SkiP HappEns Podcast
Skip Clark is a dynamic and captivating podcast host and radio personality who has left an indelible mark on the world of broadcasting. With a voice that can command attention and a personality that oozes charm, Skip has become a beloved figure in the world of entertainment. His passion for storytelling and his ability to connect with his audience shine through in every episode of his podcast and every moment on the airwaves.
Skip’s journey in radio began decades ago, and he has since evolved into a seasoned professional who effortlessly navigates the waves of the media industry. His deep knowledge of music, pop culture, and current events keeps his listeners engaged and coming back for more. Skip Clark's enthusiasm and authenticity make him a trusted voice in the world of podcasting and radio. His dedication to his craft and his commitment to providing quality content continue to make him a standout in the world of broadcasting.
SkiP HappEns Podcast
Twin Harmony: Kelly and Sarah's Journey from Small Town to Nashville's Big Stage
live. Hello everybody and welcome to skip happens, another episode of skip happens podcast where I dive into the stories and music of some of the most exciting artists out there. I'm your host, skip clark, and tonight we've got a real treat for you. Joining me are, get this twin sisters, kelly and sarah. Is it fink?
Speaker 1:yes I got All right. You know they've been making waves in Nashville country music scene for some time now and they actually made the big move to Nashville. If I'm not mistaken, this is what it said in the bio. It was 2020. Is that right? I want you all to say hi to. There's Kelly Kelly on right in the blue.
Speaker 2:Okay, All right, this is going gonna be tough all night.
Speaker 1:It's like wow, identical twins. Yeah, wow, damn, but you're both. You're both doing music and all that together, so that's kind of cool. So, uh, kelly and sarah, where are you from? Originally? You moved to nashville in 2020, but where from?
Speaker 3:we are originally from a small town in Illinois, in the cornfields of Illinois. I grew up in this town called El Paso, and they have 2,500 people who live in that town.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 3:Right in the middle of Illinois.
Speaker 1:You know, I think of El Paso. I'm thinking Exactly. I didn't even realize there was a town, el Paso, in Illinois.
Speaker 3:I know it's just you don't think that there's another El Paso out there in the United States, but there is, and it's got 2,500 people in it.
Speaker 1:So everybody knows everybody.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, we know everything about everybody. Yes, I love it.
Speaker 1:That could be good, that could be bad.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So real quickly, before we get into everything about you guys and the music, if I were to take a drive in El Paso and come in the main drag, what would be the first thing I'd see?
Speaker 3:Well, a big American flag, that's right. I love that. My dad says we have the biggest American flag in all of Illinois, yeah, so I think that's kind of interesting as you're driving interstate. That's that's our thing. No, but that's cool, it is. I think it's really cool. It's something you can see from miles and miles away.
Speaker 1:Not a grocery store, not a a bar on the corner gas station. It's the American flag.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we are pretty proud of our grocery stores and gas stations, though. We just went back home a couple weeks ago and we were introduced to all of the new things that we're doing in El Paso. For example, we upgraded our grocery store and we're all excited about it, and our Dollar General relocated to a bigger building as well yeah, kelly and I were moving out good job el paso. Yeah, and it's just a grocery store and we're still so excited well, yeah, those big things in a little town, it's big happening.
Speaker 1:Everybody talks about it. It's cool. But we want to talk about you. Um, both of you. You two have been making a name for yourselves in Nashville. You said you moved there in 2020. What was the moment you realized that you could make this a full-time career?
Speaker 3:So we moved to Nashville in 2020, and we both had to get jobs day jobs in order to survive, Because nothing was open. Yeah, so we had to do a lot of networking as well. So I got a day job at a doctor's office and I worked as a front desk assistant and I took phone calls and pretty much did the secretary thing. For what was it like three years?
Speaker 1:three years question. I have a question. Were you the one that would ask do you have an updated insurance card?
Speaker 2:Yes, that was me.
Speaker 1:And any guy that came in would go nah, my wife's got it. I have no idea. I have no idea, am I right? I'm right by saying that, but all the ladies have it right. Yep, I got mine right here.
Speaker 3:Right in my purse here.
Speaker 1:I love it here.
