Born and raised in a musical family originally from Mobile, Alabama, The Band Perry originally didn't play together as older sister Kimberly Perry worked as a band leader of her own band while the younger brothers Reid Perry and Neil Perry worked on their own band since they were six and eight years younger than Kimberly. Eventually they found their way as a band once the boys grew older and worked in the southeast on weekends. In this exclusive interview The Band Perry discusses how they came to the attention of labels in town and how they define their sound and how it separates them from other artists currently charting hits like their debut single "Hip To My Heart" on the radio (and on CMT and GAC).
Matt Bjorke: What is your background? Where did you come from?
Kimberly Perry: We are brothers and sister of course. Some people have said “Kimberly, which one did you date first?” (laughing)
Matt: (laughing) And that grossed you out quite a bit, I’m sure…
Kimberly: Yes, and it is on the first line of the bio but we still love them. Anyway, the music started for us about 10 years ago in Mobile, AL, where we grew up, and I was 15 years old at the time and fronted my first band with boys I went to high school with. Reid and Neil were 8 and 10 and they had these adorable bowl cuts and went on tour with me and my band with their first job being the world’s youngest roadies where they changed the strings and balance drums and bolts for my band. They caught the feverr pretty quick when they saw me doing my thing and at 8 and 10 they found a lead singer and electric guitar player and at the time Neil was on the drums at the time and they put together their first band and those little guys would open up all the dates on my tour. We always traveled as a family as I couldn’t drive yet and our parents would load up both bands every weekend in the motor home and we’d travel the southeast every weekend.
Matt: When did you decide to work as a trio?
Kimberly: We started as The Band Perry about five years ago?
Neil Perry: In North Carolina.
Kimberly: We were hired to do a new faces of country tour that was sponsored by Coke and Walmart and we actually got to open dates for Sugarland, Darryl Worley, Julie Roberts and Trent Willmon were out too and it was just acoustic in-stores at Walmart so we became a band at the produce section of Walmart. It was our first opportunity to hang out with country radio and vise-versa and it was then we knew that’s where we belonged (as a band).
Matt: What instruments does the band play?
Reid Perry: I’m Reid and I’m the middle child and I play bass and sing background vocals.
Neil Perry: I’m the youngest and play mandolin, accordion and sing background vocals.
Kimberly: I sing the lead vocals and play acoustic and occasionally play piano.
Matt: How did you come to the attention of Republic Nashville?
Reid: It was probably from our team and our manager Bob Doyle. We were actually thinking about doing a showcase and inviting all the labels out and we were sitting around thinking that there’s no point in doing what was needed for that to happen and do an acoustic set instead.
Kimberly:…because we had just wrapped up our seven sides (tracks) with Paul Worley and we wanted to have a bit of music finished before we made that label step so we wouldn’t have to explain to a label or executives who we were as artists and how we heard our album and that we could go out and deliver them a product…
Reid:…So our management team took those seven sides to all of the different labels and Allison Jones of Big Machine and Republic Nashville played it for Scott Borchetta and Jimmy Harnen and they really dug it and wanted to see us. Later that week we came into see them and played a 30 minute acoustic set for em and on our way home to East Tennessee that night, they called and offered a deal.
Kimberly: which was really cool for us and it really did happen that quickly. But I don’t think that it would’ve been even possible without the 10 years of work on the front side. I am a big believer in that if you put in all the grunt work, the blood, sweat and tears on the front side that when it does happen, it can happen quickly. We’re just extremely humbled and honored to have such a great team behind us and we do say that it takes a village to raise an artist and have wonderful folks around us…
Matt: And to have a manager like Bob Doyle, that’s a pretty good guy to have on your side…
Kimberly: Yeah…
Neil: He’s doing well…
Matt: You know, I heard this rumor that he works with a little known artist named Garth Brooks…
Kimberly: I heard a rumor, I uh…(laughing)
Matt: Yeah helped make that guy something didn’t he…
Kimberly: (laughs) Yeah, But you know what I love about Bob, he’s so unassuming and the reason we were so drawn to him, between his management and publishing company is his knack for embracing and nurturing new and young talent and young writers and passing on the music business wisdom he’s collected over the years. He’s wonderful to work with and be around.
Matt: Your first single is currently on the charts. What can you tell me about “Hip To My Heart?”
Kimberly: Well, it was actually in the last batch of songs that we wrote for the album and it’s definitely the lightest lyric that we have. We felt like the fact that we’re 19, 21 and 26 years old that it was a good and energetic way to introduce ourselves to country music. It’s our smile song and with the weather warming up it’s definitely having an impact on it as the season because it sounds like the kind of song that you roll down your windows to. It was a great choice for the first single.
Matt: Do you have a second single picked out yet? If so, what can you tell us about it?
Kimberly: We are excited for listeners to hear deeper cuts on the album and the second single, when we finish with “Hip,” will be “If I Die Young.” It was the very first song we had for the project and ended up writing the rest of the album around it. And I think the nature of the two producers we had, Paul Worley and Nathan Chapman behind us, including our three hearts as writers and artists, there is so many layers and so much variety to the music that I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.
