Larkin Poe

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast. My guests today are Rebecca and Megan Level of Larkin Poe. Good to have you on the podcast. I got to ask the obvious question, the name Larkin Poe, where does it come from?

So Larkin Poe is the name of our great great great great grandfather, and since we're sisters, we wanted to take on a name that has family significance, so we thought his name was really cool. And he's also a cousin of Edgar Allen Poe, so we'll take that distant connection.

Well, let's start at the beginning. Did you grow up with this legend of Lark and Poe?

We did, actually, I think coming from a Southern family, there's a lot of stories that are passed around, so I remember as children hearing a lot of stories from our aunts and uncles about their father, their grandfather, their great grace all the way up. But to be honest with you, we didn't actually know about the Edgar Allen Poe connection until we were already in our teens and had read a lot of Eggar Allan Poe, and so we were especially titillated by the connection.

Based on the fact that we were fans.

So how did you find out the connection?

Yeah, through a cousin, Linda Sinka.

She's the family genealogist, and so she just sixth and time and mapped out the family tree.

Okay, so you had a group with your sister, the Lovell Sisters, and then you started your own act Blues Rock. Was Larkin Poe like the first name or did you go through like twenty five names and decided on Lark and Poe?

You know, I think that we committed pretty quickly.

We knew we wanted to have like a family name, so that definitely narrowed the herd. But we definitely didn't premeditate the fact that it would be so hard for people to pronounce. Like running joke is you know which one's Larkin, which one's.

Poe or Larkin and Po.

We've actually rolled up to the theaters before and had our name on the marquee as Larkin and Po. And it's like, at what point did you or did you not read the contract, mister promoter.

The other two members of the band on stage, are they full fledged members of Larkin Poe?

No, Larkin Poe is Rebecca and I from the ground up, and we have always hired members to come along with us, and it's normally always been a pretty stripped back operation, like on stage where lean mean rock and roll machine, you know, just the four of us. So we've got drums and bass that come along.

Okay, Well, how long has the members been with you now and what's the turnover?

Like?

You know, up until this last year, we had a six year stand of the same musicians. So our bass player Arka Layman, he's been with us now for about six years. And the drummer Ben Satterly, that was only I guess the show that you came and saw us perform in Los Angeles, that was his tenth or eleventh show. So he's the newest member to the outfit and he is just showing up like a powerhouse.

Yeah, he was great. It is great. How did you find him?

We held some auditions.

Actually, we decided we wanted to make a change, and being in Nashville, you know, there is such a community of incredible musicians here in town. So we just sort of sent out a call to some friends and friends of friends and friends of friends of friends.

And he was actually the first guy.

We had two days set aside to run through with a bunch of different musicians and just learned three songs, and he was number one of day, number one, and so he set the bar incredibly high for everybody else.

Okay, we had the carl She'll say that Brandy Carlyle is basically herself in the Two Twins. So is this a democracy amongst the four or the two of you? Very definitely the bosses.

I gotta say we are the bosses. Yeah. The two of us have a very strong idea of what we want to do and what we want to say with our music and where we want to get to. And the way that we have accomplished that is by being very set in ourselves, like we you know, produce ourselves and we run our own record label, and that's worked very well. It makes who we are very distilled.

Granted that that hasn't always been the case. I think, you know, the fact that we do feel so self reliant at this point and feel confidently self reliant is the fact that we did go through periods of time in our late teens, you know, early twenties where we would get in the studio with producers and I think being chameleon musicians, having grown up being side guys and other artists endeavors, we know how to, yeah, we know

Well, that raises the question, what is it like being a woman in rock and roll music, which is very heavily male dominated.

I don't think that we're alone in our experience of certainly getting misjudged. I think we over the years would oftentimes roll up and be the only female artist on a festival bill, and so it was a little bit isolating and a little bit exhausting sometimes to have to explain yourself to people that you know, no, we're not the girl friends where the front men, and it's okay, we know how to tune our guitars and all of

Okay, but to what degree if you had me too moments?

You know, we've I think that we've been very fortunate, and I actually I really love to hear your feedback to this as well, But we have been incredibly fortunate to work with a lot of really respectful and supportive men. I mean, over the years, getting hired into bands, you know, and having a lot of faith creatively placed in us, and having everything feel very approbate, and so I think that we we certainly have had a pretty positive experience all told.

What do you think that?

Not that we haven't had moments, but I think that we've always been of a mindset of moving forward. So even if there have been moments that we could have called people out, I think that we've tended to just be like, you know what, we are not defined by what the people around us think, and so therefore we're just gonna just gonna kind of power on and whatever success. We find it's kind of defined by by ourselves and and yeah, just kind of moving through it.

Yeah, and strengthen numbers too.

I feel really lucky that my sister and I have been able to move through this many years. I mean, at this at this point, what we just talied up. This is our eighteenth year of touring, and I haven't never gone anywhere without you.

Like, we're definitely a package deal.

So I think to be able to have someone who explicitly and implicitly has as you're back at every turn that has that has really kept us in a great position.

So we're fortunate.

And what about fans. Have you had any rabid fans who crossed the line?

Oh, definitely, and that I think again, as Megan said, you know, you got to be willing to move forward because one thing that we refuse to have happen is to have our sense of faith and humanity removed. Because yeah, you can have run ins with bad eggs, certainly, and we've had stalkers, We've had people invade our privacy at our homes. We had to get security systems, we have to put up gates, and that can be demoralizing. But also you know, it's funny. I find it a similar,

What is what is wrong with Me?

And one evening, Megan we were on the bus and she came to me and she's like, you know, but you're never keeping track of how many words.

You get right. Every night.

You get literally like ninety eight percent of the show correct with your lyrics, So why are you focusing Why are you dwelling on that small percentage that didn't fire correctly? And I think that for us, we've chosen to dwell on the fans that we do have, that are so wholesome and so pure and so supportive, and that I think again has served us as well. You know, we're eighteen years in and still a little like, I don't think we're quite jaded.

So that's great.

Okay, let's go back to the beginning. You grow up in Georgia, in Calhoun or a smaller birg where in Georgia.

We grew up in Calhoun, Georgia, and we grew up out in the sticks on seventy acres of land. Our parents real do it yourselfers. They built their own house out in the country. So we had a pretty idyllic childhood and that we were. We were definitely tomboys and had a lot of space and time to follow our passions,

Okay, yeah, okay, let's not Let's slow down a little bit. So were your parents hippies? Why did they live on seventy acres of land or what kind of background did they come from?

There? They are very unique. Our parents are actually both in the.

Medical field, but they were very counterculture, very hippy ast hip. Oh actually, I don't think this is a word, but I'm excited to say it if I can get it out right.

Hippy ish stick, hippie ish tick.

I don't think you'd have the I think just hippiistic would be good enough.

The hippiistic dig it.

So they actually, yeah, they lived on seventy acres.

They even before YouTube.

They would go to the library and like borrow friggin books on how to build a home.

And they homeschooled us as well.

So they had some really out there ideas for the early nineties, that's for sure.

And how did they meet.

They met on the campus of their college in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

And were they from Georgia? Were they from Tennessee? Where were their roots?

Yeah, our mothers from East Tennessee.

So she's right kind of at the in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, the stomping grounds of Dolly Parton. And her name, honest to God, is Teresa Joe Lean, which is like the most classic Southern bell name. Love it East Tennessee girl. And our dad is originally from Atlanta. And so they were both sent to school by their families on a conservative college campus just outside Chattanooga. And yeah, they they hit it off and and and we're lucky that they did.

When you say conservative college, is that something you grew up with? Some sort of conservative background.

They both came from a conservative background, but they did not raise us that way. I think at the time they were kind of coming to terms with the idea of religion and where they're where they would sit in their own faith, and so they gave us the option to go to church, to be involved if we wanted to, But it was never something that that that we were forced into and it was never really a part of our childhood.

