
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: had some agents approach us and present us with you know,
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: a really beautiful, cushy performing arts center tour. And so
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: we would, you know, we'd get in the family suburban
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: and you know, we take our instruments and we'd roll
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: up and there'd be flowers in the dressing room and
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: you know, snacks and it's soft ticketed events, and we
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: get on stage and do our thing and carry on,
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: not having any idea that it was like really atypical.
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: We just sort of were rolling with it, and a
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: lot less our parents.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: I know, they were they were very supportive in those
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: early days, and a lot of this we have to
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: lay at the feet of our older sister, who is
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: very driven in and smart, and she at the time
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: would have been eighteen or nineteen and just very precocious
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: and able to guide us through making the decision on
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: some of these things like getting a manager, getting a
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: booking agent, and putting tours together, and she would do
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: the accounting for it. So she really was the one
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: who was acting as our manager in the beginning, and
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: our parents were supporting and they came along when we
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: were when we were too young to be touring alone.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: At what point did your parents stop coming?
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: Probably what after the first year or two? Yeah, that's
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: fair to say.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: I think, yeah, you know, Anna's blurry on it, on
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: it all.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a little challenging to remember. But certainly by
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: the time that we were doing Larkin Post stuff and
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: we started Larkin Poe in twenty ten, they had completely
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: phased out.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because because little brother was allergic to it.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, So for those who don't know, and you're so young,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: how old were you when you started Larkin poem?
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: Oh god, what would that make us? Let's see thirteen
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: years ago. We're right about eighteen nineteen twenty thereabouts.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, teenagers rebell. So what was it like being on
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: the road without your parents?
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: We were very I mean you may not be able
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: to tell in speaking to us, but uh, we're pretty like,
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: I don't know, workman like. I think that we've always
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: had a passion for getting on stage and delivering good shows.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: So like, we never have had any shows where we
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: have been compromised or like drunk or anything like that
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: because the music has always been at the center. Oh
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: so I think especially for me as well, like being
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: a vocalist and losing my voice somewhat easily.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: I've never been a partier.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, only one hour on stage and they're certain about it. Travel.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: What are you doing with all the other hours?
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: We're sight seeing, we're reading, we're doing yoga in the
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: dressing room. Like Megan's doing her crosswords, just memo and
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: mema out on the road.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Eh, her prop work? What is that?
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Oh? Crosswords? I love the New York Times crossword puzzle.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Oh the crossword? So how good are you? Can you
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: complete the Saturday Crossword? No problem?
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: You know I can complete the Saturday with effort. But
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: I can certainly get through Thursday, no problem.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: And then what about wordle? Are you addicted to that too?
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Oh? I love it?
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: Megan's a freaking wordle.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: I really love wordle too. Yeah.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: Which, actually, let me ask you a question, did you
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: this is going to air, so we're not going to
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: spoil anyone's day later?
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: Did you do today's crossword or wordle? Excuse me?
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: I haven't at least the word Oh, I'd have to look.
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: I believe it was pinky. Pinky, which is actually the name.
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: I know what this is not. This is not you
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: know a lot of people refer to their instruments as
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: the color of their instrument with a y on the end.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: But my husband actually has a signature custom shop with
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: Fender that is called Pinky, and someone sent him a
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: screenshot of today's wordle and it was pinky.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: Anyway, Sorry, quick aside.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, but the dynamic, you know, I have a sister,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: I'm the middle between two sisters, and one of my
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: sisters is very into birth order. So Rebecca, you're the baby.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Jessica was the oldest meggat's in between. How did it
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: all play out?
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Huh?
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: I think.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: Those dynamics, those sibling dynamics came into a play a
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: lot more when we were the level sisters because it
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: was the trio of sisters and that was that could
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: be fraught at times and the birth order thing it
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: played out for us for sure.
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, she's being really polite.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: We used to have some knockdown drag outs when it
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: was the three of us because there definitely was a
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: lot of ganging up and that wasn't healthy, And that
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: is ultimately why we decided to part ways, because we
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: do I think, above all else, we cherish our relationships
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: as sisters, and we were destroying our relationships between the
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: three of us. So ultimately, the fact that Jessica decided
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: to step back was incredibly courageous on her part. One.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: I think that she knew that her heart wasn't in it,
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: and that's fair. She was like, you know, it's a lifestyle.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: I don't like being gone all the time. It's just
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: not my bag. I'm stepping I'm stepping back, and that
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: ultimately allowed us to all to this day, like we're
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: very very close, we're very close friends. We talk every day.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: But I think it was always clear that Rebecca and
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: I were going to do something together because from the
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: ground up it's always been and the two of us
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: always projecting together and running off in the woods together,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: and there would just never be a moment we weren't together.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: So I think that that was it was just very
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: clear who the package deal was.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, Jessica says, she's out. What do you feel? How
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: do you take that?
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: You know?
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: I chalk it up a lot to the fact that
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: we were so so preciously young and ignorant, and we
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: took maybe maybe like twenty days, and really we searched
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: our souls and we dug deep, and we asked the
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: real questions, and we decided that we were going to
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: soldier on man.
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: We were going to start again.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: But it was like losing the third leg of a chair,
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: and you know, are we going to fall over? I mean,
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: like I mentioned before, she was handling a lot at
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: the business side of our venture, and so it was
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: very scary for us to as teenagers suddenly this whole
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: business was kind of dropped in our laps, and we
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: didn't quite know what to do with it at first,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: but we did. We've really loved to play music together,
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: and so it seemed it seemed right to us to
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: continue on. But at that point in time, we were
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: kind of walking into Lark and Poe with our eyes open,
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: knowing what we were getting into.
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: Sort of bless us.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, but Lark and Pull was a change in musical style.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: How did that come about?
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: Well, again, I think, like Megan says, you know, there
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: was a lot of fear I think at the outset,
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: because we were feeling like, okay, we're either going to
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: think or we're going to swim. But instinctually, we've always,
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: I think had a really strong sense of gut, whether
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: or not we've paid attention to it. But early on
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: we instinctually knew that we wanted to have a big
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: creative turnover. So in our first year of being a band,
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: we actually ended up deciding and committing and executing a
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: plan of releasing four EPs of original material. So we
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: wanted to do spring, Summer, Fall, and winter, and we
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: found an engineer. We set up in our parents' basement
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: and we wrote and recorded in and amongst a bunch
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: of tour dates that were still outstanding from the level sisters,
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: you know, roster of work that we still had to
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: complete on.
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: We had.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: We just made so much music and that really gave
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: us the opportunity to experiment and to try to channel
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: some of the sounds that we had grew up listening to,
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: like we we love the Allman Brothers, we love the blues,
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: we love you know, the source music of America. But
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: we didn't know how to how to make it happen
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: because we were so you know, intertwined with the acoustic
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: elements we had. We had previously as the Level Sister
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: toured with no drums, no electrified in struments. We were
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: an all American string band, and we were very bluegrass.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: So I think it it really took us a few
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: years of really challenging ourselves and really making also a
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: lot of crappy music in order to learn how to
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: change our approach to songwriting, how to change our approach
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: to melody, how to honestly go from playing acoustic instruments
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: to plugging in and learning how to play in front
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: of an.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Amplifier, begging you were going to say something.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: I think that we knew there was more to us
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: than just the bluegrass side of our hearts, even though
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: we loved it, we were hearing so much more in
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: our heads that we that we wanted to accomplish, and
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: I think that we wanted to be able to move people.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: We wanted to be louder and fill more space.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, when you were the Level Sisters, were you making
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: any money?
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: Mm hmm. We did. We did a lot as the
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: as the Level Sisters. We played on the Grand Ole Lobbry,
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: we played at Bonaru, we did a lot of touring
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: and yeah, in theaters and.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: With solid guarantees, which and that I think is the
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: defining factor for where we currently sit is by you know,
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: the fortuitous nature of our introduction into the music scene.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: We honestly were able to sock aside some money in
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: order to start playing with.
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: The idea of.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: Independently financing our recording process. And it's so funny because
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: I think at the time we didn't understand the ramification.
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: You know, as the Level Sisters.
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: We were approached by a bunch of major record labels
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: who were very excited, you know, that we were going
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: to be the next chicks. We were going to be
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: the next Sha Daisy, and that never sat well with
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: the three of us girls. You know, we spent a
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: lot of time in Nashville, probably like two and a
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: half years into the Level Sisters just toying with the
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: idea of going more the mainstream route.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: And we did sign to to Lyric Street Records in
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: the beginning and got a little bit down the road
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: with them towards writing for a record, and very clear
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: they didn't want to They wanted to have songwriters write
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: for us instead of us writing our own music, and
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: that didn't sit well with us, and so they very
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: graciously let us out of the deal. They were like,
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: we understand this is you know, you guys are understanding
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: now that that this is maybe not the path you're
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: wanting to go down, and so they let us. They
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: let us go.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm, okay. So you're touring as the Level Sisters,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: You're doing a lot of dates. What are you doing
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: with the money you make?
