The Band Perry interview

July 6, 2010 by Bill Palmer

“I’ve known these guys their whole lives,” Kimberly Perry says of her bandmates Reid and Neil – and she means it literally, as they happen to also be her kid brothers, which helps explain how the trio came up with the name The Band Perry. Before their debut album is even out the door they’ve already notched two hit country singles with Hip To My Heart and now If I Die Young. Then again, their music isn’t strictly country, but we’ll get to that in a minute. First we have to square away the fact that I’ve got all three of them on the phone at once, and after seeing that it takes very little prodding to get them to start impersonating each other, I can tell that this is going to be a light hearted conversation. Which also begs the question of how such an upbeat gang can have a hit song about dying young, and we’ll get to that too. But first, about this sibling thing…

When you guys were little, were you singing together back then around the house, or was it later when you started putting your voices together?

Kimberly: We actually started singing harmony later. I can remember the first time that we did that. I’m the oldest, and I was in the eighth grade which would have meant meant Reid was in first grade, Kindergarten or first grade. I remember we took this family vacation out west, and we got this little camper. I’m not talking Prevost, I’m talking a camper. And all five of us, our parents were driving, were in this camper, and to help mom pass the time while she was driving, we would sing all of these songs in three part harmony. We were basically just trying to make the miles more interesting.

Neil: We would sing Amazing Grace in rap style or rock style or different types of three part harmony.

Kimberly: Yeah, except for the rap in three part harmony didn’t work out so well (laughs). But even more so than singing together, all three of us have been performers musically since day one. I can remember Neil once when he was a kid and still in Batman pajamas, couple weeks ago, you know. I remember one night he got up on the kitchen counter after dinner and he struck an Elvis pose. We always called him our little Elvis because he basically came out of the womb with sideburns. And he struck this Elvis pose when he was probably four years old and said “I was born to do this.” And so in various ways we were all three entertaining anyone who was in the room, and we basically started doing that together.

Reid: There were definitely visible signs in our younger years that showed what we would be doing when we got older, I think.

I know you guys grew up listening to country and rock and different genres, and I can definitely hear those elements in there, but if you had to slap one label on your music it would be country. Was that something you always knew was going to be the case or was there any point in the past where any of you had envisioned yourselves being in a rock and roll band?

Kimberly: Yeah, we actually had an independent project, this was pre- record deal, and pre- our management relationship, and just something that we wanted to get out of our system. We ended up laying down like thirteen tracks independently, and it definitely spoke more to our Rolling Stones side than our Loretta Lynn side. And then we had a real honest moment where we looked at each other and said okay, we have this music, what should we do? And I think by nature of the fact that first of all we’re really plugged into the songwriting community in Nashville, and really, that in country music is so unique unto our genre, that songwriting family, if you will. Definitely wanted to be part of that. And also, country for us, because our hearts are rural America, and sort of blue collar working folk. It felt like the stories that we like to tell and the ones that we like to dream up even, fit better in that genre of music, in country, than it did in the rock and roll world. And so we just kind of started actually chasing down both of those rat holes, and it just always led us back to Nashville.

You aren’t just singers, you each play various instruments. Neil, with your list of instruments you play, it looks like you could be a one man band on your own. Are you running from instrument to instrument between songs on stage?

Neil: It feels like I’m running a marathon when I’m on stage, dropping my mandolin and running to grab my accordion and stuff. But it’s a good time. I enjoy all those different instruments.

Kimberly: Neil’s first job in the band was actually as the drummer, and he doesn’t pull that out, although you do whip out tambourine on a couple of songs.

Reid: Back when we were doing our independent project, on If I Die Young, he would actually play drums and mandolin at the same time.

Kimberly: Because we were like a power trio back then. Seriously, I played more electric than acoustic, Reid has always been on the bass, and so Neil would play drums.

Reid: And then drums got too much to take it around. So we told him just to leave the drums behind and he came up front with us, and he’s now the mandolin slash accordion player.

Speaking of bass players, there’s this stereotype about them, and it’s untrue as often as it’s true, but the stereotype is that they’re quiet, stoic, keeping the ship steady. I guess all three of you could comment whether that’s an accurate picture of Reid.

Kimberly: I’ll speak to that (laughs). He is the self titled peacemaker in The Band Perry, meaning nine times out of ten, I’ll hand it to him that he does enforce peace…

Neil: …because Kimberly and I are too much alike.

Kimberly: Yeah, Neil and I both have lead singer syndrome. But Reid, yeah, I think that he definitely is the rock in the band, and he is more quiet, but he also thinks a lot more. He’s silent but deadly.

Neil: Reid’s the thinker of the group, and I think I’m the reactor (laughs).

Reid: I think all musicians have a stereotype, and even us as siblings, we definitely carry our sibling stereotype roles on our sleeves. Again, I’m in the peacekeeping middle child, and Kimberly is the big sister…

Kimberly: …the big sister, a little bit bossy. But I just call myself the “boss” and leave out the “y” and it suits me so much better…

Reid: The boss is Bruce Springsteen.

Kimberly: …of The Band Perry. They let me do that, and it’s my role as big sister. And then the baby over here, he just keeps us all laughing.

If I Die Young is a very peaceful, content song about death. And I don’t know if it’s literally about death, you can tell me, but it’s amazing to me how you guys can take this sad topic and make it sound so enlightened, or almost enticing.

Kimberly: Well you know it’s amazing, death definitely has both sides of that coin. It’s a very mournful time of course of anybody, but it also can be really beautiful, especially with a life well lived. We wrote If I Die Young out of a place of contentment. It was a moment that we were headed into the studio, it was actually the first song that we had penned for the album. And it was a time that we just looked at each other with all the opportunity that we had before us and said, you know, if for whatever reason it all ends at this moment, we’ve even at our young ages lived life so completely. That’s really the place that we wrote it out of, although I’ll be honest with you, it’s amazing, we’re top thirty right now just four weeks in, and we’re getting so much feedback from these listeners and fans of this song. From Facebook to MySpace letters, it’s really giving their grief a voice. We were playing out in Manhattan, Kansas just last week and it was like over a hundred degrees, it was just a brutally hot festival, and we played this song and this lady stood up with these tears in her eyes and had this homemade sign that she made with the name of her daughter and the age that she passed away, and it said “She died young.”

You guys have put out the five song EP so far. Eventually there will be a full album. How far along are you guys in terms of finishing the rest of the album?

Kimberly: We have a release date, I believe it is the second Tuesday in October, so that’s our official release and we’ve got to go back to Nashville and finish it.

Neil: We’ve just been on the road so much. Apparently we can’t release the rest of the album without putting lead vocals on it (laughs).

You’re all named Perry, so The Band Perry is an obvious band name choice. When that name was first kicked around, was it something that all of you were on board with right away?

Neil: We spent probably a week going through all these different names, and eventually came to a name where we wanted to have Perry in it.

Kimberly: And so for awhile we just tried simply “Perry” on for size, but it had a very British rock feel for a country band, cause it’s an English last name anyway. So we knew we wanted “The Band” in there somewhere, because it couldn’t say “The Family” or “The Brothers Perry.” We love “The Brothers Grimm” but I’m a sister so we couldn’t just have “The Brothers Perry” which would have been an awesome name. So we wanted “The Band” in there too because we all play instruments, we’re not just a vocal group.

And with the inception of things like MySpace and the fantastic world wide web, there’s like a dozen Perry bands. So we needed something to separate us from the bunch, and ended up just reversing it to The Band Perry. And also, we have a darn good little logo and a nickname, TBP. I always feel like the music defines the name, as opposed to the other way around.

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