Okay, how many kids in the family.

Three of us girls at the outset, and then like eleven twelve years behind was our little brother.

So what's up with your little brother?

That is a very good question, Bob, That is a very good question.

I think that he's finding his way.

And as you can imagine, you know, having such a young sibling with three elder sisters, because it's Megan and myself and our eldest sister, Jessica, So he had three little mothers in addition to his mother that are always in orbit around this young man. And we're definitely we're trying to coach ourselves on how to be gloves off, you know, let him figure out his own way.

We can't solve his problems for him. As much as we wish that we could.

Okay, do you take him on the road.

You know, it's funny. He actually toured with us way back.

When when he was a baby.

Yeah, like strapped into the car seat and we'd be out in the fifteen passenger van, which is the vehicle that we learned to drive in. We as a band, we bought a fIF We put some money away and we bought a fifteen passenger van and he would go into the car seat. And I think he was about four years old, and he came to the family and he informed our mother that he was in fact allergic to Level Sisters tours and he couldn't participate anymore.

So he's a real homebody. I think we kind of burn him out as a baby.

I feel bad about that.

Okay, you say your parents are in the medical field, a little bit more specifically, what do they do?

So our father was a pathologist and our mother was a physical therapist.

And so your father was an MD. Okay, so you're growing up on seventy acres, how far from civilization.

We could drive about fifteen minutes and get to a Walmart, so not too Yeah.

But you didn't drive when you were a little kid, So how far are your neighbor's house to the et cetera.

Yeah, it was a mile down the driveway to get to the double wide across the street. And we didn't have any neighbors really, not especially not any neighbors with kids.

So that's I think.

Also an interesting dynamic is the fact that not only are we sisters and creative.

Collaborators, but we really are each other's best friends. Like since the.

Jump, Okay, so you're growing up, I mean, are you having friends over or is it just the three of you?

Interestingly enough, I think it's I think it's safe to say it was fairly isolated, and whenever we started to to get heavier into the music, I think that that was always the big basis for our relationships. So we would go out and have homeschool harmony groups that we took part in and had some really incredible experiences in

The performances.

Okay, so you were homeschooled. Now you're old enough to look back. Thumbs up or thumbs down on homeschooling.

In our case, thumbs up because we had a very special situation I think where we were in a rural county where there weren't many options for good schools, and so our parents just they just wanted us to have the opportunity to be able to move at our own pace, and we were able to move through our school school work fairly, click quickly, and that allowed us to be able to do something like music, and then allowed us the space to be able to tour and take our

Okay, your parents are highly educated. What they say about the three of you in.

College, I think they never would have anticipated.

I think, especially from our dad's perspective, since he was one of the first in his family to ever go to college and to have higher education.

The fact that we took a little bit.

Of a regressionary move backwards and not going to college.

I think that was disappointing.

But also I think he sees our passion for what we do, and he's incredibly proud, so both of our parents, I think, even though it took them a while to fully get on board. I mean, I think the biggest mantra that we heard in our childhood and teens whenever we were like starting to tour more aggressively, was don't put all your eggs in one basket.

This is not your job. This is your hobby.

This is your hobby, like underlined, italicized and boldened.

This is your hobby.

But then I think, you know, with time, they saw the flexibility, they saw our dedication and the fact that you know, we've been crafty, we've been what is it gentle as doves, but you know, wise as boxes when it relates to our business and to being able to build a situation that is fulfilling to us, to really have our passion be our work.

Okay, so you talk about this classical training, what was it exactly?

Suzuki method?

Okay for violin, give me a little bit more.

Yeah, we went to lessons once a week.

Well, I guess technically twice a week, once to piano and one once to violin every week.

And we didn't love it.

I mean I remember, yeah, Mom having to like chase us around the piano to get assist at that in practice, So we certainly didn't didn't love it.

So we started ages three and four years old, and you know, we took took lessons for many years, and then once we were proficient enough, we were able to take part in symphonies, which you know, some some colleges will allow younger folks to come in and join and as long as you can pass an audition process, and we did so we were a part of part of their like junior symphonies.

M hm, at what age.

That was probably age.

Ten, yeah, ten, eleven, twelve, Yeah, they'reabouts.

And how much performance was there with a junior symphony?

You know, there was actually quite a bit.

I mean it kept us really busy, you know, in terms of lessons in orchestra and performances, probably what two to three days, three days a week on average.

Okay, you're both very proficient with the guitar. When did you start playing the guitar?

That would have been right about fourteen fifteen years old. So of course, like you know, we really we defined ourselves as musicians because of our love of our involvement in the whole classical scene. But it wasn't really like a joy I remember getting like like throw up sick for recitals and stuff like that.

It just yeah, it was.

It was definitely something that like we were doing because our parents told us to. But then we went to a bluegrass festival with some family friends when we were right there at the cuss fourteen fifteen years old, and we were mind blown. We thought it was so interesting that there were people up on stage that were jamming, that they didn't have sheet music on stage, and the authenticity and the and the spontaneity and like the cross section of singing and playing it just I think, really

Okay, so you pick up guitar and doughbro. How long after that does it become an act? We were performing live.

Really pretty quick.

Yeah, yeah, within a matter of months.

There's actually some really crappy vhs of our first performance ever as the Level sisters and so Jessica, our eldest sister, was still on violin. Megan, you were playing the doughbro and I was playing mandolin and banjo, and we had to sheet music on stage because we still were like struggling to make that leap. And really, I think that that leap from the classical methodology of reading everything off the page and then transitioning into a completely different perspective

Two thousand and five was the first year we toured.

Okay, so you go on the road, how does that even come together? You decide you want to play live and it's a thing. I mean, that's not what your parents did. Where did the drive come from? And how did you put the steps together?

So probably the same family friends that took us to morrole fests suggested that we submit a demo to Garrison Keeler's A Prairie Home Companion teen talent competition that he had going on air, and so we did. We kind of put together some some music and sent it in and we were selected as one of the competitors for the show. And because we played on that show and this was one of our first gigs ever and there

And how did you get an agent? Did you your parents? The managers? What was your organization? Like?

You know, we had we had folks approach us, and we were so green, we didn't we didn't we didn't know anything about anything. So we actually, you know, after our performance on the Talent Competition and winning, we actually had some agents approach us and present us with you know,

We just sort of were rolling with it, and a lot less our parents.

I know, they were they were very supportive in those early days, and a lot of this we have to lay at the feet of our older sister, who is very driven in and smart, and she at the time would have been eighteen or nineteen and just very precocious and able to guide us through making the decision on some of these things like getting a manager, getting a booking agent, and putting tours together, and she would do

At what point did your parents stop coming?

Probably what after the first year or two? Yeah, that's fair to say.

I think, yeah, you know, Anna's blurry on it, on it all.

Yeah, it's a little challenging to remember. But certainly by the time that we were doing Larkin Post stuff and we started Larkin Poe in twenty ten, they had completely phased out.

Yeah, because because little brother was allergic to it.

Okay, So for those who don't know, and you're so young, how old were you when you started Larkin poem?

Oh god, what would that make us? Let's see thirteen years ago. We're right about eighteen nineteen twenty thereabouts.

Okay, teenagers rebell. So what was it like being on the road without your parents?

We were very I mean you may not be able to tell in speaking to us, but uh, we're pretty like, I don't know, workman like. I think that we've always had a passion for getting on stage and delivering good shows. So like, we never have had any shows where we have been compromised or like drunk or anything like that because the music has always been at the center. Oh so I think especially for me as well, like being a vocalist and losing my voice somewhat easily.

I've never been a partier.

Okay, only one hour on stage and they're certain about it. Travel. What are you doing with all the other hours?

We're sight seeing, we're reading, we're doing yoga in the dressing room. Like Megan's doing her crosswords, just memo and mema out on the road.