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: We're putting it away.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: And also we're again I just have to tip my
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: hat to our big siss because she's she's such a
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: visionary individual and she was, you know, she was figuring
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: out how to rent venues, sort of the whole Joe
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: Bonamasa model of like sort of being your own promoter.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: And so there were times when we go to cities
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: that we knew, like Charleston, for instance, where we had
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: a strong brand, I'm using air quotes for the listeners,
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: and she would, you know, say, hey, let's go ahead
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: and like pay for concessions and pay for the promo,
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: and let's rent this venue out and we know we
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: can sell x amount of tickets.
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: Let's just try it. Let's see what happens.
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: So we were using our money to further you know,
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: in ways that felt authentic to us, like what we
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: believed in really trying to bet on ourselves and putting
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: the money into buying more merch and like you know,
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: drawing out our own T shirt designs and putting it
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: on a T shirt like hey, you know, we see
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: a lot of children at the shows, Let's get children's
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: merch rock And we had baby onesies like you know,
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: just just having fun with with sort of embodying the
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: whole small business mentality.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, when it becomes Lark and Poe, do you throw
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: all that aside? And is it more traditional?
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: No? We we we continued with the model. And and
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: also I think that that's one.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: Thing that I can find, you know, very refreshing about
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: our experience is that once you get a taste for
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: freedom as an artist, Once you're able to honestly do
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: whatever you want to do and and be able to
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: seek and feel connection to people, it's really hard to
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: give that up. So even though you know, we're not
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: the biggest band in the world, we are free to
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: do what we want to do. We have a very
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: small and loyal contingency of fans that will support us,
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: and from the beginning, that's that's what's motivated us. That's
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: what we've stuck to and and and it's been it's
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: been so much more interesting that way. So, yeah, like
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: the first year of being Lark and Poe, we we
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: had some money set aside to do those sporyps and
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: then you know that that led to two more touring,
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: that led to different touring for us, that led to
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: more projects that we were working on, and then we
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: definitely hit a dry season where I think because we
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: were so young and inexperienced, and you know, people were
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: expecting the level Sisters, people were expecting us to be
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: a bluegrass group and then we would show up as
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: Lark and Poe and be delivering something different that I
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: think we had like a mismatched of expectation where we
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: were really trying to change the story, but people weren't
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: catching the shift with us, so that so we kind
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: of hit a point in time, I think probably about
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: four or five years into you know, the band that
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: we were, we really weren't sure what to do. And
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: then a different angle of business sort of presented itself
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: to us, which is to be side guys, and we
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: had some some really big believers offer us some incredible
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: gigs as side guys, which actually saved our bank in
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: big time.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, you know, this is a very interesting question. Even
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: at this late date where your direction is more defined,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: one could be a prisoner of one's fans and as
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: you're changing, people don't like change. How did you cope
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: with that?
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: I think that we are very lucky in our fan
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: base now because we have forced them to change with us,
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: and the people who didn't like what we were changing
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: into fell by the wayside, And what we're left with
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: are people who are saying, we believe in you and
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: what you want to put forward, and as long as
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: you are authentic, I'm along for the ride. So I
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: think that we just power powered on through no matter
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: what people thought. And so now we have a we
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: have a lot of people who are like, do whatever
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: if you want to make a emo record where we're
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: on board.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk about learning and playing the instruments. So
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: you go to Merlefest, Megan, and you want to play doughbro?
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Is that there's no other choice? You go right to
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: the dough bro And how do you learn?
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: So I, at the same time as picking up doughbro,
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: I tried to play guitar and mandolin and banjo. And
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: me and Fretz we don't really we don't really go together.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: And I was very lucky to have found a doughbro
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: player in Chattanooga, because really they are very far few
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: and far between, and especially teachers of the doughbro. And
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: there was a dobro player, Lou Womp in Chattanooga, who's
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: a fantastic player, and he kind of got me started
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: down the road. I didn't I didn't take lessons from
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: him for very long, but it got me started down
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: the path. And then from from there, I mean, I
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: listened to everything that Jerry Douglas ever played. It was
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: a huge Jearry Douglas fan, and I just learned every
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: solo that he ever played.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, you know, it looks like an impossible instrument from
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: one who doesn't play it. You know, how hard is
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: it to play the dobro to learn, et cetera.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: I would say it's one of those instrument where you
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: can kind of sit down in front of it and
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: you can you can make sounds, but very difficult to
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: master the instrument, very very awkward to get past that
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: original hump of learning.
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: And this is Rebecca cutting in as a failed dobro player.
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: I can attest it is she is under selling it.
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: It is so awful. The dobro is like I mean,
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: I don't say that I want more people to pick
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: it up, No, but there is a difference. Like I
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: can play, you know, I play guitar, and so playing
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: slide even on like a traditionally held guitar, it's uncomfortable,
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: but there is like a sense of familiarity when you're
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: even when you're just messing around. Anybody can like tune
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: their guitar to an open g or D and like
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: slide around and you can kind of make some cool sounds. Mechanically,
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: the dobro being in the lap and you're holding this
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: heavy hunk of steel, there isn't a place to like
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: slide your finger into the slide, like because you still
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: play using a doughbro slide, which is a very different situation,
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: and it's and you play with banjo picks, so you're
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: not even like really touching the instrument.
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: It's all through. It's awful. I'm to be honest with you.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: I watch her every night on stage, and I'm sort
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: of baffled by the fact that you make it look
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: so easy and that you really persevered and for whatever reason,
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: it was in your genetic makeup to like get into
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: it and stick with it.
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: But it's so awkward, so terrible.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: So when did you and how did you decide to
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: play standing up as opposed to sitting down.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: Well, I watched Jerry Douglas stand and play with the doughbro,
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: and so I did learn standing up for the dough bro.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: But what was instrument interesting transferring from the doughbro to
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: the lap steel, which I guess you could really say
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: the lap steel is the electrified version of the dobro,
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: and I when we became Lark and Poe and plugged in,
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: I really wanted to be electrified and I wanted to
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: be just as loud as Rebecca on the electric guitar.
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: So the lap steel was just an obvious choice for me.
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: And the problem with the lap steel is, as you
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: can tell by its name, it really traditionally is just
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: played in the lap like no nobody. I didn't see
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: anybody standing and playing it. So I went to a
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: family friend who owned a steel company at the time,
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: and he helped me fabricate a part that would slide
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: onto my lap steel so that I could stand and play.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: And it was in the shape of a doughbro so
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: it felt comfortable to me to be able to stand
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: and play and I could could run around because I
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: just couldn't imagine sitting on stage like I had to
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: get up.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: So how hard is it? I mean, because not only
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: is it around your neck, it has to balance at
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: a certain angle.
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: I think it's taken many years for me to get
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: to the place where I am, but I think that
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: especially now that I that I have the rig where
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: I'm comfortable standing, I think that more people could stand
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: and play it because there's now equipment to be able
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: to stand and play. It's just simply because the equipment
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: wasn't around at the time for me to be able
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: to stand and play.
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: But that's like a little bit ridiculous for you to say,
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: because the equipment's not around. The equipment is now here.
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: Also because like you literally built I don't know if
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: you know this, Bob, but she has her own signature
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: guitar that she has funded herself, that she creatively figured
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: out how.
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: To make it.
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: She worked with an incredible luth or, Paul Beard, to
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: bring it into the world and to work with Jason
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: with Jason is it Jason Lawler with Lawler Pickups to
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: like bring to Now they're actually making lap stials that
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: are more akin to the Rickenbacker, but in a new
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: shape that is that is engineered for standing.
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: Well, that's what I mean. At the time, there wasn't
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: any equipment for me to be able to stand in place,
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: so it wasn't a comfortable thing to do at first.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: But now there's a lot more talk about it, and
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: there's instruments now available, my mind being the one that's available,
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: but it's now available for people to be able to
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: do it more comfortably.
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: Necessity is the level.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, is this a business or a hobby your.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's out there. It's an electro liege is
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: the name of the instrument. It's available for people to purchase. Yeah,
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: I'm very very proud. Me and Paul Beard, who's an
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: incredible luthier. We put a lot of time and energy
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: into designing a really incredible lap steal that's meant for touring.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: And how many can you sell it a year?
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: I have, It hasn't been out a year yet, so
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: I will. I'll have to let you know when a
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: year comes. It's it's been around since November.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Okay. And do you buy it online? Do you buy
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: the retail stories, you buy the guitar center? You buy
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: it everywhere?
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: Right now, it's just available on our website electroligh dot com.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: And I mean, I hope at some point we could
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: partner with like a guitar center to get it out
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: there and more available to people to pick up.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: Let's say I buy it since it's online and I
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: don't like it, can I return it?
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: I've never had anyone ask, so yeah, I'd probably take
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: it back if you didn't like it. I want, I
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: want people to be happy with what they've what they've bought,
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: but I have not had any dissatisfied customers as of yet.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, now, Rebecca, you know, tell us a little bit
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: more what your first guitar is and how much practice
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: you had to put in to become proficient.
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so transitioning from the violin, I actually picked up
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: the mandolin first, which was a little bit of like
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: a cheapskate because the mandolin is tuned the same as
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: the violin, so very quickly I was able to get
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: proficient on the mandolin and selfless plug. I guess it
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: was like what twenty fifteen or something. We went to
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: meal Fest and I was the first and only girl
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: at that point in time to have won the mandolin competition,
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: which was like an international thing.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: Because it was judged blind. So that was really a
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: really cool moment for that competition.