Speaker 3:I love it. So then, let's see, we fast forward to 2023 and we've picked up a few main steady gigs downtown in Nashville, like, for example, we worked first bar we ever uh sang at was old red, so that place has a really special place in our hearts. Then we picked up a few others downtown the stage on Broadway, second Fiddle and Legends Corner and now Teddy's Tavern. We've gotten some steady gigs at those places. So now, since we're working there and getting enough money to survive, I was able to quit my day job in 2023, in October of 2023.
Speaker 3:I finally I put in my two weeks and it was really hard. I was really scary because I thought to myself this could be a mistake, but so far, so good. It's been a couple months and we're still going strong. And I know it was a different story for Kelly.
Speaker 1:She has a lot going on and we're still going strong, and I know it was a different story for kelly. She has real quick though it's, it's scary to make a move when you don't know what the outcome is going to be yes, but but if you don't make that move, you'll never know either way yeah, you know what I mean. So, and music is your passion, yes, and you're dedicated to your craft, yeah, yeah, a lot of risk. Well, there's a way right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly yeah.
Speaker 1:What about you?
Speaker 3:Oh, I started out working at a warehouse until we started playing at All Red and eventually the warehouse job it was just so. It was in the way. It was in the way there was really no wiggle room to call off a day just to go to a show. So I had to stop that wiggle room to call off a day just to go to a show. So I had to stop that. And I found another place to work called Amazon Flex, which is basically just like Uber, but instead of hauling passengers, you haul a bunch of packages and you bring them to people's houses with your own personal vehicle. You get to pick your own hours and you're making your own schedule. And it was really convenient.
Speaker 3:So when we started picking up more and more gigs, I was able to block off time of the amazon flex and then just work whenever I could and had time to do so. So I was working a lot every single day. I didn't really have any days off because and neither did you, no it was just full steam ahead there. We didn't really have much of a social life no 2023.
Speaker 3:Yes, so we did like two years of just hard, hard work all the time and finally the hard work paid off where eventually those jobs like my I could, I'd be part-time amazon flex, part-time music but eventually the amazon flex would get in the way because we'd be getting so many gigs, which is great yeah, so I was like okay I'm gonna stop amazon flex now and so I'm almost up to a year of quitting Amazon flex.
Speaker 3:But it was hard and I'm like you know what I can always go back to Amazon flex. So it wasn't as big of a leap as it was for Sarah, yeah, and I loved my day job too. So it was kind of hard to quit, but I knew that was the risk that we had to make and we jumped right off and we did it and I think it was a good decision.
Speaker 1:So far, I think so from everything I've read and what I've heard and we're going to hear a little bit of that in just a little bit but yeah, I think it's the right decision. But, like you say, with Amazon flux, you got something to fall back on. If you have, for whatever reason, if you have to, but, man, you must be putting a lot of miles on the car.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah, I definitely learned a lot about car maintenance. My dad was a mechanic so he always would do everything car related. And then when we moved to Nashville I was like you know what Cars are expensive when you don't have a mechanic dad, but I learned how to do a bunch of things, Like I know how to change my oil. I know how to fix the engine light if it comes on. I rig it up. I don't even know how to do that.
Speaker 1:I always have some tools in the car, just in case. But well, I'm sure your dad set you up pretty good, right? I mean him being a mechanic said okay, if you're gonna move away, I gotta make sure you have all these tools with you as well I have a whole note in my phone that says how to take care of your car and all the things we have to do.
Speaker 3:Well, Well, yeah, I definitely put a lot of miles on my car, but it is what it is. I guess Time for a new car.
Speaker 1:I love it. I know what do you drive Can.
Speaker 3:I ask Right now just a Chrysler 200.
Speaker 1:Yeah, All right. Well, just so. Yeah, it's something. How many miles are on?
Speaker 3:it Now one hundred and seventy seven thousand. Well, I always know how many miles are on the car.
Speaker 1:But you take care of it though. So if you take care of a vehicle, it's fine, it's going to take care of you as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's pretty happy, I think Chugging along, yeah, chugging along, chugging along.
Speaker 1:It gets you down on Broadway, it gets you where you need to go.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and that's only like 10 miles away from us, really.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask what part of Nashville you actually live in.