Eh, her prop work? What is that?

Oh? Crosswords? I love the New York Times crossword puzzle.

Oh the crossword? So how good are you? Can you complete the Saturday Crossword? No problem?

You know I can complete the Saturday with effort. But I can certainly get through Thursday, no problem.

And then what about wordle? Are you addicted to that too?

Oh? I love it?

Megan's a freaking wordle.

I really love wordle too. Yeah.

Which, actually, let me ask you a question, did you this is going to air, so we're not going to spoil anyone's day later?

Did you do today's crossword or wordle? Excuse me?

I haven't at least the word Oh, I'd have to look.

I believe it was pinky. Pinky, which is actually the name. I know what this is not. This is not you know a lot of people refer to their instruments as the color of their instrument with a y on the end. But my husband actually has a signature custom shop with Fender that is called Pinky, and someone sent him a screenshot of today's wordle and it was pinky.

Anyway, Sorry, quick aside.

Okay, but the dynamic, you know, I have a sister, I'm the middle between two sisters, and one of my sisters is very into birth order. So Rebecca, you're the baby. Jessica was the oldest meggat's in between. How did it all play out?

Huh?

I think.

Those dynamics, those sibling dynamics came into a play a lot more when we were the level sisters because it was the trio of sisters and that was that could be fraught at times and the birth order thing it played out for us for sure.

Yeah, she's being really polite.

We used to have some knockdown drag outs when it was the three of us because there definitely was a lot of ganging up and that wasn't healthy, And that is ultimately why we decided to part ways, because we do I think, above all else, we cherish our relationships as sisters, and we were destroying our relationships between the three of us. So ultimately, the fact that Jessica decided to step back was incredibly courageous on her part. One. I think that she knew that her heart wasn't in it,

But I think it was always clear that Rebecca and I were going to do something together because from the ground up it's always been and the two of us always projecting together and running off in the woods together, and there would just never be a moment we weren't together. So I think that that was it was just very clear who the package deal was.

Okay, Jessica says, she's out. What do you feel? How do you take that?

You know?

I chalk it up a lot to the fact that we were so so preciously young and ignorant, and we took maybe maybe like twenty days, and really we searched our souls and we dug deep, and we asked the real questions, and we decided that we were going to soldier on man.

We were going to start again.

But it was like losing the third leg of a chair, and you know, are we going to fall over? I mean, like I mentioned before, she was handling a lot at the business side of our venture, and so it was very scary for us to as teenagers suddenly this whole business was kind of dropped in our laps, and we didn't quite know what to do with it at first, but we did. We've really loved to play music together, and so it seemed it seemed right to us to

Sort of bless us.

Okay, but Lark and Pull was a change in musical style. How did that come about?

Well, again, I think, like Megan says, you know, there was a lot of fear I think at the outset, because we were feeling like, okay, we're either going to think or we're going to swim. But instinctually, we've always, I think had a really strong sense of gut, whether or not we've paid attention to it. But early on we instinctually knew that we wanted to have a big creative turnover. So in our first year of being a band, we actually ended up deciding and committing and executing a

We had.

We just made so much music and that really gave us the opportunity to experiment and to try to channel some of the sounds that we had grew up listening to, like we we love the Allman Brothers, we love the blues, we love you know, the source music of America. But we didn't know how to how to make it happen because we were so you know, intertwined with the acoustic elements we had. We had previously as the Level Sister

Amplifier, begging you were going to say something.

I think that we knew there was more to us than just the bluegrass side of our hearts, even though we loved it, we were hearing so much more in our heads that we that we wanted to accomplish, and I think that we wanted to be able to move people. We wanted to be louder and fill more space.

Okay, when you were the Level Sisters, were you making any money?

Mm hmm. We did. We did a lot as the as the Level Sisters. We played on the Grand Ole Lobbry, we played at Bonaru, we did a lot of touring and yeah, in theaters and.

With solid guarantees, which and that I think is the defining factor for where we currently sit is by you know, the fortuitous nature of our introduction into the music scene. We honestly were able to sock aside some money in order to start playing with.

The idea of.

Independently financing our recording process. And it's so funny because I think at the time we didn't understand the ramification.

You know, as the Level Sisters.

We were approached by a bunch of major record labels who were very excited, you know, that we were going to be the next chicks. We were going to be the next Sha Daisy, and that never sat well with the three of us girls. You know, we spent a lot of time in Nashville, probably like two and a half years into the Level Sisters just toying with the idea of going more the mainstream route.

And we did sign to to Lyric Street Records in the beginning and got a little bit down the road with them towards writing for a record, and very clear they didn't want to They wanted to have songwriters write for us instead of us writing our own music, and that didn't sit well with us, and so they very graciously let us out of the deal. They were like, we understand this is you know, you guys are understanding now that that this is maybe not the path you're

Mm hmm, okay. So you're touring as the Level Sisters, You're doing a lot of dates. What are you doing with the money you make?

We're putting it away.

And also we're again I just have to tip my hat to our big siss because she's she's such a visionary individual and she was, you know, she was figuring out how to rent venues, sort of the whole Joe Bonamasa model of like sort of being your own promoter.

Let's just try it. Let's see what happens.

So we were using our money to further you know, in ways that felt authentic to us, like what we believed in really trying to bet on ourselves and putting the money into buying more merch and like you know, drawing out our own T shirt designs and putting it on a T shirt like hey, you know, we see a lot of children at the shows, Let's get children's merch rock And we had baby onesies like you know, just just having fun with with sort of embodying the whole small business mentality.

Okay, when it becomes Lark and Poe, do you throw all that aside? And is it more traditional?

No? We we we continued with the model. And and also I think that that's one.

Thing that I can find, you know, very refreshing about our experience is that once you get a taste for freedom as an artist, Once you're able to honestly do whatever you want to do and and be able to seek and feel connection to people, it's really hard to give that up. So even though you know, we're not the biggest band in the world, we are free to do what we want to do. We have a very small and loyal contingency of fans that will support us,

Okay, you know, this is a very interesting question. Even at this late date where your direction is more defined, one could be a prisoner of one's fans and as you're changing, people don't like change. How did you cope with that?

I think that we are very lucky in our fan base now because we have forced them to change with us, and the people who didn't like what we were changing into fell by the wayside, And what we're left with are people who are saying, we believe in you and what you want to put forward, and as long as you are authentic, I'm along for the ride. So I think that we just power powered on through no matter

Okay, let's talk about learning and playing the instruments. So you go to Merlefest, Megan, and you want to play doughbro? Is that there's no other choice? You go right to the dough bro And how do you learn?

So I, at the same time as picking up doughbro, I tried to play guitar and mandolin and banjo. And me and Fretz we don't really we don't really go together. And I was very lucky to have found a doughbro player in Chattanooga, because really they are very far few and far between, and especially teachers of the doughbro. And there was a dobro player, Lou Womp in Chattanooga, who's a fantastic player, and he kind of got me started

Okay, you know, it looks like an impossible instrument from one who doesn't play it. You know, how hard is it to play the dobro to learn, et cetera.

I would say it's one of those instrument where you can kind of sit down in front of it and you can you can make sounds, but very difficult to master the instrument, very very awkward to get past that original hump of learning.

And this is Rebecca cutting in as a failed dobro player. I can attest it is she is under selling it. It is so awful. The dobro is like I mean, I don't say that I want more people to pick it up, No, but there is a difference. Like I can play, you know, I play guitar, and so playing slide even on like a traditionally held guitar, it's uncomfortable, but there is like a sense of familiarity when you're

It's all through. It's awful. I'm to be honest with you.

I watch her every night on stage, and I'm sort of baffled by the fact that you make it look so easy and that you really persevered and for whatever reason, it was in your genetic makeup to like get into it and stick with it.

But it's so awkward, so terrible.

So when did you and how did you decide to play standing up as opposed to sitting down.