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, to finally have a girl get up there, which
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: now it's like, man, there's so many women out there
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: who kick my ass. But so I think playing the
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: mandolin got me more comfortable with playing a pick, but
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: it still cemented me in the mentality of like being
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: tuned in fifths since it's just like a violin. So
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: I always played acoustic guitar, but I was very limited
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: to you know, just GC and D like bluegrass rhythm guitar,
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: and I never really had aspirations to play lead.
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: But the deeper that we.
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: Got into the level Sisters and especially early Lark and Poe,
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: when I was having a call to write songs, I
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: really couldn't effectively write on the mandolin. So I started
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: to lean more under the guitar because I guess I
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: knew less about it, and so it was more of
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: an impersonal experience where I wasn't focused about like playing
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: a hot lick or something on the guitar. It was
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: more about letting it facilitate me bringing a song.
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: Into the world.
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: And honestly, at the the guitar just kind of sat
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: there as like a songwriting tool for me for five
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: or six years, and it wasn't until honestly, probably about
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: they five or six years ago, six or seven years
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: ago tops, where I really wanted to become a good
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: guitar player. And that was really challenging because when I think,
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: the older that you get, it's like hard to be
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: bad at things. So especially given that we were already touring,
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: you know, at a relatively high level where people like
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: especially internationally, who would buy tickets to come and see
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: you know, Lark and Poe do their thing, to get
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: on stage and to be like kind of like muddling
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: through an instrument trying to like push for stuff on
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: stage was really humbling, and I think as a result,
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: I was very shy to like really apply myself. I
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: would just sort of like leave all the soloing to Megan.
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: But honestly, I think five six years ago I buckled down.
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: I was like this, it's time, and so I just
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: I got a jazz master like Elvis Costello, who's one
• 51:16
  Speaker 3: of my biggest heroes, and just started writing riffs and
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: really started writing riffs for the band that would push
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: me to learn how to play the guitar. So even
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: outside of like going back and like learning Stevie ray
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: Vaughn or you know, learning slash solos, I was just
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: writing my own riffs to find my voice on the guitar,
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: and that really facilitated me building competence to be able
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: to start stepping out as a player.
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: And it's been really gratifying.
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: It's it's been a slow burn, but a very gratifying
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: burn for me as a guitarist.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: So you're totally self taught.
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: On the guitar, yes, I mean, I mean I'm a
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: YouTube baby as well, though, So I do feel like
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: you know the amount of content that is available for free,
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: that so many incredible music since release. Yeah, like sitting
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: and watching so much on YouTube has been super helpful
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: for me.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: And how many guitars do you own?
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: I own in my touring rotation, I tour with about
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: three or four, but all told, I have maybe six
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: or seven lectric guitars. But I live in a house
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: where because my husband is also a guitarist and he
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: is a materialist in every sense of the word. There
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: we are now at about ninety seven guitars in this house.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, since you keep bringing him up, tell us who
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: your husband is and how you met him.
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: His name's Tyler Bryant and he is a Texas musician.
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: He has a band called The Shakedown and we were
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: introduced through a producer in town. Yeah, it's hard not
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: to bring him up because I do feel like a
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: lot of my interest in becoming a good guitar player
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: is also bright proximity because he's such an effortless player
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: and to be around like everybody in the family, and
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: to be the only player that's not like up to
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: snuff because Megan is an exceptional improviser, Like you're definitely
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: mind melded to your fingers, and your husband. Meghan is
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: married to an exceptional musician by the name of Mike
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: Seal mind melded his fingers and Tyler as well. So
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: I was like, you know what, I'm not going to
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: be that guy in the family. We're stepping up the game.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: Okay, So how did you meet your husband, Megan?
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: So, Mike Seal played in Larkin Poe in our first
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: year of touring. So he he was a guitar player
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: who joined joined us for the first eight months or so,
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: mm hmm, yeah, okay.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: You know you're touring musicians. I think it was Metallica
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: was on the road for a long time. They came home,
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: all of them got divorced. This is decades ago. Okay.
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: How do you keep a relationship going when you're on
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: the road and they're on the road, et cetera.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: A lot of dedication and communication. It's it's not easy,
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: for sure, and there have been years when we just
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: haven't seen each other a whole lot. Like the it's
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: it's the worst when the tours don't line up. If
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: you're home and then they're gone and then you reverse.
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: It can be really really heartbreaking. But we always, you know,
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: we always just have been super committed to making it work.
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: And there is a great comfort in your partner knowing
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: exactly what you're going through, because it is a very
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: strange way to spend your life, and it can help
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: to have somebody who really knows what you're going through.
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: I do think it's actually, somewhat unexpectedly been a great
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: saving grace to be able to have so much of
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: a shared experience, because I do think it's very easy
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: to have a highly romanticized mental image of what touring
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: is like. Only in the last two years have we
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: actually been able to finally go out on bus tours.
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: Previously we were, you know, fifteen people in a fifteen
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: passenger van with the van and trailer and you're waking
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: up at six am and driving until three am, and
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: you're you're eating shit out on the road. You're not
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: making money like you know, like all this sort of
• 55:23
  Speaker 3: like the residual stress of touring.
• 55:27
  Speaker 4: It's not what people anticipate.
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: So I think the fact that you know, Meghan and
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: Tyler and Mike and I, that we all have that
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: shared sense of okay, like you're not out there like
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: snorting cocaine off someone's hu haas Like, no, you're just
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: you're out there counting merchandise.
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: Like I understand, and I trust what you're.
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: Doing, and and hey, I get what you're going through.
• 55:47
  Speaker 4: That that really does help you, like stay.
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: In sync with somebody, stay step to step even when
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: you're miles apart.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: How about the temptations of the road. You can talk
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: about drugs, there's article, there's women, and you ever, in
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: the back of your mind say well, I'm not seeing
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: and most people live in all the time with their
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: spouse and just just let your mind run wild.
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: Well, Tyler and I've been we've been together now since
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: what twenty fifteen, and we met when we were both
• 56:22
  Speaker 3: twenty I guess we were twenty five when we met,
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: something like that.
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: And I think.
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: Especially early on, there there was a lot of concern.
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of insecurity that existed that would
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: that would allow your.
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: Your insecurities to run away with you, for sure.
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: But also I think acceptance is key too, Like, you know,
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: I know my values and I know that I married
• 56:47
  Speaker 3: Tyler for his values. So you know, if ever he
• 56:51
  Speaker 3: wanted to make a change, I think I'm pretty sure
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: we'd both be man enough to like come to each
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: other and end things appropriately. I just I just don't
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: really sense that there's ever been a thread in our
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: relationship that would want to create drama and or betrayal.
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: In that way.
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: I think we've both had people step out and be
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: shitty to us such that we would never want to
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: do that, that we care enough and respect each other
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: enough to not want to do that. But again, Bob,
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: like hey, never say never.
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: But also I think that we throughout the years have
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: come to really value the feeling of having your family
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: on the road, and it's the kind of atmosphere you
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: can manifest. And we are the leaders of our organization
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: and we can set the tone for what it's going
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: to be like for the people who are working for
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: us and touring with us, and what we want that
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: environment to be is kind. And you can really struggle
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: with mental health on the road. I think being an
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: artist is it's challenging for that aspect, and you can
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: struggle with addiction, and there's all always things available to you,
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: like like like what you mentioned, and we want people
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: to be in a in a in a safe space
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: where we can mitigate some of those risks for people,
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: and that's always been especially in the last what seven
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: years of lur Campo, We've really wanted to create a
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: great touring atmosphere for for our people, like we really
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: value the people who are putting their lives in our
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: hands and sometimes quite literally when you're driving the van,
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: and we want to we want to, you know, make
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: it special as special as we can.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, you mentioned mental health. To what degree has you
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: had challenges?
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: I have had quite a lot of challenges over the
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: past couple of years, and I think the pandemic has
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: had has brought it on for a lot of artists.
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: And I think it's because people are constantly grinding. And
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: I can say that for us for sure, grinding and
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: grinding and grinding for many years, and you don't sometimes
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: have a moment to stop and reflect. And the pandemic
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: I think, really forced a lot of us to stop
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: and reflect. And I think that that was challenging in
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: a lot of different ways. And I certainly experienced a
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: lot of I guess you could call it a mental breakdown,
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: but where I really experienced what an anxiety disorder is
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: like and suddenly had such an appreciation for some of
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: these terms that fly around that I've spoken to and
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: not really known intimately what they what they feel like
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: is like now I do, And I think that that
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: makes me all the more passionate for what people can
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: go through as far as mental health and all the
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: things that can can go wrong. And I'm using air
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: quotes because there's always reasons for why we're experiencing things,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: or or maybe there isn't a reason, but there's a
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: mechanism for it. So I have a lot more respect
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: for it.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: Now, did you see it professional to help you get
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: over the home?
