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