Speaker 3:I have friends out there, yeah like the Hermitage area, yeah, right on the edge of, like Donaldson and Nashville.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, no, exactly, yeah, pretty cool. Of course I can never say Demembrion, demembrion, yeah, demention.
Speaker 3:Demention Don't ask me Demention.
Speaker 1:How do you say it? Demention?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Demention.
Speaker 1:Every time I hit Nashville, of course, coming from the airport, that's where I get off and then we go down, but yeah, it's like there's that demon burrow Weird, yeah, crazy. I want to talk a little bit more about you guys as sisters and what's it like, and to work and perform as identical twins what's that like?
Speaker 3:it's fun, a really good marketing strategy.
Speaker 3:I think it is yes creates a brand like not everybody is a twin, so we're able to say that that's something different about us. That's what we bring to the stage that people are going to remember, and so, and there's always someone to work with and I can always rely on Sarah, and I know that she's always gonna do her best, and you can't always say that with people that you don't really know very well. We're working up with a new player. They might not always give their best, but I know for a fact that Sarah will. Yeah, so it's really nice to have a business partner that I can put my all my trust in, a good work ethic and also, just like family harmonies are, let's go and talk about your harmonies, yeah whole different thing and I like the feeling of harmonies, especially when you can blend the way that siblings can blend, and I think that's one way that we can market ourselves as well as twins.
Speaker 3:We have that twin sister, harmony, and we always use it.
Speaker 1:Well, it shows and we'll find out here in just a little bit. But I also wrote down that you faced some challenges, because how you present yourselves on stage, what is that about? Okay so when that starts with okay, it's like okay, I'm ready.
Speaker 3:Well, it's not even that much of difference. But for for on stage, there are some weaknesses that I have and Kelly has strengths and weaknesses as well, but the cool thing is we kind of even each other out. So for Kelly's strengths, she's really good at vocal agility, which just means that she can switch from note to note really quickly and make it sound like really cool. And I can't do that as well and it's hard for me to admit that I'm not good at that. And I know that Sarah has a better endurance. Like she can sing, I feel like she can sing a lot all the time, like she can go days and days and not even feel fatigued or even sound fatigued. And for some reason that's not the case with me and it's annoying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3:I know, but at least I can admit that we have some weaknesses and the good news is we've got a partner Help me out.
Speaker 1:So basically what you're saying, where one kind of doesn't have it, the other one has it yes, versa, so that's excellent, that's cool. And do you, sarah? I have to ask you because you sing all the time Do you sing in the shower? I warm up in the shower. Well, well, that's what I'm saying. I mean, and, and, kelly, do you ever go like all right, can you just knock it off for a little bit?
Speaker 3:I'll just be singing my own thing and she'll turn up the radio well, it's just she's tired of hearing me.
Speaker 1:No, I'm kidding but you turn up the radio. But, uh, how about your songs being played on the radio?
Speaker 3:oh yeah, I cannot even believe that we can say that our songs have been playing on the radio. I know like one of the biggest goals that I had when we first started, like I just wanted to have a song play on the radio. Yeah, so it started with Midwestern Tornado.
Speaker 3:That one was played on a radio in Kentucky for the first time, but then with Well Whiskey it just really really took off. I think we played on 40 different stations At least. Yeah, so far, and it's been amazing that we can say that, yeah, and we've even had some songs air in Europe. Yeah, that is true.
Speaker 2:I'm going to talk about that yeah.
Speaker 1:So how did that come about being aired in Europe? Is it C2C or have you had the chance to go there and perform?
Speaker 3:No, we've never performed overseas. It is a goal. Yes, that's overseas, it is a goal.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is, and I think it's been happening Okay.
Speaker 3:But our songs first played overseas when Sobro Radio reached out to us and said hey, like we love your sound and we want to play your songs on the radio here, can you send them over to us and we'll play them? And we're like, absolutely. So. That's how they first started playing overseas. I think we've had a few spins on our others. Yeah, I think there was like one in canada and australia and brazil too, right or was that just no kidding?
Speaker 3:yeah, we're really trying to keep track of all these things. It it's not easy.
Speaker 1:But it's exciting once you find out, or you get a letter from somebody, or somebody writes and said hey, I heard you're single, you know especially, you know Well Whiskey.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That one is really working for us and it's really exciting to say that.