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: I did go to therapy, Yeah, and I did go
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: I went to the doctor to try and figure out
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: what I what I needed to do because I was.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: I was really blown away by it, absolutely and helped
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: a lot having having Rebecca because she's just has my
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: back and every way and so so supportive and came
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: through it. You know, you just kind of have to
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: go through things and believe that you're going to come
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: out the other side. And I and I really did,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: and I and I believed that I was going to
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: come through it, and I did.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: How about medication.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: I have had a lot of family members who have
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: dealt with this before, so it was something that I
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: feel lucky and very privileged to have watched other people
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: go through. So I kind of knew when I was
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: starting to experience the anxiety disorder. I knew what was
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: happening to me, so I knew who to go and
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: talk to, and the family that had experienced it suggested
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: that I try and at least try to do to
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: try to come through it without medication.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 4: First.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: I think there is a place certainly for medication, but
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: they suggested that I try without first, just to see
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: where I sat, and I'm glad for that because I
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: was able to come through without.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, people have no idea how difficult it is to
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: go on the road. You know, they see somebody an
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: hour and a half on stage. They don't know that
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: they're in close contact, traveling with the same people every day.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: They get on their nerves, you get off stage, takes
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: hours to calm down, which is why a lot of
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: artists take drugs, because the cycle goes day day and
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: how do you cope with the stress.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: Of the road.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 3: I think it's something that we still engage with or
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 3: try new things because you're You're exactly right, it is.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: It is a very tough experience, and I think especially
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 3: as well, when a lot of the conversations you have
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 3: with people about the touring lifestyle is this overwhelming narrative
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 3: of you.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 4: Guys are so lucky.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 3: It's you're seeing the world and like, you guys are
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 3: just always on vacation, aren't you. And so then you
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 3: can also build up this this callous against realistically looking
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 3: at your situation where it's like you feel, oh, I'm
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 3: so blessed, like I shouldn't I don't even I shouldn't want.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 3: I shouldn't engage with the fact that I'm really uncomfortable
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 3: and sleep deprived and missing my family and very very
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 3: homesick and just craving like to be in one place
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 3: for more than five minutes. I shouldn't feel these things.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 3: So then I think, as Megan was speaking to earlier,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 3: you are constantly in the state of sort of squashing
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 3: and and just continuing to move in order just.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 4: To survive, but educating yourself, medicating yourself.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 3: Right, yeah, which which again I think in terms of
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 3: like the culture of our band, that's just never been
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 3: such a huge thing for us, which I it's just
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 3: by happenstance, and I feel very fortunate that we actually
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 3: together as a team, haven't had issues with substance or alcoholism.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 4: And but that's just that's not a credit to us.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 4: That's just circumstantial, I think.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 3: But I think being able to be together and to
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 3: communicate a lot, the fact that we go through things
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 3: together and we are constantly working on our relationship real time,
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 3: because as you can imagine, everything that you just described
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 3: is at times amped up to like the nth degree
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 3: when you're experiencing those stressors, the isolation, the you know,
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 3: the exhaustion, the monotony, the fast paced nature with a sibling,
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 3: and and you're like trying to have that balance of
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 3: work and sibling relationship that I think because so much
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 3: energy gets transferred into maintenancing our connection that we're able
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 3: I think, to have a lot of release in that way.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 4: It's hard.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 3: It's actually, as I'm saying it, like do you know
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 3: where I'm coming from, But it's a little bit hard
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: to describe.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I do. I think. I think having having
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: someone by your side who who keeps it real with
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: you and you experience the highs and the lows together,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: it's not something I take for granted. And then like
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: you're saying, not squashing the emotions that you're feeling, but
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: at the same time also feeling overwhelmed, overwhelmingly grateful for
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: the opportunities that we've been able to have. And you know,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: we have meet and greets ahead of the show, and
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: we're able to speak with some of the most amazing
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: people who have these incredible stories and feel so privileged
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: to be a part of their lives and actually quite
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: a real way and to have that connection with then
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: thousands of people, it feels really incredible. And that's why
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: you push through, because at the end of the day,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: we are really lucky to be able to have those
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: experiences with other people. And that's that's why you push.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Because I mean, we can either we can either
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 3: come to the world with a nihilistic perspective, right of ah, God,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 3: you know, the bloody Gospel of tooth and claw and
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 3: we all die and like.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 4: Why are we here?
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 3: And I struggle with myself right right, which is which
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 3: is a very real perspective, and I think that it's
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: staying within that groove, that groove of the needle. You
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 3: can go down the path of isolation and addiction, and God,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 3: I'm just so tired and we have you know, fifteen
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 3: shows left, et cetera, et cetera. Or you can lean
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 3: into the connection, you can focus on the positives. You
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 3: can you can really, you know, look into someone's eyes
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 3: and hear them say to you, your music got me
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 3: through the pandemic. Your music is what saved me. And
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 3: you can believe the words that are coming out of
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 3: their mouth, and that completely drives your experience in a
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 3: different direction.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, you mentioned earlier sight seeing and you mentioned again
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: I know this guy who is the tour photographer for
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: led Zeppelin, grant a completely different era film as opposed
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: to digital, a lot more work, and he said, I've
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: been around the world and seeing nothing. So to what
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: degree how do you take advantage of the places that
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: you do go.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 3: We've been making an effort more so, and again I
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 3: think it's it's such a luxury actually, because you know,
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 3: for so many years toying in the van, we would,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 3: honest to god, roll up, you know, minutes before the
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 3: gig and then immediately have to leave. But being able
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: to make that leap into a tour bus has really
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: changed our experience.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: And you find those moments that you look forward to
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: in those those little things. Like for us, it's very
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: food based. We love to experience the culture of another
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: city based on like their food and their coffee. So
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: it's like we're always wanting to try out the different
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: espressos of you know, all of these years in cities
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: and they're different foods. So that that makes things exciting
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: and fine little things that you can look forward to.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, go out in sight see.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: Can you mention one or two restaurants that are your favorites?
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 3: Ooh, let me think one of my favorites in Paris
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: is it's a restaurant that is all fire based.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 4: They cook all of their.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 3: Food over the open flame, and it's called Robert at
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 3: Luis and that is in Paris.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 4: That's one that comes to my mind.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: There also is a department store in Tokyo at the
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: Shibuyah crossing, that really famous crossing, and if you go
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: down into the basement of that place, there's the most
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: incredible sushi I've ever eaten in my life. Amen, So
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 2: that's a that's a must.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: Eat, Okay, And what particular cuisine is your face?
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: Ooh, I love Japanese and Korean food definitely my favorite.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 3: Man, that's a good question, Proba. Probably probably sushi is
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: my favorite. I have to say, well, nothing can rival
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 3: some good southern cooking. There's a place here in Nashville.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: I think there's two locations in town called Monel's and
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 3: it's like the whole family style eating where they bring
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 3: out just whatever's on the menu. You don't order, they
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 3: just bring everything out, and that that I do love.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 4: You can't rival some fried okra.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: Have you seen the film Jiro Dreams of Sushi?
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 4: Yes, amazing film.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: I love that film.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's go back. You know, I like to go
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: to countries where they don't speak the language and it's
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: really exotic. So where have you been that you really
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: enjoy or where would you want to go that you
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: have a bit?
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 4: Take it away, sissy one.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: I really love Japan, so I probably would love to
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: go back there on a on a vacation. But I
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: would we we haven't gotten the opportunity to go to
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: South America and I would really love love to go
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: to South America and be able to tour down there some.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I have to I would. I would align with that.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 4: Mm hmmm hmm.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, you know the obvious question sort of the elephant
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: in the room, and it sounds sort of sexist, but
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: it's there.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 3: What about children, Oh, we absolutely want to have children.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 3: And I do think that there's a lot of lip
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 3: service for women in the music industry about trying to
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 3: make touring, you know, more accessible for women. I have
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 3: had so many conversations with so many different women on
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 3: different tours who've had positive and negative experiences with being
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 3: able to to continue to tour once you have babies.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 3: And logistically it sounds like a nightmare.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 4: But is it possible? Yes? Are good things always easy?
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: No.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 3: I think the fact that we are in a position
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 3: of leadership in our organization, the fact that there are
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 3: two of us and so we share similar goals that
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 3: would absolutely be.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 4: On the docket for sure.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: Began it's I think it's one of those things that
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 2: you will not know how you'll deal with it until
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: you have to deal with it. But likes she's saying,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 2: I think that everything is possible. I think we have
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: had the two of us move through a lot of
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 2: difficult situations and we've always made it work. So I
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 2: have every faith that we'll be able to move through
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: whatever it is that we want to do. And we
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 2: do want to have kids, and that will be part
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: of it that we will absolutely figure out.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, So if you look at your career, you have
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: the Garrison Keeler moment, you have all these peaks, You
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: win the award for mandolin at Ruralfest. Can you tell
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: me about a couple of times where it didn't work out?
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think, well, it's hard to even
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 3: think about what year this would be.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 4: It would be probably two thousand and maybe sixteen.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 3: Well, we had two gigs on the calendar for Larkin
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 3: Poe and we were struggling to make to like find traction,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 3: struggling to know what to do, and so much of
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 3: our time was invested in going out and being musicians
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 3: for Elvis Costello, being musicians for you know, Connor Oberst
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 3: and Christian Bush and Keith Urban.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 4: That you know.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 3: There we were presented with the question, a very real
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 3: question of like if we were going to continue. And
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 3: also I think we were sort of at a rocky
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 3: patch in our relationship with Sisters too.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 2: We did some tours where we played to the bar
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: staff didn't sell not even one ticket, and that is
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 2: a humbling experience. And you still play the show and
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: you give it.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: You're all do you ever consider giving up?
