Written by Tiffany Jones
The answers are in! Here is the full interview with The Band Perry. Did they answer your question? Read below. Clickherefor a slideshow from The Band Perry’s concert Feb. 4.
What is the craziest story you have from your adventures touring across America?
Our very first bus overnight trip we took was from Nashville to Houston. We were playing at the barbecue cook-off there before they had their rodeo. And again first bus trip we’ve ever taken and this was back in ‘09 and five hours outside of Nashville we actually break down.
We had to sit on the side of the road until they could get another bus there. We loaded everything over, and then we finished our trip down to Houston.
We had planned to get there, have a nice down time, shower, get something to eat. But what happened was we actually pulled in, unloaded all of the gear on to the stage, set up, and I don’t think we even had time to change what we were wearing, and we went on and played the show without showering at all. You know, we stunk. We felt so good about the show, though, that we actually headed back to Nashville without showering either.
So that was like 36 hours without a scrub and the bus stank like crazy, but we were feeling good.
Out of all of the places you have traveled, if you were to stop performing and settle down, where would you most likely live?
Neil: Kimberly would definitely settle down in Seattle, Wash. She is in love with that part of the world. She loves how it is always raining. She’s that kind of person.
Reid: Plus it reminds her of twilight, which she is a huge fan of.
Neil: I say San Francisco. I love that part of the world. It just has a really vibe-y feel to it.
Reid: I like east Tennessee, where I live but you know I love the Rockies, so somewhere out West I think I could settle down in. They’re just absolutely beautiful.
If you could have a super power, what would it be?
Reid: I’ve been thinking about this since I was about four and flying would be fun, but I think reading people’s minds. But the only thing about reading people’s minds, for me, would be that I don’t really want to know what they’re thinking about me, if it’s something bad. So, I may just stick with flying.
Neil: It was funny— we were talking last night about dreams we had and I was telling them about a certain dream that I had where I actually had wings on my arms, and this kind of goes along with Reid’s as well; they were kind of like feather wings. So, I would say I’d love to fly, too. Every time I see a bird I’m a little jealous, to be honest with you.
Which musician (living or dead) would you be most excited to perform with on stage?
We would probably have to go with Keith Richards. He’s kind of half-dead, half-living right now, but it would be great to actually perform “Honky Tonk Women” with Keith Richards himself.
We’ve actually thought of doing a crossroads of Keith Richards and Loretta Lynn. Loretta Lynn is one of our biggest country influences as well. Dad was a rock and roll lover and our momma was a country lover as well. So, we feel like we’re in between the two, and so we would love to do a crossroads between Keith Richards and Loretta Lynn.
When did you guys form your group?
We’re brother and sister and so we’ve doing this for about 12 years. We started when Kimberly was 15, I [Reid] was 10 and Neil was 8, and for the first six years we were actually performing in separate bands. Kimberly, she had one and Neil and I started our band. So we would travel around the Southeast, Neil and my band opening up for Kimberly and hers, and about six years ago we needed a lead singer and Kimberly needed a band, and so we decided to join up and actually become The Band Perry.
What is your biggest motivation for making music?
Everything we do is toward the live end. We love playing country songs with country lovers every night. And we want to make songs that are relevant to people’s lives as well as our own. That’s what country music is— the story of all the people in the world. I mean, it’s our story up on stage. It’s the people’s stories down in the crowd. So, we could say we have one motivation: It’s to help people forget all their troubles, all their problems for an hour-and-half while we’re on stage and they’re out in the crowd. So, I’d say we just want to make music that matters to people.
What’s the weirdest meal you’ve ever been forced to eat while on the road?
Neil: I love trying out different foods and foods that I’ve never had before and that I’ve never even wanted to try before. I remember we were eating at one German restaurant in Indianapolis in the winter of 2009, and I got this soup called oxtail soup. The only thing I’ll say about it is that was very stringy. That’s all I’m going to say. It was nasty.
Do you have a good luck item?
I wouldn’t know that we have an item but we have this ritual before every show where we all get in a circle, and I have no idea where this started, most people put their hands in the middle, but we actually make sort of a gun with our hand and we put them all in the center and we shoot ‘em off, and we blow the smoke out of the barrel and I have no idea what that means. Maybe it means make a bang? It’s just kind of like the ritual we do before every show.
What prompted you to model your music video for “If I Die Young” after Tennyson’s poetry?
Well, actually Kimberly read that right before “If I Die Young” was written, and so it became an inspiration for the song as well. It’s also, if you read the poem, very similar to how the video feels. It’s just an item we brought up to David McClister, who shot the video, and he had such a great vision. He actually is shooting our next video for “You Lie.” He had been thinking along the lines of Tennyson’s poem as well, so when we brought that up to him he really connected with that, and it’s just more of a tip to the hat to the original inspiration of “If I Die Young”.
One thing we really wanted in the video for “If I Die Young” was a sense of hope. That was how that song is written– in a carpe diem sense. Seize the day. Make the most of your minute, whether you’ve got two years on the planet, 20 or 200, live to the fullest. We wanted that sense of hope to come out in the video, and that’s why we use a lot of green colors. That’s why Kimberly hops out of the boat because it is called “IfI Die Young.” So there’s definitely a sense of hope that we wanted to portray in the video.
A life that is short-lived is a sensitive topic, but not something that is uncommon. What responses have you received from fans? Any personal connections to those who have suffered loss in this way?
We’re getting a lot great comments about how the song is healing a lot of people. In our signing line, on YouTube, on our website, people are just writing in and saying how this song has helped them.
One of the most amazing experiences that we’ve had with “If I Die Young” is when we play it live. There’s one or two people in the crowd who are a little teary eyed and they’ve probably lost someone and they’re going through a tough time, but for the most part people are smiling as they are singing the song. And that’s people from kids 2 years old to 80-year-old people out in the crowd. So, we’ve had a really great experience with “If I Die Young” and we’re really thankful that it is healing a lot of people in the world as well.
Neil: When did you switch from the drums to the mandolin and accordion and which one of those three instruments do you like playing the most? Was it hard for you to learn the accordion? Was it also hard for you to learn the mandolin right handed?
Neil: Well, you know I started out on drums and when we signed with the label we were kind of talking about this. We were saying you know what? You love drums, but we really want him up front. You know to interact with the crowd, because it’s hard to do that behind a drum kit. And by that time we had been in east Tennessee up in the Appalachian Mountains for about five years so the blue grass blood really soaked into my musical palate. I had been playing mandolin for quite a while so that was the natural direction for me to take.
How I started playing accordion was this way. We recorded the album with Paul Worley, and we had the accordion all over it, and we were saying, you know, it would be really great to pull out an accordion live and who should do it? Well, of course, it fell on me and, of course, I enjoy doing it.
What is it like performing, writing music, being on the road, etc. with your siblings? Has this made you closer as a family?
Reid: We’ve been doing this for about 12 years, as a family, first of all in separate bands then together, and Neil and Kimberly are my best friends. To actually be able to have a life like this, with people that you love, is truly a blessing for us, and I think it makes it totally better.
Neil: We can sum it up in one sentence. We know each other like the back of our hands, and sometimes we have to use the back of our hands, and we’re still together at the end of the day, so that’s what sums up The Band Perry.