Well, I watched Jerry Douglas stand and play with the doughbro, and so I did learn standing up for the dough bro. But what was instrument interesting transferring from the doughbro to the lap steel, which I guess you could really say the lap steel is the electrified version of the dobro, and I when we became Lark and Poe and plugged in, I really wanted to be electrified and I wanted to be just as loud as Rebecca on the electric guitar. So the lap steel was just an obvious choice for me.

So how hard is it? I mean, because not only is it around your neck, it has to balance at a certain angle.

I think it's taken many years for me to get to the place where I am, but I think that especially now that I that I have the rig where I'm comfortable standing, I think that more people could stand and play it because there's now equipment to be able to stand and play. It's just simply because the equipment wasn't around at the time for me to be able to stand and play.

But that's like a little bit ridiculous for you to say, because the equipment's not around. The equipment is now here. Also because like you literally built I don't know if you know this, Bob, but she has her own signature guitar that she has funded herself, that she creatively figured out how.

To make it.

She worked with an incredible luth or, Paul Beard, to bring it into the world and to work with Jason with Jason is it Jason Lawler with Lawler Pickups to like bring to Now they're actually making lap stials that are more akin to the Rickenbacker, but in a new shape that is that is engineered for standing.

Well, that's what I mean. At the time, there wasn't any equipment for me to be able to stand in place, so it wasn't a comfortable thing to do at first. But now there's a lot more talk about it, and there's instruments now available, my mind being the one that's available, but it's now available for people to be able to do it more comfortably.

Necessity is the level.

Okay, is this a business or a hobby your.

Yeah, it's it's out there. It's an electro liege is the name of the instrument. It's available for people to purchase. Yeah, I'm very very proud. Me and Paul Beard, who's an incredible luthier. We put a lot of time and energy into designing a really incredible lap steal that's meant for touring.

And how many can you sell it a year?

I have, It hasn't been out a year yet, so I will. I'll have to let you know when a year comes. It's it's been around since November.

Okay. And do you buy it online? Do you buy the retail stories, you buy the guitar center? You buy it everywhere?

Right now, it's just available on our website electroligh dot com. And I mean, I hope at some point we could partner with like a guitar center to get it out there and more available to people to pick up.

Let's say I buy it since it's online and I don't like it, can I return it?

I've never had anyone ask, so yeah, I'd probably take it back if you didn't like it. I want, I want people to be happy with what they've what they've bought, but I have not had any dissatisfied customers as of yet.

Okay, now, Rebecca, you know, tell us a little bit more what your first guitar is and how much practice you had to put in to become proficient.

Yeah, so transitioning from the violin, I actually picked up the mandolin first, which was a little bit of like a cheapskate because the mandolin is tuned the same as the violin, so very quickly I was able to get proficient on the mandolin and selfless plug. I guess it was like what twenty fifteen or something. We went to meal Fest and I was the first and only girl at that point in time to have won the mandolin competition, which was like an international thing.

Because it was judged blind. So that was really a really cool moment for that competition.

Yeah, to finally have a girl get up there, which now it's like, man, there's so many women out there who kick my ass. But so I think playing the mandolin got me more comfortable with playing a pick, but it still cemented me in the mentality of like being tuned in fifths since it's just like a violin. So I always played acoustic guitar, but I was very limited to you know, just GC and D like bluegrass rhythm guitar, and I never really had aspirations to play lead.

But the deeper that we.

Got into the level Sisters and especially early Lark and Poe, when I was having a call to write songs, I really couldn't effectively write on the mandolin. So I started to lean more under the guitar because I guess I knew less about it, and so it was more of an impersonal experience where I wasn't focused about like playing a hot lick or something on the guitar. It was more about letting it facilitate me bringing a song.

Into the world.

And honestly, at the the guitar just kind of sat there as like a songwriting tool for me for five or six years, and it wasn't until honestly, probably about they five or six years ago, six or seven years ago tops, where I really wanted to become a good guitar player. And that was really challenging because when I think, the older that you get, it's like hard to be

And it's been really gratifying.

It's it's been a slow burn, but a very gratifying burn for me as a guitarist.

So you're totally self taught.

On the guitar, yes, I mean, I mean I'm a YouTube baby as well, though, So I do feel like you know the amount of content that is available for free, that so many incredible music since release. Yeah, like sitting and watching so much on YouTube has been super helpful for me.

And how many guitars do you own?

I own in my touring rotation, I tour with about three or four, but all told, I have maybe six or seven lectric guitars. But I live in a house where because my husband is also a guitarist and he is a materialist in every sense of the word. There we are now at about ninety seven guitars in this house.

Okay, since you keep bringing him up, tell us who your husband is and how you met him.

His name's Tyler Bryant and he is a Texas musician. He has a band called The Shakedown and we were introduced through a producer in town. Yeah, it's hard not to bring him up because I do feel like a lot of my interest in becoming a good guitar player is also bright proximity because he's such an effortless player and to be around like everybody in the family, and to be the only player that's not like up to snuff because Megan is an exceptional improviser, Like you're definitely

Okay, So how did you meet your husband, Megan?

So, Mike Seal played in Larkin Poe in our first year of touring. So he he was a guitar player who joined joined us for the first eight months or so, mm hmm, yeah, okay.

You know you're touring musicians. I think it was Metallica was on the road for a long time. They came home, all of them got divorced. This is decades ago. Okay. How do you keep a relationship going when you're on the road and they're on the road, et cetera.

A lot of dedication and communication. It's it's not easy, for sure, and there have been years when we just haven't seen each other a whole lot. Like the it's it's the worst when the tours don't line up. If you're home and then they're gone and then you reverse. It can be really really heartbreaking. But we always, you know, we always just have been super committed to making it work.

Yeah.

I do think it's actually, somewhat unexpectedly been a great saving grace to be able to have so much of a shared experience, because I do think it's very easy to have a highly romanticized mental image of what touring is like. Only in the last two years have we actually been able to finally go out on bus tours. Previously we were, you know, fifteen people in a fifteen passenger van with the van and trailer and you're waking up at six am and driving until three am, and

It's not what people anticipate.

So I think the fact that you know, Meghan and Tyler and Mike and I, that we all have that shared sense of okay, like you're not out there like snorting cocaine off someone's hu haas Like, no, you're just you're out there counting merchandise.

Like I understand, and I trust what you're.

Doing, and and hey, I get what you're going through.

That that really does help you, like stay.

In sync with somebody, stay step to step even when you're miles apart.

How about the temptations of the road. You can talk about drugs, there's article, there's women, and you ever, in the back of your mind say well, I'm not seeing and most people live in all the time with their spouse and just just let your mind run wild.

Well, Tyler and I've been we've been together now since what twenty fifteen, and we met when we were both twenty I guess we were twenty five when we met, something like that.

And I think.

Especially early on, there there was a lot of concern. I think a lot of insecurity that existed that would that would allow your.

Your insecurities to run away with you, for sure.

But also I think acceptance is key too, Like, you know, I know my values and I know that I married Tyler for his values. So you know, if ever he wanted to make a change, I think I'm pretty sure we'd both be man enough to like come to each other and end things appropriately. I just I just don't really sense that there's ever been a thread in our relationship that would want to create drama and or betrayal.

In that way.

I think we've both had people step out and be shitty to us such that we would never want to do that, that we care enough and respect each other enough to not want to do that. But again, Bob, like hey, never say never.

But also I think that we throughout the years have come to really value the feeling of having your family on the road, and it's the kind of atmosphere you can manifest. And we are the leaders of our organization and we can set the tone for what it's going to be like for the people who are working for us and touring with us, and what we want that environment to be is kind. And you can really struggle

Okay, you mentioned mental health. To what degree has you had challenges?