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Definitely, Yeah.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 3: I think in twenty sixteen, I'm pretty sure that's the
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 3: year we were having very very serious conversations, which, interestingly enough,
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 3: is like when I mean, we were at the bottom,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 3: like you couldn't get any lower. We weren't working under
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 3: the title of our band. The work that we had
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 3: done was demoralizing, like Megan saying, I mean, yeah, in
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 3: Kentucky there was four people in the venue and they
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 3: were all working in the bar, And that's really hard
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 3: to explain to yourself and to the people that you're
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 3: paying to be there, why that's happening, and how to
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 3: come back from that emotionally. And I think having those
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 3: tough conversations led us to having some galvanizing moments between
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 3: the two of us in our relationship and creatively approaching
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 3: the music that we were gonna make.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 2: Actually, we had felt like we had maybe gotten away
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 2: a little bit from who we were. I think we
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 2: would just we didn't know what our voice was, We
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: didn't really remember who we were, and so it's like
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: we needed to come back together and figure out who
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 2: who we were.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 3: But it is insane actually to sit from this vantage
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 3: point and peer into the past and try to remember
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 3: emotionally where we were.
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 4: At, because it felt desolate.
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 3: It felt like it felt like we had burned through
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 3: the wick and we were done. But then somehow, baby
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 3: step by baby step, we we.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 4: Didn't give up.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 3: We tried new things, we started writing some different songs,
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 3: we found new management.
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 4: We yeah, like we just sort of we didn't give up.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 3: We didn't we didn't reached the point of self destruction
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 3: that we were like burning the house down. We just
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 3: were sort of ghosts in the house. And we knew
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 3: that we knew that we were capable, but we did
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 3: feel disconnected.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: From self and we had we had recorded a couple
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 2: of albums where we didn't produce or even co produce,
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 2: and those albums didn't do very well and didn't really
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 2: feel like us, and I think we didn't feel like
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 2: it was authentic. So that's when we decided, we've got
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: to produce ourselves, and we really want it to be
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 2: on our own label. We really want to figure out
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: who we are.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, So, was as Rebecca said, was it a lot
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: of little things or was there a specific turning point
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: and you remember when you realize, wait a second, this
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: is now happening.
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 3: I do actually, and I think, really it is whatever
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 3: the inverse of death by a thousand cuts, It's like
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 3: a thousand band aids. We started doing our cover series
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 3: on YouTube as well. We started using social media in
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 3: a new way. We started to really actually invest time
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 3: into connecting with the fans that were actively following us
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 3: on Facebook and YouTube and Instagram, and we started to
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 3: share our talents and snippets. We would, you know, work
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 3: up a Crosby Stales, Nash and Young cover, we would
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 3: work up an Alvis Costello tune, we'd work up a
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 3: traditional bluegrass song, and we would post it and we'd
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 3: share that with people imperfectly, and we were really shocked
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 3: when that started to catch on. We actually did a
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 3: cover of Preach and Blues by Sunhouse, which we performed
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 3: in Los Angeles, and we try to do it every
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 3: night because it's such a meaningful song to us. That
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 3: was one of our first cover versions to really go
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 3: viral on Facebook and YouTube, and and it.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 2: Was it was coming back to our roots, if we
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 2: were returning home in a way, coming back to the
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 2: music that brought us up, which was bluegrass, but also
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: was Mountain music and blues were like a very familiar
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 2: territory and it felt like a new discovery but also
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 2: a homecoming.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, how many views would these videos get?
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a few million, but I think honestly it was
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 3: even less for us the amount of views and who
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 3: the views were like on that video, specifically on preaching Blues.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 4: Bob Seger watched it.
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 3: Actually I guess it was Bob Seger's wife who watched
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 3: it and then showed it to Bob Seger. And then
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 3: Bob Seger asked his people to get in touch with
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 3: our people, which then resulted in us going out on
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 3: the road supporting him in his arena.
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 4: Tour in eighteen. Is that right?
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, twenty eighteen, I believe we went out on the
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 3: road with him, and again the power of social media
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 3: to be able to connect you to an opportunity that
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 3: you we had, we didn't conceive of that as a possibility,
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 3: but he watched the video and was moved by what
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 3: we were doing and invited us out based on that
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 3: that cover.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: And today with TikTok being the premiere platform and also
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: there's Instagram and Instagram wheels. To what degree are you
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: active on those platforms.
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 4: We're very active. I think you gotta.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 3: One, you gotta dance with who brung Ya, And I
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 3: think the fact that we are an independent band supported
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 3: by individuals, and those individuals watch us on social media
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 3: and keep tabs on us and believe in us and
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 3: bother to tune in, we always want to maintain that connection.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 2: To be honest, when we were first making the videos,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 2: it was just a practice tool. We didn't consider it
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 2: to be something something real, Like we didn't really know
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 2: if these viral video views, if million views on a
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: video would actually translate to anything in the real world,
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 2: like are we gonna Will we be able to sell
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 2: tickets based on this? And it turns out that yes,
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 2: it does, because once those videos went viral, like we
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 2: the very next European tour that we went out on,
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 2: which was like a twenty two show run, and twenty
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 2: one show sold out of that tour, so it was
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 2: like it was a very real thing.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: And to what degree do you interact and respawn to
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: the fans and the people who watch these videos.
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 4: It's an interesting balance.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 3: I like this question because I feel like it puts
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 3: us a little bit in a hot seat. We try
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 3: not to read the comments, but also we can't help
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 3: but read the comments because we especially after the pandemic,
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 3: we know and love these user names and we have
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 3: you know, I mean to back up a little little bit.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 3: You know, during the pandemic, we live streamed what four
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 3: or five times a week.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 2: Because I would say before the pandemic, we didn't interact
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 2: with people directly much through the internet. Then the pandemic
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 2: came along and we had already a huge online fan base.
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 2: That saved us that we had a we had some
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 2: people to turn to during the pandemic, and we were
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 2: able to keep working and we would do live streaming
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 2: and from then there. From there we were directly commenting
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 2: and exchanging with people, and like we recognized the user
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 2: names and we know who the people are, and we're talking,
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 2: like talking on a daily basis with these people.
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: And do you try to activate any of these people?
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: Do you say hey, I'm coming to your town, bring
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: your friends stuff like that, or do you keep it
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: at a distance.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 4: It's a balance, you know. I think we're honestly learning.
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 3: We're still learning how, yeah, how to how to interact
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 3: in a real way because there is a fear I
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 3: feel like you're kind of like we, like we spoke
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 3: about earlier. You know, you're sort of like one bad
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 3: egg away from throwing out the whole cart. And so
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 3: I think there is fear about reading comments because it's hard.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 3: It's hard to read critical stuff from from people who
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 3: are emboldened by anonymity. You know, people can say the
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 3: most terrible shit online that you can't even like fathom.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 3: It's like if I was standing in front of you, you
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 3: couldn't say this stuff to my face, like what.
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 4: Are you doing?
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 2: People could?
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 4: Some Yeah, well some people could. That's true.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: Back at all, So back you know, like ten years ago,
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: maybe a little bit longer. The end of the first decade.
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: I used to call the heaters on the phone because
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: everybody is findable. Wow, and I was on a streak
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: of good experience. I call up saying, you know, this
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: is Bob Left that you obviously have a big problem
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: with me. Just tell me what it is, you know.
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: But then you read some people who are just you know, rigid.
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: But it was interesting. But let's assume you're going on
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: a tour, making up a tour. You're going on twenty
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: twenty three fall tour. Do you have everybody's emails addresses.
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: How are you going to reach the lark in poth fans.
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 4: It's a bit of both.
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think that we have felt very protective
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 3: about trying to have a direct connection to our fans
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 3: because you know, perhaps there is a future in which
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 3: there is no Facebook or Instagram and how do you
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 3: reach these people. So we do have an email list,
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 3: We do try to capture, you know, people's information so
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 3: that we can let them know what's going on. But
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 3: it is it's a little bit of a scary reality,
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 3: you know, because we do rely on these platforms to
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 3: get our message out there to people.
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 4: So you bring up an interesting point.
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's go back to the songs themselves. What you
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: were in the lovell Sisters? Was it always original material?
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: How did you start to write songs? How do you
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: write songs? And how do you write songs today?
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 2: Oh, the lovel Sisters was virtually no songs of our own.
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 2: We did a lot of traditional numbers and towards the
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 2: end of the Level Sisters was when we were really
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 2: discovering the idea of songwriting. And Rebecca is really leading
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 2: the charge with that. Rebecca still leads the charge with
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 2: a lot of our songwriting.
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and uh, I think that songwriting is just like
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 3: you know, any other muscle. I think it does require strengthening, unless,
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 3: of course, and we've said this before in the past,
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 3: it's a little bit trite, but like unless you're Tom Petty,
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 3: and Tom Petty just starts with mudcratch like writing friggin bangers,
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 3: you know, from the jump. But I do think it's
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 3: something that we that I personally have learned how to
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 3: do better and better with time, such that I feel,
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 3: you know, our most recent album, Blood Harmony has some
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 3: of my most favorite songs that I've written, just strictly
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 3: because I think, you know, you write a hundred songs
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 3: in order to get one.
