Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
We tour in a 2013 Ford E-350 named Wheelie Nelson. It’s the perfect tour van. Right now it’s sitting at 180,000 miles so we’ve got plenty of life left! We keep up with the maintenance regularly because our livelihood depends on it. Right now though, it has a huge dent down the side doors from when a lady on her phone side swiped us in Texas. We are in the midst of getting that resolved. Sometimes the door unlatches from the lock but we’re all still safe!
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Eating healthy while on tour is not easy and we don’t always accomplish that goal. We mostly try to focus on protein and caloric intake while out on the road. While we are home, we eat whole, fresh, homemade, real foods all the time and hope that it makes up for the gas station pizza we occasionally have to endure.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
WIllie is the KING of breaking strings and breaks more than all of us combined. We’ve improved his numbers from 5 a week to about 10 a year now. A HUGE improvement from what it was. I (Kira) play much more gently and MAYBE break 1 string a year. Those things are like $15 a pack and that’s expensive when you tour for a living.
Where do you rehearse?
We don’t have a set rehearsal space for the full band. We rent spaces or take over our friends’ houses (Thanks Matty and Em!). Willie and I rehearse together in our home and while lots of ridiculous things happen in that house, I can’t think of any that pertain to rehearsal.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
The first song we wrote together was “Matches” and my favorite line in it is talking about burning a bridge and it says “I’ll light that thing on fire while you’re still standing on it.”
Describe your first gig.
We had our first gig and honed our craft with a monthly residency at an Atlanta staple called Dixie Tavern. We played there for years, every Wednesday night. Sometimes to no one, sometimes to great crowds. It served its purpose but we haven’t been in there in ages.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
WIllie worked construction before touring full time and enjoyed it a lot. The guy can do just about anything.
I bartended and waited tables and hated every minute of it. I don’t do well with having a boss.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
The amount of money that we’ve taken in has grown but with that growth, our camp has had to grow so now we have more outgoing than we used to. I hope that in 5-10 years it won’t be such a struggle. That we’ll be able to pay our team a salary and not worry about things so much.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
We’ve learned that there is no set way on how to succeed in this industry. We live in a time where just about anyone can put out music and that’s great but what’s terrible is we live in a time where just about anyone can put out music :).