I have had quite a lot of challenges over the past couple of years, and I think the pandemic has had has brought it on for a lot of artists. And I think it's because people are constantly grinding. And I can say that for us for sure, grinding and grinding and grinding for many years, and you don't sometimes have a moment to stop and reflect. And the pandemic I think, really forced a lot of us to stop and reflect. And I think that that was challenging in

Now, did you see it professional to help you get over the home?

I did go to therapy, Yeah, and I did go I went to the doctor to try and figure out what I what I needed to do because I was. I was really blown away by it, absolutely and helped a lot having having Rebecca because she's just has my back and every way and so so supportive and came through it. You know, you just kind of have to go through things and believe that you're going to come out the other side. And I and I really did, and I and I believed that I was going to come through it, and I did.

How about medication.

I have had a lot of family members who have dealt with this before, so it was something that I feel lucky and very privileged to have watched other people go through. So I kind of knew when I was starting to experience the anxiety disorder. I knew what was happening to me, so I knew who to go and talk to, and the family that had experienced it suggested that I try and at least try to do to try to come through it without medication.

First.

I think there is a place certainly for medication, but they suggested that I try without first, just to see where I sat, and I'm glad for that because I was able to come through without.

Okay, people have no idea how difficult it is to go on the road. You know, they see somebody an hour and a half on stage. They don't know that they're in close contact, traveling with the same people every day. They get on their nerves, you get off stage, takes hours to calm down, which is why a lot of artists take drugs, because the cycle goes day day and how do you cope with the stress.

Of the road.

I think it's something that we still engage with or try new things because you're You're exactly right, it is. It is a very tough experience, and I think especially as well, when a lot of the conversations you have with people about the touring lifestyle is this overwhelming narrative of you.

Guys are so lucky.

It's you're seeing the world and like, you guys are just always on vacation, aren't you. And so then you can also build up this this callous against realistically looking at your situation where it's like you feel, oh, I'm so blessed, like I shouldn't I don't even I shouldn't want. I shouldn't engage with the fact that I'm really uncomfortable and sleep deprived and missing my family and very very homesick and just craving like to be in one place

To survive, but educating yourself, medicating yourself.

Right, yeah, which which again I think in terms of like the culture of our band, that's just never been such a huge thing for us, which I it's just by happenstance, and I feel very fortunate that we actually together as a team, haven't had issues with substance or alcoholism.

And but that's just that's not a credit to us. That's just circumstantial, I think.

But I think being able to be together and to communicate a lot, the fact that we go through things together and we are constantly working on our relationship real time, because as you can imagine, everything that you just described is at times amped up to like the nth degree when you're experiencing those stressors, the isolation, the you know, the exhaustion, the monotony, the fast paced nature with a sibling, and and you're like trying to have that balance of

It's hard.

It's actually, as I'm saying it, like do you know where I'm coming from, But it's a little bit hard to describe.

Yeah, yeah, I do. I think. I think having having someone by your side who who keeps it real with you and you experience the highs and the lows together, it's not something I take for granted. And then like you're saying, not squashing the emotions that you're feeling, but at the same time also feeling overwhelmed, overwhelmingly grateful for

Yeah, Because I mean, we can either we can either come to the world with a nihilistic perspective, right of ah, God, you know, the bloody Gospel of tooth and claw and we all die and like.

Why are we here?

And I struggle with myself right right, which is which is a very real perspective, and I think that it's staying within that groove, that groove of the needle. You can go down the path of isolation and addiction, and God, I'm just so tired and we have you know, fifteen shows left, et cetera, et cetera. Or you can lean into the connection, you can focus on the positives. You can you can really, you know, look into someone's eyes and hear them say to you, your music got me

Okay, you mentioned earlier sight seeing and you mentioned again I know this guy who is the tour photographer for led Zeppelin, grant a completely different era film as opposed to digital, a lot more work, and he said, I've been around the world and seeing nothing. So to what degree how do you take advantage of the places that you do go.

We've been making an effort more so, and again I think it's it's such a luxury actually, because you know, for so many years toying in the van, we would, honest to god, roll up, you know, minutes before the gig and then immediately have to leave. But being able to make that leap into a tour bus has really changed our experience.

And you find those moments that you look forward to in those those little things. Like for us, it's very food based. We love to experience the culture of another city based on like their food and their coffee. So it's like we're always wanting to try out the different espressos of you know, all of these years in cities and they're different foods. So that that makes things exciting and fine little things that you can look forward to.

Yeah, go out in sight see.

Can you mention one or two restaurants that are your favorites?

Ooh, let me think one of my favorites in Paris is it's a restaurant that is all fire based.

They cook all of their.

Food over the open flame, and it's called Robert at Luis and that is in Paris.

That's one that comes to my mind.

There also is a department store in Tokyo at the Shibuyah crossing, that really famous crossing, and if you go down into the basement of that place, there's the most incredible sushi I've ever eaten in my life. Amen, So that's a that's a must.

Eat, Okay, And what particular cuisine is your face?

Ooh, I love Japanese and Korean food definitely my favorite.

Man, that's a good question, Proba. Probably probably sushi is my favorite. I have to say, well, nothing can rival some good southern cooking. There's a place here in Nashville. I think there's two locations in town called Monel's and it's like the whole family style eating where they bring out just whatever's on the menu. You don't order, they just bring everything out, and that that I do love.

You can't rival some fried okra.

Have you seen the film Jiro Dreams of Sushi?

Yes, amazing film.

I love that film.

Okay, let's go back. You know, I like to go to countries where they don't speak the language and it's really exotic. So where have you been that you really enjoy or where would you want to go that you have a bit?

Take it away, sissy one.

I really love Japan, so I probably would love to go back there on a on a vacation. But I would we we haven't gotten the opportunity to go to South America and I would really love love to go to South America and be able to tour down there some.

Yeah, I have to I would. I would align with that. Mm hmmm hmm.

Okay, you know the obvious question sort of the elephant in the room, and it sounds sort of sexist, but it's there.

What about children, Oh, we absolutely want to have children. And I do think that there's a lot of lip service for women in the music industry about trying to make touring, you know, more accessible for women. I have had so many conversations with so many different women on different tours who've had positive and negative experiences with being able to to continue to tour once you have babies. And logistically it sounds like a nightmare.

But is it possible? Yes? Are good things always easy?

No.

I think the fact that we are in a position of leadership in our organization, the fact that there are two of us and so we share similar goals that would absolutely be.

On the docket for sure.

Began it's I think it's one of those things that you will not know how you'll deal with it until you have to deal with it. But likes she's saying, I think that everything is possible. I think we have had the two of us move through a lot of difficult situations and we've always made it work. So I have every faith that we'll be able to move through whatever it is that we want to do. And we do want to have kids, and that will be part of it that we will absolutely figure out.

Okay, So if you look at your career, you have the Garrison Keeler moment, you have all these peaks, You win the award for mandolin at Ruralfest. Can you tell me about a couple of times where it didn't work out?

Oh?

Yeah, I mean I think, well, it's hard to even think about what year this would be.

It would be probably two thousand and maybe sixteen.

Well, we had two gigs on the calendar for Larkin Poe and we were struggling to make to like find traction, struggling to know what to do, and so much of our time was invested in going out and being musicians for Elvis Costello, being musicians for you know, Connor Oberst and Christian Bush and Keith Urban.

That you know.

There we were presented with the question, a very real question of like if we were going to continue. And also I think we were sort of at a rocky patch in our relationship with Sisters too.

We did some tours where we played to the bar staff didn't sell not even one ticket, and that is a humbling experience. And you still play the show and you give it.

You're all do you ever consider giving up?

Yeah? Definitely, Yeah.

I think in twenty sixteen, I'm pretty sure that's the year we were having very very serious conversations, which, interestingly enough, is like when I mean, we were at the bottom, like you couldn't get any lower. We weren't working under

Actually, we had felt like we had maybe gotten away a little bit from who we were. I think we would just we didn't know what our voice was, We didn't really remember who we were, and so it's like we needed to come back together and figure out who who we were.