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: Well, the question is do you write a hundred songs
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: to get one?
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 4: I do I have?
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 2: So?
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: Do you write out inspiration or do you sit down
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: and say I have to write an now album? How
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: do you do it?
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 4: It's a bit of both.
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 3: I think because we do tours so hard and I
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 3: do sing so aggressively and ferociously during our shows, I
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 3: do have to be very careful with vocal capital when
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 3: we're touring, so I don't really write when we're touring,
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 3: just because during the day, I'm usually like trying to
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 3: limit how much I'm talking just to optimize for the
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 3: show and protect the vocals that I can give to
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 3: the people who've bought the tickets. So we do wind
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 3: up having more of a seasonal approach, where we'll we'll
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 3: be off the road for a second and get together
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 3: a batch of songs.
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 2: I feel like we like to write in preparation for
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 2: an album because we do take a lot of what
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 2: we've learned during the touring season and apply it to
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 2: the next record. But Rebecca is writing all the time
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 2: for fun, but those songs sometimes aren't necessarily for us
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 2: is just working the creative muscle or writing from inspiration.
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 2: But we do take quite a workman like approach when
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 2: we're writing for an album, like we are writing today
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 2: from ten am, you know, till we get like three
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 2: or four ideas at least, or finish at least you know,
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 2: two or three songs.
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 3: And we also have to be careful because I'm definitely
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 3: like the creative energy that is newest idea is the
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 3: best idea, and so I get bored with things very quickly.
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 3: So that's also where like we really have to wait
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 3: to like, like, I'll be information gathering for months and
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 3: I'll have like probably like fifty or sixty titles in
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 3: my notebook, but I make myself wait to write them
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 3: because otherwise, by the time it comes to getting into
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 3: the studio, I'll be like so bored with these songs
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 3: that they'll just be wasted in the end. There's so
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 3: much waste in the creative process.
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 4: I feel like, how about.
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: The Nashville model of writing sessions with third parties? You
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: ever do that?
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 3: That gives me anxiety personally. We have some we have
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 3: had some, and we've had had some successful experiences.
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 4: But I do think.
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 3: That's that's somewhere I think I would like to learn.
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 3: I would like to to grow a bit, because I
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 3: do think that the there are some incredibly special songwriters
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 3: in Nashville who who are really able to collaborate to
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 3: the benefit of the music. So I would never want
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 3: to self isolate just because I like had stage fright
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 3: or writers right or something. You know.
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 4: I'd like to try and.
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 2: To be honest, writing together the two of us is
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 2: a fairly new thing as well. We did it very
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 2: successfully with this last record, Blood Harmony, and that's the
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 2: first one. We've really collaborated from the ground up on
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 2: a lot of the songs on the record, and really
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 2: heavily collaborated on all of all of them the editing process, especially.
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: Now speaking of Tom Petty's got that great line, the
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: record company didn't hear a single. To what degree do
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: you feel internal pressure to write that one song that's
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: going to be relatively ubiquitous and push you into another league.
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 3: I love this question because I think there is no
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 3: right answer from where we currently sit.
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 4: I think.
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 3: There is no pressure to write a hit one because
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 3: I think the days of hits are are ever shrinking
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 3: for bands like us. I think the compromises that one
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 3: sometimes must make in order to have a hit song
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 3: outweighs the pros. That's that's that's where we're coming at
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 3: it for now. I think that we have definitely built
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 3: a career based on context and bodies of work with
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 3: our fans. I think our biggest concern when when curating
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 3: a body of work for an album has been that
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 3: is an entertaining listen from tip to tail, Because one
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 3: of my least favorite things is to put on an
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 3: album where it's like you're just skipping through to get
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 3: to the hits, or there's just a lot of filler.
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 3: So I think, obviously we've not written our best record
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 3: are you know, who's.
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 4: To say what our best record is?
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 3: But I do think that with every album that we've made,
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 3: we've gotten closer to having every song at least be
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 3: an entertaining listen.
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: However, people don't realize when you write a lot, we
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: create a lot. You know, when you hit an eleven, okay,
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: and you can't do it every day, but you know
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: when you get there. So do you have a couple
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: of songs you say, yeah, irrelevant of acceptance, you know,
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: streams on Spotify when you're writing in and you go, yeah,
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: this is the one, this is going to resonate.
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 4: That's so interesting. I don't know exactly how to respond.
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 2: I think probably we've never written that song. Fully, I
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 2: think that we have hit on it, hit on songs
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 2: that I feel like, this is a this is a
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 2: good song, and I I love what this song has
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 2: to say, and this song is true and authentic to us,
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 2: and and I like and I love that.
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 4: It's it's also subjective.
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what That's what I find challenging to answer,
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 3: is because I think one of the things you have
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 3: to consider as a human is that you are involved
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 3: in the process, right. So it's like when you're a
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 3: writer and you're writing your thing, you have emotional connection
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 3: to it, so you can give it extra space or
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 3: love it especially hard when maybe it's not the best song.
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 3: So really, I don't know that I would ever feel
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 3: competent in separating my own emotional ties to the art
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 3: to really have an objective viewpoint on its quote unquote quality.
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, shifting gears a little bit. I was talking to
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: your manager has got a lot of experience, Peter Leak,
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: and he was talking about direction that you made a
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: record with restoration hardware. How did Peter help focus you
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: and direct your career?
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 4: Oh? I like this, what would you have to say this?
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 2: In meeting Peter Leak and also Anipe it works side
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 2: by side together, we found people who were just one
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 2: hundred percent supportive and that is what we needed. And
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 2: they have really gone along with us on the things
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 2: that we've wanted to undertake that have created so much
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 2: more work for them, and we so appreciate that they
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 2: have been really instrumental in helping us create our own
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 2: record label. And that has given us the freedom to
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 2: be able to go in all of these different directions
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 2: that we've wanted to go. I mean, their support has
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 2: made it possible for us to go further.
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: Now, when I went to see you live, I found
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: the music very reminiscent of late sixties and early seventies
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: blues rock to what deg we Are you versed in
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: the music of those artists.
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, very well versed.
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 3: I think I've personally found a lot of passion for
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 3: researching turn of the century blues music and allowing that
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 3: to filter into my understanding of rock en roll and
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 3: blues rock and roll from.
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 4: The sixties and seventies.
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 3: So yes, definitely have listened, listened a lot, listened extensively.
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'll throw out some band names. If you listened
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: to fog Hat, yeah, okay, have you listened to Mountain?
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 4: I have listened to Mountain.
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 3: I don't know their records as much, but we've done
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 3: a couple of fog Hat covers. I don't think we
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 3: actually ever posted them, but I dig fog Hat, I
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 3: dig Mountain, but I'm not as well.
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: First, okay, what fog Hat covers were they?
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 4: We did Chevrolet that was my favorite.
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, And what about the trio British guitarist Jeff Beck,
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: who unfortunately recently passed Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. To
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: what degree do you know their work extends?
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, big fans of all three of their playing.
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, So if you had to take two records from
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: that world, what albums would you pick?
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 4: Man, that's a good question.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 3: Are we allowed to use Zeppelin for Jimmy Page?
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, we can continue Zeppelin.
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 4: Let's see.
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 3: I think Slowhand and I think probably Zeppelin four.
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: Okay, what are your favorite tracks on Zeppelin four?
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 3: That's hard to answer, because again, I think from our perspective,
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 3: it's the album as a whole.
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 4: It's not singles, it's not tracks.
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 3: It's like, oh yeah, just drop a needle and listen
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 3: through the whole thing.
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 4: And that is a big difference. It is a big difference.
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: Okay. But if I'm listening to that album, rock and
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: Rolling Black really don't do it for me. The Battle
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: of Evermore and when the Levy breaks, I could listen
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: to those every day and going to California, Joe.
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 3: Dog No, But I do love that you're picking the
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 3: mandolin tracks though.
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 4: Good your hat off hat off.
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I don't want to get too much
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: of a discussion of Zeppelin. I just don't find Black
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: Dog innovative enough. You know, it's got the riff. If
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: I'm going with Zeppelin, you know, the first album with
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: Good Times Bad Times. I'd rather listen to that than
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: Black Dog, although it's not as fast a record, but
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: you know, slowhand that's an interesting album too. So have
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: you met all those people? No?
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 3: Actually, and I'm a little bit devastated by the loss
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 3: of I'm like so many people of Jeff Beck because Tyler,
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 3: my husband, was one of Jeff's proteges, and I missed.
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 3: We were actually out on tour and so he came
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 3: through Nashville and I didn't realize that I was missing
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 3: my opportunity to meet him. That's that's very hard. But
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 3: we've never met any of these cats. We've seen Clapton
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 3: live out in Los Angeles. I've never seen Jimmy Page
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 3: and I never got to see Jeff live.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 2: We opened for Robert Plant once.
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, tell me more about after the Lovell Sisters,
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: when you became side people. How did that come about
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: and how did you integrate into these acts?
