Today at The Treehouse we’re turning the spotlight on BSB! No, not that BSB, it’s 15-year old twin sisters Alix and Deary of The Brower Sisters Band.
The Brower Sisters Band recently released their first EP “Old Friends Are New Strangers” and we took a quick liking to their debut single, “Messed You Up (Skatepark)” so we reached out to see if we could learn a little more and were pleased to be able to reach them for an interview.
Listen to the track on Spotify and read on for our interview below.
CF: Let’s start with the basics. Where are ya from?
BSB: We are from Atlanta, Georgia.
CF: We know from the name that you’re sisters but, if I’m not mistaken you’re also twins? How old are you guys?
BSB: Yes, we are twins! And we are both 15 years old.
CF: The first track of yours I came across was “Messed You Up (Skate Park)” which is full of great bass grooves, jangly guitars and a high energy organ. It doesn’t skip a beat and reminds me loosely of pioneer acts like The Runaways or more modern bands like The Beaches. The song itself is pretty funny, too, silly in the best pop-punk way. Is there one of you that does the bulk of the songwriting and vocals or is it a pretty even split right now?
BSB Alix: Thank you so much! We absolutely love The Runaways, we have a poster in our room and they are a gigantic inspiration to us. The story the song is based off of is pretty goofy and made less and less sense as we wrote it which is pretty funny.
BSB Deary: We both wrote about an equal amount of the lyrics on this project. It usually started off with a lyric or chords, and we added onto it. For Excuses, we actually both had an idea that used the same chords so we just combined them.
CF: Can you tell us a bit about the making of the record? Where was it recorded and who did you work with?
BSB Alix: It was literally the most funnest thing we’ve ever done, I could say so so so so much about it because of how much I loved doing it. Going into it, Deary and I had only really had our guitar parts and vocals/lyrics ready, so hearing it with so many more instruments and additional vocals was so cool.
BSB Deary: Recording was such an amazing experience, I had a whole bunch of fun, we would work on the EP on weekends and a few days after school and hearing it all come together was just sososososo cool. We recorded it at Dollhouse studios with Peter Mavregeorgis, and it honestly was such a great time.
CF: Which song on the record was the most challenging to complete?
BSB Deary: I’d say that Noise was probably the toughest to complete. We had finished the other 4 songs before deciding to record, but we knew we wanted there to be 5 songs, so we spent a lot of time on that one and it originally sounded incredibly different, we scrapped the song after trying to work with it for so long and then we went back to it later because we realized we just needed to give it a different sound.
CF: When did you start writing music?
BSB Alix: I started writing songs when I was in 2nd grade and sometimes I’ll come across the songs again and I just can’t believe that I wrote those. They aren’t any good at all and they have the most wack-a-doodle lyrics I’ve ever heard but they are kind of funny. The first song I wrote that I didn’t hate was a song about going crazy during the first couple of weeks in covid when I was 12.
BSB Deary: In 4th grade we had a silly band with our best friend and we wrote a song called guacamole, and it only had one word, guacamole. Best song I’ve ever written (my dad wrote it).
CF: I hear a little of The Interrupters in tracks like “Noise” or even The Cranberries on others; it’s a pretty diverse collection. What bands or artists are you most highly influenced by?
BSB Deary: I would probably say The Replacements, The Rolling Stones, Joan Jett, and Green Day highly influenced our music; We listened to them a whole lot growing up. When we first started learning guitar and drums we would play a bunch of Rolling Stones, Joan Jett and Tom Petty songs, so I would say all of them are HUGE inspirations!
CF: I’ve always thought it would’ve been amazing if one of my own siblings also played music so that I could have a jam buddy on hand. But historically we know that while bands that include siblings can become the best partnerships for creative work, for others it can cause a lot of conflict. Have you found yet that working together in the band can be challenging because of how close you are?
BSB Alix: I think that being so close has helped us so much actually. Because we do almost everything together, share a lot of the same friends, and a lot of our experiences are the same, it makes writing songs easier since we are always on the same page about things. It’s also so so so much fun to have my best friend/twin with me for all these amazing experiences!
CF: When you disagree on, say, the direction of a new song or a lyric, how do you tend to manage that?
BSB Deary: In all honesty we usually don’t disagree but, when we do, the other person usually comes around to the idea.
CF: What’s the top track spinning in your Spotify playlists right now?
BSB Deary: I think that my top track right now is probably “Zero” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, we just saw them live at Shaky Knees and it rocked.
BSB Alix: Right now I’ve been listening to the song called “I Know I’m Funny haha” by Faye Webster, I love that song soooo much.
CF: What’s one instrument or piece of equipment you would say is vital to your songwriting process?
BSB Alix: The acoustic guitar. Almost all of our songs started with us playing acoustic guitar in our bedroom, and then ended up with many other instruments. I also really like playing electric guitar with headphones so that we can play when it’s late and not wake up our parents haha. But in general guitars are really important for our song writing.
BSB Deary: I really like goofing around on the piano, especially for finding melodies and what not, but I really enjoy the guitar when just coming up with lyrics.
CF: The year is now 2033, where do you hope to see yourselves?
BSB Deary: Hopefully on a world tour because that sounds like a whole bunch of fun. We will definitely still be doing music by then and so I just hope our music grows and people enjoy it a lot.
BSB Alix: I would absolutely love to play shows in France, England, and Australia. I’ve always wanted to go to Australia so I think that would be fun. We actually have a couple of listeners in the UK and Australia so hopefully one day a world tour will happen.
CF: What’s one message you hope listeners grab from listening to your music?
BSB Alix: I am not really sure about this question. The meanings for some of these songs have changed over time for myself, so I just hope people grab whatever they want from listening to our songs, but most of all I hope they enjoy them.
CF: If you could collaborate with any artist on just one track, who do you choose?
BSB Deary: Probably Phoebe Bridgers, her lyrics are so awesome and the instrumentation she uses in her songs is just really interesting. Overall her discography is really fantastic and I think she’s incredibly talented.
BSB Alix: I would really love to collaborate with Beabadoobee, I absolutely love her voice and music in general. The way her songs build up is so much fun to me and I take a lot of inspiration from her so collaborating would be the most amazing thing ever.
CF: What’s the best concert you’ve ever seen and what about it stood out to you?
BSB Deary: For me it is definitely Adele on the 25 tour in 2016, it was our first concert and it was so cool seeing her live since she’s always been my favorite music artist. She sounded just as good live as she does in her recordings and I think about it every day.
BSB Alix: There have been so so so many concerts that we’ve been to that I absolutely loved, so it is kind of hard to choose. I would probably say that seeing Green Day at Shaky Knees was probably the best. I just had soooo much fun watching and Billy Joe’s stage presence is just so much fun.
CF: What’s next for you guys now that your debut EP is out?
BSB Deary: We are working on an album right now, it’s going to take a bunch of time especially with school. That being said we’ve already gotten going on a couple of songs and hopefully we will write a lot more this summer.
CF: Finally, where can fans connect with you on social media?
BSB: We are @thebrowersistersband on Instagram and TikTok, our music is streaming on every platform, and you can buy our merch on our Bandcamp page under The Brower Sisters Band.
CF: Thanks very much Alix and Deary!
Check out more by The Brower Sisters Band by visiting their social media channels.
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