Speaker 1:Tell us a little bit about the. You know what's behind that. Tell us a little bit about the. You know what's behind that. Tell us a little bit about Well Whiskey. Who wrote it? You guys wrote it, I would assume. And let's get from there.
Speaker 3:All right, here's from the beginning. So I think a year, maybe a year and a half ago I wrote the chorus to Well Whiskey and I was having a really long writer's block. So I'm like I gotta just keep writing songs, whether they're good or bad. I just got to keep writing them. And your writer's block it didn't really mean that you were writing bad songs, you were just writing things and not completing them yes, so you thought they were just failures. They were not.
Speaker 1:No, but isn't that? Uh, it's pretty common to maybe you're not writing, but you, you, you think of something and you speak to your phone so it records it, or you make note of it somehow and later on you'll come back to it. You say you know what I wrote that down. This is I've got it. I've got it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it was kind of like that I wrote the forest of well whiskey, and then I didn't like it. So I kind of just put it in my drunk drawer. And then one day we kind of both took out some junk songs and just kind of like made fun of ourselves. But then I pulled out Well Whiskey and I showed it to Sarah and she's like that's actually, that's actually good. We got to do something to that. So I was like OK, so help me, help me write the verses, help me write the bridge, help me fix the chorus, to make me give me some chords. So we finally sat down at Sarah's Piano and we put something together and we made it what it is now. Yeah, and I don't know, I think I just thought of writing the song Well Whiskey because that's my favorite drink.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean Well, Whiskey is the cheaper whiskey.
Speaker 3:Exactly so. You can buy more of it and you can tip your bartender more.
Speaker 1:My way of thinking girl. Exactly, so you can buy more of it and you can tip your bartender more. My way of thinking girl.
Speaker 3:Exactly so, like why don't I write about it? And then it turned in, yeah, and we started playing it live and got some really great feedback. We were like whoa, other people like this song too, yeah. But then we sent it off to some songwriting professionals and they said that's kind of a failure it was a good idea but yeah.
Speaker 3:So for a while after that happened we kind of set it to the side and we said we're just not even going to record that song, we're just gonna never sing it again. Yeah, but thankfully we have friends, because I know that the reasoning behind them was it's not necessarily up to commercial standards if you really dive deep into it, but when you do it live it doesn't really come across as not necessarily being commercial. If that makes sense, it comes across being commercial when you play it live.
Speaker 1:I don't know if that makes sense, no, no, no, I understand what you're saying and, matter of fact, it sounds a little bit like this.
Speaker 2:Well whiskey got me up and down and stumbling around. I got it from the well. Don't need a top shelf. Yeah, you can call me cheap, but that won't bother me. I got a dab to buff for me the well whiskey.
Speaker 1:See, I love that. I'll be quiet.
Speaker 2:Giving shivers like you did the same way. Now I know I I'll it from the well. Don't need a top shelf. Yeah, you can call me a chief, but that won't bother me. I got a tap support for me. That well whiskey.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, wow. Who's got the lead on that? Is it you, Kelly, or Sarah?
Speaker 3:Well, we both share the lead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, all right. I mean I hear the harmonies and I hear you both, but then there's a part of it where it's more one than the other.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I take most of the lead. I do the lead for the choruses and then I sing verse two and half of the bridge. So Sarah leads the first verse and the first part of the bridge.
Speaker 1:That sounds like you know.
Speaker 3:To see that live the whole band I can only imagine it's got to be pretty wild oh yeah, so fun, a lot of fun, and the crowd always is really engaged and excited at the end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because they're drinking that well whiskey, exactly, you know, hey, they're singing about us. No, no, seriously, though, see that that's the music. I think we need that. We need the upbeat, we need the fun, and you ladies are giving it to radio and to our listeners, which is pretty cool. Now even back it up a little bit further. How long have you guys, have you guys, been playing music?
Speaker 3:we've been singing for our entire life, but when we got to college, that's when we really dove into perfecting our vocal technique and songwriting. We really didn't start writing seriously until college, and then we've been playing piano since we were about six years old. That's like our background in music. But then in 2021, that's when you picked up the guitar I think it was actually during 2020.
