The Band Perry
To say The Band Perry has made a name for themselves is a bit of an understatement. These three siblings have had a four times platinum single, as well as two gold singles, all from one album. The past two years have been a bit of a whirlwind since the release of their first single, “If I Die Young,” and now, the band is in the studio working on their sophomore album while touring with Brad Paisley. I got a chance to speak with the band for a bit to talk about the new music and touring.
Arin: What has it been like to watch everything take off over the past two years?
Kimberly: You know our story is really one that instead of hurry up and wait, it’s been…wait, wait, wait and hurry up and we actually, this October, will celebrate fourteen years traveling and making music as a family. So even though everyone’s heard our songs on the radio just the last two years, we’ve been working at it for a really long time. I think it makes the speed, if you will, of the last couple years even that much sweeter and we are just so appreciative to see the blood, sweat, and tears that not only our family, but so many other supporters have put into us over the last decade really come to fruition and every day that we wake up and get to play our country songs on a stage is a good one for us and we’re just so grateful for the opportunity.
A: What has been one of your favorite moments over the past fourteen years?
Reid: I think for us it’s probably different ones for each of us, for me personally it was when we played the Grammy’s and we did the tribute for Glen Campbell along with Blake Shelton. That was a very special moment for me personally.
K: Also, we had the opportunity to play for the President and First Lady last fall, They did a big event at the White House and it was a really amazing thing to imagine that these songs that we wrote on our front porch or down in our basement would one day lead us to the White House. It was truly an honor to play for the President and First Lady.
Neil: For me, I think getting to go over to London and Dublin and getting to play our first shows over there: that was a pretty exciting time and it was really cool because they sang every single word to every single song and that was just a dream come true getting to go over there and play.
A: I think it’s so cool to see, with social networking and the internet, how fans overseas can grasp the music that is made over here in the US these days and a band or artist can sometimes even become bigger over there than they are here.
K: Yeah, it’s amazing and the one thing about the style of music that we play. It’s had a long tradition of being songs about real life and real life stories and I think whether you live in the UK or Dublin or in the United States, we’re all experiencing the same things and its all a very primative emotion that most of these songs tap into and it’s exciting for a song of ours like ‘If I Die Young’ that’s meant so many different things to different people. I remember there was a girl over in London who told us a story about what that song had meant to her and it’s just really, really special to have, just like you said, things that mean something over here also mean something to people across the pond.
A: I know you are working on new music right now and hopefully have a sophmore album out by the end of this year. So what can people expect to hear from that?
K: Yeah! We’ll have our very first single out from the new project in November and we’re really excited. We’re in the studio with a hero of ours, this guy named Rick Rubin, and I’ll tell ya what, it’s just been an epic process. It’s been a very slow creative one, but definetly worth the wait and it’s a project that holds hands nicely with the first record but we’ve gone through a lot of brand new experiences in the last two years and we talk about all those on the new project.
N: And it’s really cool because we’re playing some of these new songs live and it’s really helpful for us to get the fan reaction so we’ve just enjoyed playing these new songs, seeing what some of the people think and then either we’ll record it or we won’t, but it’s really been a great process.
A: You guys are on tour with Brad Paisley right now, so what is your favorite part about playing live?
R: You know, I think for us playing live is one of our favorite things to do period. It’s what we’ve always done from the beginning, but whenever you’re playing songs that you thought of, either in your room or on your tour bus, and you play that live and people sing it back to you, that’s a really special moment for the three of us. We love sing-a-longs.
A: I’ve always wondered what the sing-a-long would feel like when you are the one standing on stage. It seems like it would be a surreal moment.
K: It’s a really special thing and it’s something that still surprises us every night. It’s something I don’t think we’ll ever get used to and we love it so much, it’s a special experience.
A: What are you looking forward to throughout the rest of this year?
K: I think finishing the album-we’’re about 85% finished right now, so it’s be really exciting to get the finishing touches put on that and get geared up for a new release. And like you said, we’re on tour with Brad Paisley on the Virtual Reality Tour all the way through the end of the year, so we’re just looking forward to getting out and playing our music live and meeting tons of new faces.
A: Country music is very involved in giving back so are there any charities or nonprofits that you guys are involved with?
K: We are, a lot of artists are involved with Outnumber Hunger and you can find all the details about that at outnumberhunger.com and basically its a partnership with General Mills where if you buy specially marked boxes of cereal and other General Mills products, they will dontate a certain amount of meals to your local food bank. It’s kinda cool because it works on a local level trying to keep bellies full.
R: It’s a great organization.