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 3: So Initially, I think our first side gig was with
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 3: Elvis Costello.
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 2: What a way to start, I know, we had no idea.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 3: So again, it was at merle Fest, and this would
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 3: have been I guess twenty seventeen or eighteen.
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 4: I believe it's thereabouts.
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 3: Actually twenty sixteen, yeah, right, twenty fifteen, twenty.
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 2: Sixteen, now this is this was back in two thousand
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 2: and seven.
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 3: Oh, Lord, I get my dates, so you're absolutely right. Yeah,
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 3: we would have met Costello for the first time in seven. Golly,
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 3: that was a big margin of error.
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 4: Lord.
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 3: And so they had a big all star jam on stage,
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 3: and and Elvis got up, and we were familiar with Elvis' music,
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 3: but hadn't really connected who it was who was on
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 3: stage singing, because I didn't recognize that my amish true
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 3: cover as the man that was up singing.
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 4: A gospel tune. But we dashed across stage.
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 3: In this jam and started seeing harmonies to Elvis on
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 3: like Angel Band or some traditional gospel tune, and we
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 3: sort of struck up an unlikely friendship. And he has
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 3: been a really true mentor to us and invited us
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 3: out to open up for him on a few occasions
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 3: and Rebecca was just.
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 2: Very bold, and they had they had been writing each
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 2: other letters and emails, just talking about music, and Rebecca
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 2: had seen that he was playing in Europe and doing
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 2: a solo tour and said, Hey, I see that you
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 2: don't have a band. Would you like us to be
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 2: your band? And that was how it started, originally us
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 2: backing him up. He's like, you know what, sure, come
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 2: on out and be my band.
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's focus on that. To what degree are you
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: bold and aggressive, Rebecca and making opportunities?
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 4: Oh? Very bold?
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 3: I mean I think it's so trite and tired, but
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 3: like you miss all the shots, you don't take, one
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 3: hundred percent of the shots you don't take.
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 4: And I think.
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 3: Especially there is a power of the idealism of your
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 3: early twenties too, where it's like you feel unstoppable man,
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 3: like I'm never gonna die, I'm gonna gun for it all,
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 3: and that has really served us well. But I think
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 3: also like being motivated by love, by a joyful love
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 3: of music, has really opened a lot of doors that
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 3: otherwise wouldn't have opened.
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: Tell me a couple of things you did in the
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: last couple of years that you would consider bold trying
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: to open the door or get it move up the ladder.
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 3: Oh, let's think about this as recently as and you
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 3: were there. You saw Mike Kimble and Steve f Roni
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 3: on stage, and I I have to say, I think
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 3: that Steve Roni is one of the biggest hearts on
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 3: this planet.
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 4: He's an incredible human.
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 3: But we met those two gentlemen back in the day
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 3: for a Music Cares event from mister Tom Petty. We
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 3: were part of the backing band through Elvis Costello. We
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 3: met t Bone Burnette and t Boone. Burnette was looking
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 3: for some musicians to take part as as part of
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 3: the house band, so we were hired to play mandolin
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 3: an acoustic guitar, and Megan was going to play dobro
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 3: and lap steel and we sang BGVS. So we crossed
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 3: paths with with both Mike and Steve at that event,
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 3: and being huge Petty fans, we were of course just
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 3: like tripping over ourselves, but we we sort of struck
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 3: up some friendship again and ahead of our Los Angeles show.
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 3: I've only ever texted Mike like on his birthday just
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 3: to wish him happy birthday, but I reached out to
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 3: him and said like, Hey, we're coming through, We're playing
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 3: the Fonda. Would you be interested in coming out as
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 3: our guest? And he said yeah, hell yahad what are
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 3: we playing?
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 4: And I was so stuck.
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 3: And this is literally like probably maybe six or seven
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 3: days ahead of the show, and I immediately just started
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 3: frantically screenshotting the text and sending it to Meg.
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, oh my god, what do we suggest?
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 3: And you know, we shot out some ideas and both
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 3: both Steve and Mike came out and sat in with us.
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 3: And I never would have believed if you told me
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 3: two weeks ahead of the show that we would have
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 3: the Heartbreakers on stage with us playing a Tom Petty tune,
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 3: that that was going to happen.
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 4: It was so special.
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, what is an ask you're afraid to ask, but
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: would like to.
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 4: Just in general?
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, mmm, man, this could go in so many different directions.
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 3: I love the broad nature of the question, so to
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 3: see what comes to your mind.
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, we've over the years talked a lot about
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 2: our respect for Bonnie Ray and how much we would
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 2: love to do something with her, and we probably could
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 2: find a way to reach her.
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 4: I feel like that would be exceptional.
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 3: I think to do like an all female review, like
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 3: do something with some dueling slides, oh Man, with Bonnie Ray,
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 3: with Joan Jet, with Melissa Ethridge, with Eryl Crowe, with
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 3: who else should we add?
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 4: Man?
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: I think that's a pretty good list.
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 2: Pretty good.
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: Let me just focus on this period of time where
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: you are Lark and Poe and you're wondering whether you're
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: side people or whether you're going to be an act?
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: Is Lark and Poe? You mentioned Keith Urban, you mentioned
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: these other racks. What acts did you work with and
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: how extensive was that work?
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So, you know, outside of doing on again, off
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 3: again tours with with Elvis Costello, we also picked up
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 3: work with Christian Bush, who is one half of sugar Land,
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 3: and he's Atlanta based and so through the scene he
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 3: was aware of our our musicianship. We you know, we
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 3: did a lot of early work, you know, and Decatur
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 3: in and around Atlanta. Eddie's addic and sort of the
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 3: stomping grounds of the singer songwriter scene. So he actually
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 3: hired us to come out for his solo project and
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 3: he gave us a lot of work like twenty sixteen,
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 3: twenty seventeen that helped pay our bills, and we learned
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 3: so much actually getting to watch him as a bandleader
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 3: and how he integrated with his people.
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 4: Very inspirational.
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 2: And then after that Connor Oberst which eyes.
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that was a cool experience.
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah we did. I can't even remember a few months
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 2: with him.
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how did that connection even happen?
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's I was actually just trying to remember and
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 3: and I just made I remember. So again, t Bone
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 3: Burnett invited us. Well, let me think about this. We
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 3: were in Los Angeles working on our album Ken and
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 3: Elvis Costello was in town at Capitol Records and they
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 3: were doing the New Basement Tapes. So it was that
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 3: all star cast of individuals cutting live and so I,
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 3: you know, just sort of on a whim text at
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 3: Elvis like, oh my gosh, are you in town. We're
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 3: in town making our record. What are you all up to?
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 4: Do you need any vgvs?
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 3: And so they invited us over to come and play
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 3: mandolin and sing some some background vocals for the New
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 3: Basement Tapes. And so we met Taylor Goldsmith from Dawes
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 3: and a handful of folks and Marcus Mumford and Rihanna
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 3: geedd Ins and just sort of found some like minded individuals.
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 3: And Dawes was doing some work with Connor Oburst. They
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 3: were his band, yeah, his Upside Down Mountain tour, and
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 3: so they were doing a Letterman and they needed additional players,
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 3: and so in order to get sort of all worked
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 3: up for the late night appearance, we went out on
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 3: the road and acted as the band for Connor and
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 3: it's some really interesting work. I think I played mostly mandolin,
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 3: which was sort of an out liar for me at
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 3: that time, and.
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 2: We were seeing the vocal harmonies that First Aid Kit
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 2: had recorded on his record.
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, if you go to your Wikipedia page, not that
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: I always rely on it, and I'm sure that you
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: can tell when when the act itself was involved. There's
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: this list of all these accomplishments. Now you talk about
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: very Home Companion. Even Garrison Keeler is out of that
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: and the whole thing is imploding. But people who've consistently
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: been creative know you think about your big break and
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: then you achieve that you realize it's not that big,
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: and you also realize things you may not even want
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: it to do end up paying dividends. So you know,
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: I can read a list of all this stuff, But
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: what has moved the needle for you? And what is
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: it that would move push it over the limit?
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 2: You hit the nail on the head that it's wonderful
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 2: to get a Grammy nomination, But when it comes right
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 2: down to it, it doesn't. It doesn't really mean anything
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 2: for us. What means something is the people that buy
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 2: the tickets and that connection that I was speaking about before,
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 2: the fact that somebody moved their life around just a
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 2: little bit to make room for you. And if you
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 2: multiply that times a million, that's quite a wave that
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 2: you're creating, and that is so incredible, and that moves
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 2: the needle a lot. And when we are able to
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 2: travel around the world and at this point now we've
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 2: not played to it just the bar staff and quite
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 2: some time, and feels so incredibly lucky to be able
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 2: to do that. That it's those people who are actually
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 2: out there buying the music, buying the merch and supporting.
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 2: To have those people around is what really makes a difference.
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: Yes, but in your career, I mean you have some
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: peaks like the Garrison Keeler thing that opened up opportunities.
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: Everything's changed now. Late night performances will give you a
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: video Don't move the needle, SNL will show that the
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: the labels behind it, CBS Sunday Morning. Is there anything
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: that still moves the needle? H?
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess it depends on on Yeah, like huntry too, because.
