[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Well, how are we doing tonight, Seattle?
Whoo!
I'm so happy to be here.
It's such an honor to play such a legendary place.
I wrote this song about people.
I was inspired because I was at a family camping trip,
and you guys all know that the Carlile family is very unique.
And we're very special, and very weird.
And I wrote this song about looking around the room
at all of these unique people
and realizing that every single person in my community,
in the world, needs a song written about them.
♪♪
♪ Everyone's a so-o-o-o-ng ♪
♪ And every word I lo-o-o-o-ve ♪
Whoo!
-My name's Caroline, and I'm 17 years old.
And I am the lead singer, guitar player,
banjo player and songwriter for The Carlile Family Band.
-My name is JayJ and I am the multi-instrumentalist.
I play fiddle, mandolin, bass and guitar, and I am 15.
-My name is Jay Carlile and I'm the band dad.
And I'm 40 something.
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
-We've been on the road,
so today we are camped out at the family compound.
This is the motorhome.
And we travel and live and eat, sleep, work inside of this baby.
This is where I sleep.
Musical instruments in the dash as per usual.
Over here is the homework station.
This is where the kids do their homework,
and more musical instruments.
And here are the kid's bunks.
JayJ, I just gotta say,
you did such a good job cleaning it up for this interview.
-I really did try.
I have a rail because when we get rolling on the motorhome,
it's very easy to roll off this.
-We call ourselves a touring band
because we do a heck of a lot of driving
for it to not be touring.
-And so do you have a crew?
-Oh yeah, there's a crew.
-Oh, there's a crew. The crew is epic.
-Yeah, we got a sound guy.
We got a bus driver. We got a backup singer.
We've got a tour manager. We've got a mechanic.
-Those are all me. -[ Laughs ]
-We do all of this with no crew, any of that.
Actually, the unsung hero that makes this all happen
is really my wife.
♪♪
-I would say that our superpower as a band
is honest vulnerability.
And the version of us
that you're going to see on stage is a version of us
you're going to see at the grocery store in the afternoon.
Hi, it's so good to see you.
We've got a very neurodiverse family.
And we express our frustrations
and we express our happiness in our songs.
And so being neurodiverse person is just part of all of that.
And so it's coming out on stage
and it's coming out in the music whether we like it or not.
So as you guys know, we're -- we're gathered --
We are gathered here today to celebrate the release
of our a-pew-d-p, our -- Oh, my gosh, our debut EP.
[ Laughing ]
Our ADHD!
[ Guitar thrums ]
[ People laughing ]
That's anytime --
Anytime there's a Carlile Family band show,
we are here to celebrate ADHD.
[ Crowd cheering ]
-Uh.
You know, it's funny and we can laugh at ourselves
Sometimes it can be really, you know, it can be frustrating.
-I'm still, most of the show, pretty nervous, pretty anxious.
Even setting up, I'm anxious, you know?
So I thought, if I took this feeling
and incorporated it into music,
maybe that would help in some way or form.
So I stayed up a night and just started writing,
and then I just came up with this song.
And I realized it really helped, and I just started playing it.
I have anxiety.
In the past, I wasn't coping with it very well.
So I wrote this song to help cope with it.
It's called "Leftover Sentences".
♪♪
♪ If the light shines down on me ♪
♪ I'm afraid of what they might see ♪
♪♪
♪ Some things are better left unsaid ♪
♪♪
♪ So these leftover sentences stay in my head, yeah ♪
-So Brandi Carlile is dad's sister, so it's our aunt,
And one of our biggest supporters from day one.
Our music journey sort of started out as a hilarious joke
to my dad because Aunt Brandi sent musical instruments
-like penny whistles -- -Noisemakers.
-Ukuleles with no frets to our house for Christmas one year.
And you like to say that eventually
-the noise just turned musical. -Yeah.
-Our music sort of grew out of this prank
-from, you know, your sister... -Right.
-...for Christmas one year.
The first time I remember playing and singing
on a stage with Aunt Brandi was,
I think I was eight or nine years old.
And I remember being terrified, terrified,
but also, like, at the end,
feeling like it was the most fun thing I've ever done.
-It's a beautiful sound.
-♪ You see all the things you regret ♪
♪ You can only remember what you want to forget ♪
-She was really inspired by music
and really driven toward music
way before she was ever good at any of it,
but she loved it, and so we kind of supported her love of it,
and then her skill developed through her love of it.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Caroline, everybody.
-♪ I read all your notes ♪
♪ But for what, I can't remember anymore ♪
♪♪
♪ But I still read through ♪
♪ That rollercoaster searching for ♪
♪ The truth ♪
♪ Time is on your side ♪
Our debut EP, it just came out
and we are so proud of this project.
And we recorded the project here in Seattle
at Aunt Brandi's home studio,
And we decided to have it be self-titled.
So it was just called "The Carlile Family Band"
JayJ and I are the oldest of four siblings,
so we've got two younger siblings,
my sister Evelyn and my brother Sam.
And they like to sing and play with us every once in a while.
They've also got other jobs,
like Samuel has apparently dubbed himself
the creative director and his drawing album artwork and merch.
-I drew the helicopter,
megalodon coming out of the water.
He's fishing. He's on a palm tree island.
No boat, no way home. He's stuck.
And it's really hard to live on a palm tree island.
-And my sister Evelyn is very organized,
so she's selling merch and doing behind-the-scenes content.
So she's taking pictures.
Sometimes we have our cousins,
Jack and Josephine Hanseroth playing with us.
Josephine Hanseroth, get up here.
[ Woman cheers ]
♪♪
We all -- We all worked on this song together right
when I first wrote it.
And, uh, Josephine, your harmonies are so beautiful.
I'm so excited to do this.
♪ And I can hear my mother's voice ♪
♪ Rising up ♪
♪ Above the noise ♪
♪ She calls me in a dream ♪
♪ Again ♪
♪♪
My best way to explain harmony is a chord.
So, like, a C chord on the piano,
you have the first,
and the third note, And the fifth note.
And you can sing
the first, third, and fifth melodies together,
and it will make it in harmony. You will be singing in a chord.
And the way that we organize our harmonies
is we imagine it like a highway.
So basically, when we're working on harmonies for a song,
everybody picks which lane they're gonna drive in,
and then they sing it.
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
♪♪
-One, two, three, four.
♪ Time is on your side ♪
♪ Ask anyone who knows you ♪
♪♪
♪ You can tell your lies ♪
♪ In any way you need to ♪
-I think family harmony is what it's all about
when it comes to harmony singing.
-And there is something
to be said that when you have the same compatible kidneys
and blood running in your veins,
that there's just something in the way that it vibrates
that's different than anything else.
♪ Everyone's a so-o-o-ng ♪
♪ Every word I lo-o-o-ve ♪
♪♪
Thank you so much.
Thank you all. We're The Carlile Family Band.
And we'll see you next time.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Joe in front.
-Joe in front! Joe in front!
-Joe in front.
-Joe in front! Joe in front!
-[ Laughs ] -[ Laughing ]
-How much time we got?
-We got plenty of time. -Come on.
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
-All right.
-Cool. Let's get out of here.
-Yes! -Where are you going?
♪♪
-Listen to "The Carlile Family Band's"
brand new EP on Spotify,
and keep up with the band's performance schedule
on Instagram.