But it is insane actually to sit from this vantage point and peer into the past and try to remember emotionally where we were.

At, because it felt desolate.

It felt like it felt like we had burned through the wick and we were done. But then somehow, baby step by baby step, we we.

Didn't give up.

We tried new things, we started writing some different songs, we found new management.

We yeah, like we just sort of we didn't give up.

We didn't we didn't reached the point of self destruction that we were like burning the house down. We just were sort of ghosts in the house. And we knew that we knew that we were capable, but we did feel disconnected.

From self and we had we had recorded a couple of albums where we didn't produce or even co produce, and those albums didn't do very well and didn't really feel like us, and I think we didn't feel like it was authentic. So that's when we decided, we've got to produce ourselves, and we really want it to be on our own label. We really want to figure out who we are.

Okay, So, was as Rebecca said, was it a lot of little things or was there a specific turning point and you remember when you realize, wait a second, this is now happening.

I do actually, and I think, really it is whatever the inverse of death by a thousand cuts, It's like a thousand band aids. We started doing our cover series on YouTube as well. We started using social media in a new way. We started to really actually invest time into connecting with the fans that were actively following us on Facebook and YouTube and Instagram, and we started to

Was it was coming back to our roots, if we were returning home in a way, coming back to the music that brought us up, which was bluegrass, but also was Mountain music and blues were like a very familiar territory and it felt like a new discovery but also a homecoming.

Okay, how many views would these videos get?

Yeah, a few million, but I think honestly it was even less for us the amount of views and who the views were like on that video, specifically on preaching Blues.

Bob Seger watched it.

Actually I guess it was Bob Seger's wife who watched it and then showed it to Bob Seger. And then Bob Seger asked his people to get in touch with our people, which then resulted in us going out on the road supporting him in his arena.

Tour in eighteen. Is that right?

Yeah, twenty eighteen, I believe we went out on the road with him, and again the power of social media to be able to connect you to an opportunity that you we had, we didn't conceive of that as a possibility, but he watched the video and was moved by what we were doing and invited us out based on that that cover.

And today with TikTok being the premiere platform and also there's Instagram and Instagram wheels. To what degree are you active on those platforms.

We're very active. I think you gotta.

One, you gotta dance with who brung Ya, And I think the fact that we are an independent band supported by individuals, and those individuals watch us on social media and keep tabs on us and believe in us and bother to tune in, we always want to maintain that connection.

To be honest, when we were first making the videos, it was just a practice tool. We didn't consider it to be something something real, Like we didn't really know if these viral video views, if million views on a video would actually translate to anything in the real world, like are we gonna Will we be able to sell

And to what degree do you interact and respawn to the fans and the people who watch these videos.

It's an interesting balance.

I like this question because I feel like it puts us a little bit in a hot seat. We try not to read the comments, but also we can't help but read the comments because we especially after the pandemic, we know and love these user names and we have you know, I mean to back up a little little bit. You know, during the pandemic, we live streamed what four or five times a week.

Because I would say before the pandemic, we didn't interact with people directly much through the internet. Then the pandemic came along and we had already a huge online fan base. That saved us that we had a we had some people to turn to during the pandemic, and we were able to keep working and we would do live streaming

And do you try to activate any of these people? Do you say hey, I'm coming to your town, bring your friends stuff like that, or do you keep it at a distance.

It's a balance, you know. I think we're honestly learning.

We're still learning how, yeah, how to how to interact in a real way because there is a fear I feel like you're kind of like we, like we spoke about earlier. You know, you're sort of like one bad egg away from throwing out the whole cart. And so I think there is fear about reading comments because it's hard. It's hard to read critical stuff from from people who are emboldened by anonymity. You know, people can say the most terrible shit online that you can't even like fathom.

Are you doing?

People could?

Some Yeah, well some people could. That's true.

Back at all, So back you know, like ten years ago, maybe a little bit longer. The end of the first decade. I used to call the heaters on the phone because everybody is findable. Wow, and I was on a streak of good experience. I call up saying, you know, this is Bob Left that you obviously have a big problem with me. Just tell me what it is, you know. But then you read some people who are just you know, rigid. But it was interesting. But let's assume you're going on

It's a bit of both.

I mean, I think that we have felt very protective about trying to have a direct connection to our fans because you know, perhaps there is a future in which there is no Facebook or Instagram and how do you reach these people. So we do have an email list, We do try to capture, you know, people's information so that we can let them know what's going on. But it is it's a little bit of a scary reality, you know, because we do rely on these platforms to get our message out there to people.

So you bring up an interesting point.

Okay, let's go back to the songs themselves. What you were in the lovell Sisters? Was it always original material? How did you start to write songs? How do you write songs? And how do you write songs today?

Oh, the lovel Sisters was virtually no songs of our own. We did a lot of traditional numbers and towards the end of the Level Sisters was when we were really discovering the idea of songwriting. And Rebecca is really leading the charge with that. Rebecca still leads the charge with a lot of our songwriting.

Yeah, and uh, I think that songwriting is just like you know, any other muscle. I think it does require strengthening, unless, of course, and we've said this before in the past, it's a little bit trite, but like unless you're Tom Petty, and Tom Petty just starts with mudcratch like writing friggin bangers,

Well, the question is do you write a hundred songs to get one?

I do I have?

So?

Do you write out inspiration or do you sit down and say I have to write an now album? How do you do it?

It's a bit of both.

I think because we do tours so hard and I do sing so aggressively and ferociously during our shows, I do have to be very careful with vocal capital when we're touring, so I don't really write when we're touring, just because during the day, I'm usually like trying to limit how much I'm talking just to optimize for the show and protect the vocals that I can give to

I feel like we like to write in preparation for an album because we do take a lot of what we've learned during the touring season and apply it to the next record. But Rebecca is writing all the time for fun, but those songs sometimes aren't necessarily for us is just working the creative muscle or writing from inspiration.

And we also have to be careful because I'm definitely like the creative energy that is newest idea is the best idea, and so I get bored with things very quickly. So that's also where like we really have to wait to like, like, I'll be information gathering for months and I'll have like probably like fifty or sixty titles in my notebook, but I make myself wait to write them because otherwise, by the time it comes to getting into the studio, I'll be like so bored with these songs

I feel like, how about.

The Nashville model of writing sessions with third parties? You ever do that?

That gives me anxiety personally. We have some we have had some, and we've had had some successful experiences.

But I do think.

That's that's somewhere I think I would like to learn. I would like to to grow a bit, because I do think that the there are some incredibly special songwriters in Nashville who who are really able to collaborate to the benefit of the music. So I would never want to self isolate just because I like had stage fright or writers right or something. You know.

I'd like to try and.

To be honest, writing together the two of us is a fairly new thing as well. We did it very successfully with this last record, Blood Harmony, and that's the first one. We've really collaborated from the ground up on a lot of the songs on the record, and really heavily collaborated on all of all of them the editing process, especially.

Now speaking of Tom Petty's got that great line, the record company didn't hear a single. To what degree do you feel internal pressure to write that one song that's going to be relatively ubiquitous and push you into another league.

I love this question because I think there is no right answer from where we currently sit.

I think.

There is no pressure to write a hit one because I think the days of hits are are ever shrinking for bands like us. I think the compromises that one sometimes must make in order to have a hit song outweighs the pros. That's that's that's where we're coming at it for now. I think that we have definitely built a career based on context and bodies of work with

To say what our best record is?

But I do think that with every album that we've made, we've gotten closer to having every song at least be an entertaining listen.

However, people don't realize when you write a lot, we create a lot. You know, when you hit an eleven, okay, and you can't do it every day, but you know when you get there. So do you have a couple of songs you say, yeah, irrelevant of acceptance, you know, streams on Spotify when you're writing in and you go, yeah, this is the one, this is going to resonate.

