A Family Affair / Eisley Interview - Christmas Issue 2003

A FAMILY AFFAIR.

Eisley make the kind of music that you might want to listen to while lying on your bed, wistfully writing in your journal. They make the kind of music perfectly suited for evening drives and languid afternoon walks with a good pair of headphones. Sweet, unassuming and made up almost entirely of siblings under the legal drinking age, Eisley have sprung out of their hometown of Tyler, Texas to score a major deal, a major tour, and a slew of new fans everywhere they go. T. Cole Rachel has his heart melted.

OK, so I should mention that we're sitting at the Coachella Music Festival in the California desert and there are about 50,000 people out here freaking out. Is this the biggest gig you've ever done?

Sherri: Yeah, I think so. We played South by Southwest, that was pretty big. But no, nothing like this. . .
Weston: It's unbelievable. A little overwhelming

So what's it like being in a band with all of your siblings?

Sherri: Actually, we're all best friends. Really. So, it's fine.
Stacy: We argue, but luckily we usually get over it in about two minutes.
Weston: We're siblings, we have to argue.
Sherri: It's never anything too horrible, no fistfights.

How old were you when you first started playing together?

Sherri: Since forever, really. Stacy wrote her first song when she was eight, and I don't even know if Weston was playing the drums yet...were you?
Weston: I can't even remember. Too young...
Sherri: It took a while to get things going, I think Stacy was. . .
Stacy: Ten. I was ten.
Sherri: So, yeah, then we started playing shows and doing...all this. How we ended up here, I really have no idea.

What's your songwriting process like? Do you just rock out in your parent's basement or what?

Sherri: Stacy and I write songs and work out arrangements and stuff, then everyone comes in and sort of does their own part. That's how it usually works.
Weston: We have a church near us that we can play at. It's great, lots of space. We have so much fun there.

That's amazing! And I hear that you'll be touring with Coldplay now?

Sherri: Yeah, we'll be touring North America with them and part of Canada.
Weston: We'll be doing 16 dates with them, then we're doing the big V2 Festival in Europe after that. Huge!

So, there are 5 of you in the group, all of whom, except one, are under 21 years old? How do you travel? With your parents? With a huge entourage?

Stacy: No, not everyone in the family can come, it's too many. Too many people... Weston: Well, most of the time not everybody comes along. If we can just drive to a place, like this, then everyone comes along, but usually it's just the band, our guitar tech, our tour manager. . .oh, and our dad. He takes care of our stuff, he drives.

I didn't know what to expect from your live show, but you guys were great this morning. You totally won the crowd, everyone loved you, which is no small feat. Festival crowds can be brutal.

Sherri: Oh, thanks, we weren't so sure.
Stacy: It was kind of rough out there. We were the opening band and it was really hot. People were looking at us like. . . what is this?
Sherri: And we've been so busy lately, it feels like we haven't had enough to practice or get ourselves ready.

So, your band has three girls - excuse me, three sisters - fronting the group, writing the songs, playing the instruments and, I might add, playing them well. Weston, the older bro, does drum duty and then your good friend plays bass. It's all a refreshing alternative to the current teen pop phenomenon. How do you feel about that?

Sherri: We've tried really hard not to come off as too poppy and girly. We really want to come off as a band, first and foremost, not just as girls playing rock music. It's hard though, since that's what people see up there.
Stacy: And the guys are certainly just as important to the band as we are.
Weston: Yeah!
Sherri: People are intrigued by us because we're so young and we're girls, which is kind of rare, but we'd much rather it be about the music we make.

So, how does it happen that a bunch of kids from Tyler, Texas form a band and then end up here with a major record label deal?

Sherri: Well, Stacy wrote a song and we were all kind of learning how to play instruments at around the same time so it seemed like we might as well just play together.
Stacy: So we did.
Sherri: Our parents ran a coffee house and they'd let us play there sometimes. It actually evolved kind of slowly. . . and then we were a band.
Weston: and we didn't even really mean to be.
Sherri: And then we got signed, which was the craziest thing of all.

How did that happen?

Sherri: A crazy chain of events I guess. . . someone saw us play at an outdoor festival in Illinois and a friend of ours gave our demo CD to some bigwig attorney guy and then that guy started shopping us around to labels and stuff. Weston: And that's how we got to play in all of these showcases, which eventually...
Sherri: yeah, and then we signed with Warner Brothers.

You must realize how amazing that is, right? There are thousands of bands out there, desperately trying to get some attention, to get someone to listen to their demo, to get noticed, to get signed...

Stacy: Ooh, yes. But, you know, we just like playing music. We were just amazed and happy that people liked it.
Sherri: It wasn't even something we were really even trying to do. We were never like, Ok, we've gotta get signed, we've gotta get signed. . .
Stacy: it just happened.

I'm guessing you guys grew up in a pretty musical house?

Stacy: Yeah, our dad's a drummer and our mom sings and we grew up listening to music all of the time.
Sherri: Rocking out to the Beatles...

How many siblings are there, total?

Sherri: There's another sister and another brother.

And you haven't put them in the band?

Weston: No, but they are here . . . somewhere.
Sherri: They're just as obsessed with music though, they play piano and guitar.
Stacy: Our younger sister does artwork and is an amazing graphic artist.

I heard that your family was a very artsy bunch.

Sherri: Yeah, it's weird, I think most of us draw and paint. We all like to make stuff.

Now that you're touring and becoming rock stars, how do you deal with scheduling things around school and stuff?

Stacy: We're home-schooled anyway, so...
Weston: We're always in school.
Sherri: We take school with us.

Is it weird now, to go tour the planet and then head back to Tyler to hang out? What do the folks in Tyler think about it?

Sherri: Does anyone even really notice? I doubt it.
Stacy: I don't think anyone there really cares. It's like, whatever. Tyler is a pretty quiet town and there really isn't much of a music "scene" there.
Sherri: It's a nice town and we love it there, but it's very. . . quiet.

So, What's been inspiring you lately? What's been the most amazing thing that's happened to you in the past year?

Sherri: I haven't even been able to think about things like this yet, it's all been too much.
Stacy: The Coldplay tour. We did a couple of dates with them already. We're so excited to play with them every night just so we can get to watch them. They're so awesome and so nice.
Weston: Driving out here to this festival all the way from Dallas to Palm Springs with our entire family in a giant van, with nothing but rocks and dirt in every direction. . .

What happens next for Eisley?

Sherri: Well, we'll do this tour and write some songs, then we'll record another record at some point. . .
Stacy: And just play music. And have fun.

- T. Cole Rachel