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 2: It's it's been very interesting that when you're talking about
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 2: like promotion, what moves the needle in the UK is
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 2: different from Germany. And and we've we've actually had an
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 2: opportunity to go on some of the there, like late
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 2: night TV shows that actually still do make a huge
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 2: difference over there. You know, We've gotten to do Germany's
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 2: version and in France's version, and and it is really
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 2: cool to be able to go on those shows and
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 2: see how much of a difference it still makes. That's
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 2: that's been pretty pretty amazing, especially over over in Europe.
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 2: We've had a lot of great opera cotunities like that.
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 3: And I think it's an interesting question and one that
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 3: I think probably based on the amount of change that
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 3: we've seen in the industry in the last like I
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 3: mean really condensed change in the last five ten years,
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 3: It's hard to know how to answer that question, I think,
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 3: especially for a band like us who lives so outside industry,
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 2: We Oh sorry, I just totally I totally interrupted you.
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 2: But as I was thinking about it, I was like,
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 2: what has brought us all of these opportunities really? As
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 2: social media? I mean, that's got to be what has
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 2: driven our success is videos going viral and people finding them.
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 3: Well and paired with relentless touring. The fact that we
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 3: have honestly beaten the streets for eighteen years and have
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 3: managed to continue to keep our strength up and revel
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 3: in the connection with people enough to really merit, continuing
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 3: to work really hard and carry ourselves literally around the world.
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, you have achieved quite a status, But what is
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: the dream?
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 3: This may be a little bit boring, but I honestly
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 3: think the dream for us is just being able to
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 3: continue what we're doing better, just a little bit better
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 3: each time. I think that that for us has actually
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 3: been the biggest gift is how long it's taken us
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 3: to get anywhere.
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 4: I see.
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 3: I see bands that are much younger than us who
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 3: have much less quote unquote experience hitting it big and
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 3: not being able to really I think have the context
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 3: to like appropriately assimilate the meaning of their success. But
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 3: I think for a band like us who has slapstickers
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 3: on the CD and stuffed the jewel cases and the
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 3: digipas and drawn the T shirt and driven the van
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 3: and paid for the gasoline and paid for the band
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 3: members when you yourself were not getting paid. And the
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 3: level up from a mini van to a fifteen passenger
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 3: again as Lark and Poe into a tour bus, being
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 3: able to command, you know, a later night slot, being
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 3: able to carry your production with you for the first time,
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 3: being able to call your heroes and have them text
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 3: you back and be like, yeah, I'll be your guest.
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 2: Suddenly this is the dream.
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 3: Suddenly suddenly it's it's uh, you understand, you understand what
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 3: it means.
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 4: And so I think, because we've been patient.
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 3: With our story again, we're not you know, there's there's
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 3: buzz around Lark and Poe for sure, Is it the
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 3: biggest buzz?
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 2: No?
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 4: Do we need it to be? No, because we get
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 4: to do what we want.
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 3: And you know, we've been able to literally pay our bills,
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 3: even though sometimes the you know, we didn't quite get there,
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 3: or the bills were themselves very very small because we
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 3: were living in somebody's attic. We've been able to do
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 3: it with music, and music has always been there for
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 3: us and there's nothing better than that. And it sounds
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 3: like I'm like being like the Hallmark version, but it's
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 3: it's honest. That's the honest, to God's truth.
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, you have your sleeves rolled up, you have tattoos
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: on your hands and your arms. I don't see any
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: tattoos on Megan. Megan, do you have any tattoos?
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 2: I do. Actually they're just a little little bit more hidden,
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 2: but I do.
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 4: I have. I have a few.
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 2: I have a few.
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, but is that reflective of your personalities?
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 2: What do you think, Megan?
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 4: I want to hear what you have to say.
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 2: Yes, Because here's here's Rebecca going in to get a tattoo.
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 2: I don't really know what I'm gonna get, but it's
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 2: just gonna make it self known. And then the person
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 2: like they talk, her and the tattoo artists talk and
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 2: they and then he draws something up and and she goes, Okay,
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 2: let's do it, and then she gets a tattooed on her.
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 2: Whereas I would sweat bullets about what I'm gonna get
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 2: and should I do it? I don't really know. I
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 2: don't I don't know what I want to put on
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 2: my body.
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 4: Well that's not even really fair. Hold on one second,
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 4: let me add let me add it to I've.
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 2: Been wanting to get more tattoos for years, but I
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 2: don't know what I want to get.
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 3: But this, I think is also like what she's just describing,
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 3: is the magic of our relationship, because I am definitely
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 3: like the uh the just fling it at the wall
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 3: and see what sticks person, and that has a place.
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 4: And Meghan is our researcher.
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 3: Meghan is our measured researcher who will make sure that
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 3: that you know, Rebecca's not booking the first flight that
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 3: she sees and paying triple the price.
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 2: But the world of creativity isn't always so concrete, so
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 2: there's some things you can't research. And I think that's
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 2: probably what what is hard for me fair, Fair, But
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 2: that's why we have each other.
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, Like that old cheap trick song, Southern girls, what
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: are people you're from the South Georgia, Tennessee? What are
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: people in the north and coasts don't understand about the South?
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 4: Mm hmmm.
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 3: I think most importantly, we all have to aspire to
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 3: be the best versions of who we are, right And
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 3: I think also you know, birth and place and status,
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 3: and if you're poor, you're rich, or you're white or
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 3: you're black. All this stuff has connotations attached. All this
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 3: stuff has baggage. But I think for us being Southerners
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 3: and making the kind of music that we make, it
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 3: feels very important to us because we want to be
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 3: the best version of who we are. And I think
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 3: it's hard to you know, grow up listening to Southern
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 3: rock and roll and loving a lot of Southern rock
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 3: and roll, but not finding yourself and the music, not
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 3: seeing your own reflection back looking back at you out
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 3: of the music. So I think I think for us,
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 3: whenever we travel abroad or we travel around the country
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 3: and we are making Southern music, we're making Southern rock
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 3: and roll, it's important for people to understand that we're
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 3: doing it on our terms, and we're doing it with
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 3: a with a big with a big heart, you know,
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 3: with with hopefully being able to.
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 4: Provide like a wider perspective.
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 3: So I'm not exactly answering your question because I it's
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 3: a little tricky to know how how to so simply
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 3: reply what am I missing?
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 4: I think.
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 2: Uh, I think it's that very possibly. We don't want
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 2: a pigeonhole either the north or the South.
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 4: Uh, that's fair.
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's very It is very tempting to
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 3: paint with the broad brush and to to oversimplify, but
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 3: I think that that can be very very dangerous.
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 4: People are people, That's.
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: What Depeche Mode said. In any event, what can Lark
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: and Po fans look forward to in the future.
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 3: Oh man, we have some good stuff coming down the pipeline.
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 3: I think I've I've had some really momentous experiences personally
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 3: this year that I think are really gonna give me
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 3: a lot to work from from a songwriting perspective.
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 4: So I'm looking forward to that.
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 3: You know, like in the little Heidi Hole of my
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 3: heart where I just keep all the titles, there's stuff
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 3: that's kicking around that I think will we'll open up
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 3: some new doors press creatively.
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 2: I think we've learned a lot in touring this year
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 2: that's gonna be very applicable to the next record. So
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 2: I'm real really excited for us to be able to
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 2: write some more because I do think that our next
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 2: record is going to be pretty special. I just have
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 2: a feeling.
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and also so much touring, so much touring this year.
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: What did you learn on the road?
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 4: Oh man, what have we learned?
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 2: I I think that we're becoming more open to collaborations again,
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 2: because we were very collaborative in the early years. Then
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 2: we closed ourselves off a little bit to learn more
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 2: about ourselves. And now that we're at a place where
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 2: we know who we are, I think that we're I
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 2: think we're becoming more open again in a great way.
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 3: And I would also say that I think, you know,
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 3: speaking about over oversimplification. You know, sometimes there is this
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 3: this huge and instinct to rate our experiences is positive
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 3: or negative, like you have a flat tire, and it's
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 3: very easy to say, like, ah, this sucks, this is
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 3: the worst thing that's happened to me today. And I
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 3: think increasingly like the older that I get, and the
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 3: more opportunities and experiences that come through the door, positive
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 3: or negative, I realize there are no good guys, there
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 3: are no bad guys. Like everybody is a little bit
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 3: of everything, and that also applies to the experiences that
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 3: we have in life. You know, you can't you can't
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 3: judge the book by its cover, because there is a
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 3: bigger picture that we can't see when we're granularly focused
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 3: into the details.
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 4: It's like it's more.
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 3: I think I'm having you guys, I'm having a spiritual
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 3: awakening now.
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 4: But it is it's like it's more of a dow.
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 3: Perspective of, like, you know, accepting things as it comes
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 3: and not rating, not rating your experiences, just letting them
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 3: wash over you. Anyway, welcome to my ted talk.
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: On that note, I think both of you have been
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: very open talking about the ups and downs and the
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: steps in your career, and people don't have any idea
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: how hard it is to make it. So I want
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: to thank both of you, Rebecca and Meghan, for taking
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: the time to talk to me and my audience.
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having us. We so appreciate you in
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 2: your perspective.
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, till next time. This is Bob left Sex