That's so interesting. I don't know exactly how to respond.

I think probably we've never written that song. Fully, I think that we have hit on it, hit on songs that I feel like, this is a this is a good song, and I I love what this song has to say, and this song is true and authentic to us, and and I like and I love that.

It's it's also subjective.

Yeah, that's what That's what I find challenging to answer, is because I think one of the things you have to consider as a human is that you are involved in the process, right. So it's like when you're a writer and you're writing your thing, you have emotional connection to it, so you can give it extra space or love it especially hard when maybe it's not the best song.

Okay, shifting gears a little bit. I was talking to your manager has got a lot of experience, Peter Leak, and he was talking about direction that you made a record with restoration hardware. How did Peter help focus you and direct your career?

Oh? I like this, what would you have to say this?

In meeting Peter Leak and also Anipe it works side by side together, we found people who were just one hundred percent supportive and that is what we needed. And they have really gone along with us on the things that we've wanted to undertake that have created so much more work for them, and we so appreciate that they have been really instrumental in helping us create our own record label. And that has given us the freedom to be able to go in all of these different directions

Now, when I went to see you live, I found the music very reminiscent of late sixties and early seventies blues rock to what deg we Are you versed in the music of those artists.

Yeah, very well versed.

I think I've personally found a lot of passion for researching turn of the century blues music and allowing that to filter into my understanding of rock en roll and blues rock and roll from.

The sixties and seventies.

So yes, definitely have listened, listened a lot, listened extensively.

Okay, I'll throw out some band names. If you listened to fog Hat, yeah, okay, have you listened to Mountain?

I have listened to Mountain.

I don't know their records as much, but we've done a couple of fog Hat covers. I don't think we actually ever posted them, but I dig fog Hat, I dig Mountain, but I'm not as well.

First, okay, what fog Hat covers were they?

We did Chevrolet that was my favorite.

Okay, And what about the trio British guitarist Jeff Beck, who unfortunately recently passed Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. To what degree do you know their work extends?

Yeah, big fans of all three of their playing.

Okay, So if you had to take two records from that world, what albums would you pick?

Man, that's a good question.

Are we allowed to use Zeppelin for Jimmy Page?

Absolutely, we can continue Zeppelin.

Let's see.

I think Slowhand and I think probably Zeppelin four.

Okay, what are your favorite tracks on Zeppelin four?

That's hard to answer, because again, I think from our perspective, it's the album as a whole.

It's not singles, it's not tracks.

It's like, oh yeah, just drop a needle and listen through the whole thing.

And that is a big difference. It is a big difference.

Okay. But if I'm listening to that album, rock and Rolling Black really don't do it for me. The Battle of Evermore and when the Levy breaks, I could listen to those every day and going to California, Joe.

Dog No, But I do love that you're picking the mandolin tracks though.

Good your hat off hat off.

Well, you know, I don't want to get too much of a discussion of Zeppelin. I just don't find Black Dog innovative enough. You know, it's got the riff. If I'm going with Zeppelin, you know, the first album with Good Times Bad Times. I'd rather listen to that than Black Dog, although it's not as fast a record, but you know, slowhand that's an interesting album too. So have you met all those people? No?

Actually, and I'm a little bit devastated by the loss of I'm like so many people of Jeff Beck because Tyler, my husband, was one of Jeff's proteges, and I missed. We were actually out on tour and so he came through Nashville and I didn't realize that I was missing my opportunity to meet him. That's that's very hard. But we've never met any of these cats. We've seen Clapton live out in Los Angeles. I've never seen Jimmy Page and I never got to see Jeff live.

We opened for Robert Plant once.

Yeah, Okay, tell me more about after the Lovell Sisters, when you became side people. How did that come about and how did you integrate into these acts?

So Initially, I think our first side gig was with Elvis Costello.

What a way to start, I know, we had no idea.

So again, it was at merle Fest, and this would have been I guess twenty seventeen or eighteen.

I believe it's thereabouts.

Actually twenty sixteen, yeah, right, twenty fifteen, twenty.

Sixteen, now this is this was back in two thousand and seven.

Oh, Lord, I get my dates, so you're absolutely right. Yeah, we would have met Costello for the first time in seven. Golly, that was a big margin of error.

Lord.

And so they had a big all star jam on stage, and and Elvis got up, and we were familiar with Elvis' music, but hadn't really connected who it was who was on stage singing, because I didn't recognize that my amish true cover as the man that was up singing.

A gospel tune. But we dashed across stage.

In this jam and started seeing harmonies to Elvis on like Angel Band or some traditional gospel tune, and we sort of struck up an unlikely friendship. And he has been a really true mentor to us and invited us out to open up for him on a few occasions and Rebecca was just.

Very bold, and they had they had been writing each other letters and emails, just talking about music, and Rebecca had seen that he was playing in Europe and doing a solo tour and said, Hey, I see that you don't have a band. Would you like us to be your band? And that was how it started, originally us backing him up. He's like, you know what, sure, come on out and be my band.

Okay, let's focus on that. To what degree are you bold and aggressive, Rebecca and making opportunities?

Oh? Very bold?

I mean I think it's so trite and tired, but like you miss all the shots, you don't take, one hundred percent of the shots you don't take.

And I think.

Especially there is a power of the idealism of your early twenties too, where it's like you feel unstoppable man, like I'm never gonna die, I'm gonna gun for it all, and that has really served us well. But I think also like being motivated by love, by a joyful love of music, has really opened a lot of doors that otherwise wouldn't have opened.

Tell me a couple of things you did in the last couple of years that you would consider bold trying to open the door or get it move up the ladder.

Oh, let's think about this as recently as and you were there. You saw Mike Kimble and Steve f Roni on stage, and I I have to say, I think that Steve Roni is one of the biggest hearts on this planet.

He's an incredible human.

But we met those two gentlemen back in the day for a Music Cares event from mister Tom Petty. We were part of the backing band through Elvis Costello. We met t Bone Burnette and t Boone. Burnette was looking for some musicians to take part as as part of the house band, so we were hired to play mandolin an acoustic guitar, and Megan was going to play dobro

And I was so stuck.

And this is literally like probably maybe six or seven days ahead of the show, and I immediately just started frantically screenshotting the text and sending it to Meg.

And I'm like, oh my god, what do we suggest?

And you know, we shot out some ideas and both both Steve and Mike came out and sat in with us. And I never would have believed if you told me two weeks ahead of the show that we would have the Heartbreakers on stage with us playing a Tom Petty tune, that that was going to happen.

It was so special.

Okay, what is an ask you're afraid to ask, but would like to.

Just in general?

Yeah, mmm, man, this could go in so many different directions. I love the broad nature of the question, so to see what comes to your mind.

I mean, we've over the years talked a lot about our respect for Bonnie Ray and how much we would love to do something with her, and we probably could find a way to reach her.

I feel like that would be exceptional.

I think to do like an all female review, like do something with some dueling slides, oh Man, with Bonnie Ray, with Joan Jet, with Melissa Ethridge, with Eryl Crowe, with who else should we add?

Man?

I think that's a pretty good list.

Pretty good.

Let me just focus on this period of time where you are Lark and Poe and you're wondering whether you're side people or whether you're going to be an act? Is Lark and Poe? You mentioned Keith Urban, you mentioned these other racks. What acts did you work with and how extensive was that work?

Yeah, So, you know, outside of doing on again, off again tours with with Elvis Costello, we also picked up work with Christian Bush, who is one half of sugar Land, and he's Atlanta based and so through the scene he was aware of our our musicianship. We you know, we did a lot of early work, you know, and Decatur in and around Atlanta. Eddie's addic and sort of the

Very inspirational.

And then after that Connor Oberst which eyes.

Yeah, that was a cool experience.

Yeah we did. I can't even remember a few months with him.

Yeah, how did that connection even happen?