Matt: It’s done quite well for a new band on a new label, was it surprising to see the song do so well so soon?
Reid: Everybody has worked real hard and it is a new label but Jimmy Harnen has worked so hard to get the song heard.
Kimberly: Jimmy is the quintessential promotional guy as well and I think that feature of him as a label president is that he and Scott are such great forces with radio really energized the son and there is a strong regional radio promo team behind us and by getting out and meeting the folks at radio since October of 2009, we’ve been very lucky to have them get behind the three of us and our song too and allowing fans to get to know the song as well.
Matt: That’s a huge thing too, getting out and meeting the folks at radio and Gretchen Wilson talked about how she missed that opportunity. So the radio tour’s impact cannot be underestimated.
Kimberly: Yeah, we’re excited and humbled to be a part of that process and are thankful that the more they feature the song, the more the fans want to hear it. It’s a blessing.
Matt: You have a new EP out. What can you tell us about the Band Perry EP? How is it similar or different from “Hip?” 
Kimberly: Well, it’s on iTunes now and I think that within the five songs we are releasing there’s a great example of that different variety and layers in the songs that I was talking about, particularly with the first track being “Hip To My Heart” and then the second track being “If I Die Young.” It’s so exciting for folks to hear that and for them to get to know us deeper than ‘just’ the single and we’re excited to share are hearts contemplations in these tracks.
Matt: How does the music on the EP separate The Band Perry from all the other new music that’s coming out?
Kimberly: That’s a great question! We have two ways we like to describe our music. We’re a modern throwback. The boys and I are huge fans and students of old country music and we grew up with our mom playing Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, she was the old country music fan. At the same time we grew up with our father who is an old rock-n-roller who loved music like the Stones and we pulled from all of that music when writing and creating music in the studio but again it’s 2010 so we mixed in some modern sounds with…
Neil: the classic country music…
Kimberly: …a modern spin of what we love about the classics along with newer sounds and hopefully they’ll find that in our sound.
Matt: You know that’s exactly why I have been behind artists like The Band Perry and stood-up for you when some people I know didn’t like your single and thought you weren’t country…
Kimberly: Thank you! You know it’s funny because the definition of country music has changed and it’s a loose, big definition these days and if Springsteen, Petty and John Mellencamp came out these days they’d have to come out in country music because that’s just where the heart of singer/songwriters is and Darius Rucker is a perfect example of this as well. He always had that country heart, even when he was writing for Hootie and The Blowfish, his songs had a country songwriting sensibility.
Even our flair for fashion has been challenged by some folks with them saying “they’re not country, country is wranglers and cowboy hats and that’s definitely a country style too but were’ big students of the days when Nudie Suits were in style as well. In fact when you walk into the Porter Wagoner dressing room at the Opry, it’s one of the most flamboyant rooms…
Reid: You see a big purple leather couch…
Kimberly: And you see purple boots with rhinestones and that’s part of what we love about old country as well, their flare for drama with fashion and we’re hoping to bring some of that back as well. I think sometimes we need to remember where we come from and I hope that if people think about our music for a second, they’ll hear that it’s definitely country music and the Boys and I grew up loving it and hope to bring our stamp to modern country music.
Matt: How has the internet helped you as you launch your career?
Kimberly: You know the coolest thing that has happened is the ability to keep in touch with them and since we’ve gotten to a point on our radio tour to go play radio sponsored shows and playing for real, live listeners it’s been cool to have them hit up the twitter, the Facebook and MySpace pages and let us know what they’re liking and where in the country they’re listening…
Reid: It’s really fun, especially after we’ve played some shows for them to share the pictures of the show and meeting them directly after the shows and it’s really fun to talk with them.
Kimberly: I think it also helps you find your fanbase and for artists like us we get to learn our target demographic and that’s such a scientific phrase but for us it’s really about ‘who’s listening’ and who cares enough to listen to The Band Perry. So, that’s been really important and pivotal piece in figuring out who those folks out, thanks to social networking.
Matt: and in reality, it’s the new ‘fan club,’ if you will…
The Band Perry (all together): Absolutely!
Matt: What would you like to say to fans that may be learning about the Band Perry for the first time either through your hit single or this interview?
Kimberly: I hate to sound repetitive but I am so excited for fans get to dig into the EP and later this year the album because we really do have something for everybody…
Reid: songs for hopeless romantics…
Kimberly: those ballads, our –my – sassy girl side in songs like “Quttin’ You...”
Matt: Smile songs?
Kimberly: Yeah, songs like that and what I think are encouraging and hopeful songs like “If I Die Young.” So there’s a little something for everybody and we hope that it’s the soundtrack for somebody’s life this year and we can’t wait for people to discover songs that we’re so proud of in these songs that we’ve collected.
Matt: Great. That is all I have for today, thanks for talking with us today.
Neil & Reid: Goodbye.
Kimberly: It was great talking with you too, brother man.
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