An Interview With He’s My Brother She’s My Sister

What is folk?
Rob: Folk is the music of the people so it’s music that can express how people in a culture or time period of our existence are feeling and thinking and help people connect with that and express it with music. It’s a way to bring people or “folks” together. It’s a sound that tries to get to the root of what it’s expressing. Like generally using organic instruments or an acoustic sound, less dependent on machines or electronics or mechanics. It’s more dependent on human expression.
Rachel: I think there’s a poetry to folk music, lyrically, whereas in other styles of music the focus is less on that. Certainly that’s what attracts because I’m more of a writer than a musician.

You live in L.A., you are part of a wide spectrum of culture, so why were you drawn to making music in this style?
Rob: I don’t know that we were even drawn. It just sort of happened. I heard Rachel’s voice and it fit better to country or folkier sounds as opposed to rock or electronic or anything.
Rachel: At the time we formed we were hanging around Spindrift a lot and they had this very Western influence and they’re such a brilliant band. KP Thomas is brilliant and he opened up that world of the West for me, which led me to country and folk.
Rob: Going to Clean Air Clear Stars the first time.
Rachel: That first year was amazing.
Rob: When we actually played. We hijacked the festival.
Rachel: I was drinking at the time and I fell asleep on stage.
Rob: We were also singing in the hotel rooms. We had a concert in our friend Camille’s hotel room from the Hi-Ho’s. I wanted to escape Lemon Sun a little bit. This was more an outlet for having fun with a rawer sound.
Lauren: And then it became a project in its own right.

How did the tap dancing come in?
Lauren: I’ve been a tap dancer since I was a little kid. Then I didn’t do it for a long time. They were looking for a drummer and couldn’t find one that fit quite right and they were rehearsing in the apartment that Rachel and I lived in at the time and asked me to tap a little and had a show two days later. We didn’t even have anything for me to tap on. We went to a dumpster on the way to the show and found a slab of wood and threw it together, and I’ve never left.

It’s now such a big part of the sound.
Rachel: Yes, and the visual element as well.

The theatrical element is important to your band. It’s not just putting on a mask, which you do, but how else is the theatrical present in more subtle ways?
Rob: Lyrically it plays a part. We seem to want to tell stories in a folksy way.
Rachel: That always drew me to the Beatles. They take you into these lucid storytelling dreamlike states, and they dressed up in unison, as we tend to do. Lauren and I have a theatrical background. We studied theater, so the visual and performative element is integral.
Lauren: It’s important to us to put on a show. People are paying money to have an experience and be entertained. We aren’t just playing music to play music but because we really want to entertain. We have to up the ante a little.

What other elements form your understanding of your place in L.A. music?
Rachel: We have a family oriented approach to music. We call ourselves a family, even if Lauren and Satya are not related to us. When we perform we want to create a loving experience. It’s an exchange. And that’s what folk music is. People see us as a warm, friendly band and familial.

They also see you as a party band for dancing.
Rob: We have some slow and introspective songs but I like the idea of having fun when people come see us. We still have this western swing element that keeps the slow songs groovy.

Folk music is about storytelling, and historical a lot of dark matter. In the stories you tell, there are “bad things” that get reconstituted into these sing-songy ditties.
Rob: That’s interesting because I was just thinking we do write a lot of dark, sinister material.
Rachel: Yeah, “Most women are crazy…”
Rob: Even on the upbeat songs. But I would like to sing some innocent, loving, peaceful songs. Everything is inspiring but I am ready for some lighter or emotionally positive songs.

How long has He’s My Brother She’s My Sister been together?
Rob: Since we were born!
Rachel: Actually, since I was born.
Rob: Yeah, because I was around a couple years before she was born, waiting patiently for her to spit on me when I carried her for the first time.
Rachel: A quarter of a century!

Your first song came from a girl that you dated or about drinking?
Rob: Rachel got arrested.
Rachel: No.—I mean, I have been.
Lauren: The first song was “Wilted Rose,” wasn’t it?
Rob: Oh, I guess you’re right. I think of “Tales That I Tell” as the first song. “Wilted Rose” was the first recorded song but we never really play that live.
Rachel: We used to. It’s a ditty I wrote about an ex-girlfriend of Rob’s. That was sort of the genesis of everything. Then we wrote “Tales That I Tell.”

That’s about getting arrested?
Rob: Well, I was being facetious. But Rachel’s had some interesting experiences.
Rachel: It’s mostly about the men that were in my life. “I quit the drinking” is the beginning of the chorus…
Rob: That was the catalyst, that whole experience. You making that change.
Rachel: Yes, it was about drinking and men.
Rob: It’s good stuff. A dangerous combination.