Yeah, it's I was actually just trying to remember and and I just made I remember. So again, t Bone Burnett invited us. Well, let me think about this. We were in Los Angeles working on our album Ken and Elvis Costello was in town at Capitol Records and they were doing the New Basement Tapes. So it was that all star cast of individuals cutting live and so I, you know, just sort of on a whim text at Elvis like, oh my gosh, are you in town. We're in town making our record. What are you all up to?

Do you need any vgvs?

And so they invited us over to come and play mandolin and sing some some background vocals for the New Basement Tapes. And so we met Taylor Goldsmith from Dawes and a handful of folks and Marcus Mumford and Rihanna geedd Ins and just sort of found some like minded individuals.

We were seeing the vocal harmonies that First Aid Kit had recorded on his record.

Okay, if you go to your Wikipedia page, not that I always rely on it, and I'm sure that you can tell when when the act itself was involved. There's this list of all these accomplishments. Now you talk about very Home Companion. Even Garrison Keeler is out of that and the whole thing is imploding. But people who've consistently been creative know you think about your big break and then you achieve that you realize it's not that big, and you also realize things you may not even want

You hit the nail on the head that it's wonderful to get a Grammy nomination, But when it comes right down to it, it doesn't. It doesn't really mean anything for us. What means something is the people that buy the tickets and that connection that I was speaking about before, the fact that somebody moved their life around just a little bit to make room for you. And if you multiply that times a million, that's quite a wave that you're creating, and that is so incredible, and that moves

Yes, but in your career, I mean you have some peaks like the Garrison Keeler thing that opened up opportunities. Everything's changed now. Late night performances will give you a video Don't move the needle, SNL will show that the the labels behind it, CBS Sunday Morning. Is there anything that still moves the needle? H?

Yeah, I guess it depends on on Yeah, like huntry too, because.

It's it's been very interesting that when you're talking about like promotion, what moves the needle in the UK is different from Germany. And and we've we've actually had an opportunity to go on some of the there, like late night TV shows that actually still do make a huge difference over there. You know, We've gotten to do Germany's version and in France's version, and and it is really cool to be able to go on those shows and

Yeah.

And I think it's an interesting question and one that I think probably based on the amount of change that we've seen in the industry in the last like I mean really condensed change in the last five ten years, It's hard to know how to answer that question, I think, especially for a band like us who lives so outside industry, you know.

We Oh sorry, I just totally I totally interrupted you. But as I was thinking about it, I was like, what has brought us all of these opportunities really? As social media? I mean, that's got to be what has driven our success is videos going viral and people finding them.

Well and paired with relentless touring. The fact that we have honestly beaten the streets for eighteen years and have managed to continue to keep our strength up and revel in the connection with people enough to really merit, continuing to work really hard and carry ourselves literally around the world.

Okay, you have achieved quite a status, But what is the dream?

This may be a little bit boring, but I honestly think the dream for us is just being able to continue what we're doing better, just a little bit better each time. I think that that for us has actually been the biggest gift is how long it's taken us to get anywhere.

I see.

I see bands that are much younger than us who have much less quote unquote experience hitting it big and not being able to really I think have the context to like appropriately assimilate the meaning of their success. But I think for a band like us who has slapstickers on the CD and stuffed the jewel cases and the digipas and drawn the T shirt and driven the van and paid for the gasoline and paid for the band

Suddenly this is the dream.

Suddenly suddenly it's it's uh, you understand, you understand what it means.

And so I think, because we've been patient.

With our story again, we're not you know, there's there's buzz around Lark and Poe for sure, Is it the biggest buzz?

No?

Do we need it to be? No, because we get to do what we want.

And you know, we've been able to literally pay our bills, even though sometimes the you know, we didn't quite get there, or the bills were themselves very very small because we were living in somebody's attic. We've been able to do it with music, and music has always been there for us and there's nothing better than that. And it sounds like I'm like being like the Hallmark version, but it's it's honest. That's the honest, to God's truth.

Okay, you have your sleeves rolled up, you have tattoos on your hands and your arms. I don't see any tattoos on Megan. Megan, do you have any tattoos?

I do. Actually they're just a little little bit more hidden, but I do.

I have. I have a few.

I have a few.

Yeah, okay, but is that reflective of your personalities?

Oh?

What do you think, Megan?

I want to hear what you have to say.

Yes, Because here's here's Rebecca going in to get a tattoo. I don't really know what I'm gonna get, but it's just gonna make it self known. And then the person like they talk, her and the tattoo artists talk and they and then he draws something up and and she goes, Okay, let's do it, and then she gets a tattooed on her. Whereas I would sweat bullets about what I'm gonna get and should I do it? I don't really know. I don't I don't know what I want to put on my body.

Well that's not even really fair. Hold on one second, let me add let me add it to I've.

Been wanting to get more tattoos for years, but I don't know what I want to get.

But this, I think is also like what she's just describing, is the magic of our relationship, because I am definitely like the uh the just fling it at the wall and see what sticks person, and that has a place.

And Meghan is our researcher.

Meghan is our measured researcher who will make sure that that you know, Rebecca's not booking the first flight that she sees and paying triple the price.

But the world of creativity isn't always so concrete, so there's some things you can't research. And I think that's probably what what is hard for me fair, Fair, But that's why we have each other.

Okay, Like that old cheap trick song, Southern girls, what are people you're from the South Georgia, Tennessee? What are people in the north and coasts don't understand about the South?

Mm hmmm.

I think most importantly, we all have to aspire to be the best versions of who we are, right And I think also you know, birth and place and status, and if you're poor, you're rich, or you're white or you're black. All this stuff has connotations attached. All this stuff has baggage. But I think for us being Southerners and making the kind of music that we make, it feels very important to us because we want to be

Provide like a wider perspective.

So I'm not exactly answering your question because I it's a little tricky to know how how to so simply reply what am I missing?

I think.

Uh, I think it's that very possibly. We don't want a pigeonhole either the north or the South.

Yeah.

Uh, that's fair.

Yeah, I think it's very It is very tempting to paint with the broad brush and to to oversimplify, but I think that that can be very very dangerous.

People are people, That's.

What Depeche Mode said. In any event, what can Lark and Po fans look forward to in the future.

Oh man, we have some good stuff coming down the pipeline. I think I've I've had some really momentous experiences personally this year that I think are really gonna give me a lot to work from from a songwriting perspective.

So I'm looking forward to that.

You know, like in the little Heidi Hole of my heart where I just keep all the titles, there's stuff that's kicking around that I think will we'll open up some new doors press creatively.

I think we've learned a lot in touring this year that's gonna be very applicable to the next record. So I'm real really excited for us to be able to write some more because I do think that our next record is going to be pretty special. I just have a feeling.

Yeah, and also so much touring, so much touring this year.

What did you learn on the road?

Oh man, what have we learned?

I I think that we're becoming more open to collaborations again, because we were very collaborative in the early years. Then we closed ourselves off a little bit to learn more about ourselves. And now that we're at a place where we know who we are, I think that we're I think we're becoming more open again in a great way.

Yeah.

And I would also say that I think, you know, speaking about over oversimplification. You know, sometimes there is this this huge and instinct to rate our experiences is positive or negative, like you have a flat tire, and it's very easy to say, like, ah, this sucks, this is

It's like it's more.

I think I'm having you guys, I'm having a spiritual awakening now.

But it is it's like it's more of a dow.

Perspective of, like, you know, accepting things as it comes and not rating, not rating your experiences, just letting them wash over you. Anyway, welcome to my ted talk.

On that note, I think both of you have been very open talking about the ups and downs and the steps in your career, and people don't have any idea how hard it is to make it. So I want to thank both of you, Rebecca and Meghan, for taking the time to talk to me and my audience.

Thank you for having us. We so appreciate you in your perspective.

Okay, till next time. This is Bob left Sex