Speaker 1:That's right, because things shut down.
Speaker 3:I was like, well, what am I going to do? I guess I'll just pick up the guitar.
Speaker 1:I'll go to YouTube and learn how to play a guitar.
Speaker 3:Yeah, figured, if I'm going to move to Nashville, I better start learning how to play guitar. 2022 is when I picked up the guitar, and we've been just pretty much teaching ourselves how to play the guitar for just a few years. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And is it hard to learn?
Speaker 3:Yes, it's hard for me to learn. It is mostly because, like as a piano player, you're used to like making all the notes and you're used to making your fingers do certain things. So then when you pick up a different instrument and you have to have your hands do different things, you're getting blisters. Oh my goodness, Like oh yeah, oh yeah. On the fingertips made me want to quit. I stuck to it.
Speaker 1:I went through the pain and now we can play a little bit Calluses like Correct, yeah, I went through the pain and now we can play a little bit Calluses like uh, correct, yeah, no, I got a lot of friends that play guitar and they'll play night after night after night and then you see their hands, you go dude, that's kind of suck and it hurt.
Speaker 3:It does I mean especially you know, ladies.
Speaker 1:I mean, this skin is I get it, I get it. Sometimes you get a guy and he's got pretty tough hands, but you're delicate. No, you're not. You're doing whatever. You're doing things better than a lot of guys. I can tell you that right now. Hey, so I also have here. Um, growing up, you went through some pretty intense medical challenges. Uh, what was that experience like for both of you and how did that shape you? Uh, shape who you are today.
Speaker 3:So back when I was born and Kelly was born we were born at the same time.
Speaker 1:They're like a minute between you or anything.
Speaker 3:I was born first and Kelly was born second, one minute later. But I was born and my lungs had collapsed. So, even though I was born first, kelly got to go home first and I stayed in the hospital for two weeks because of my lungs collapsing and I could have not been here today, thankfully. Thankfully, I am breathing and singing with my lungs, which I think is kind of cool.
Speaker 2:I can, I can sing with your lungs that were collapsed.
Speaker 3:They didn't work at first, but now they work pretty well.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, so everything's fine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I haven't had any issues after that, thankfully. I'm just happy that I could be Kelly's twin sister and we can be here together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go. Now. Do you guys always get along like you're getting along here? No, thank you for being honest, because I have daughters probably pretty close to your age. I know how that is in the house, and somebody takes somebody's top or somebody wears somebody else's jeans, or hey, those are my shoes.
Speaker 3:I'm just saying we can just fight over the silliest things, but we do. We're like an old married couple, I believe it we still love each other though, no matter what, absolutely and uh, you moved.
Speaker 1:What gets me is you moved in Nashville in 2020. That was the pandemic.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Why did you did? Did you go before the pandemic or were you there?
Speaker 3:In the middle.
Speaker 1:All right. I have a question, one word why.
Speaker 3:Well, we graduated in 2020 and I had always planned to go to Nashville anyway, and right after we didn't have a job anyways, and so we really didn't. We weren't, we didn't have a reason to stay in Illinois, yeah, and we said, well, if we're going to do this, we might as well do it now, because we're always we're always going to have an excuse Well, this is not the right time, yeah, but we're like let's just do it. We'll go down there and at least make some connections and find a place to live.
Speaker 3:Find out the layout of Nashville, because we didn't know anything about Nashville, we didn't even know where downtown was.
Speaker 1:Have you ever been to Nashville before you made that trip?
Speaker 3:We did A couple times. Yeah, we came to Nashville in high school for a show choir, which is singing and dancing. It's a singing and dancing group in high school and we went to the Opry the Grand Ole Opry and we sang and danced on that stage. Kelly and I shared that circle together, so we were able to do that, but we weren't old enough really to go and enjoy the bars Nashville is a city, is a big city that we're not used to. It's very scary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's even bigger now. It gets bigger every single day. And, no offense, I know you play on Broadway a lot and there's so many different bars, places to go now, but I like to get out of town. I'll go to the station in.
Speaker 3:Places like that.
Speaker 1:A funny story is, I think just a couple of years ago, my wife and I flew out to go to the NASCAR race in Nashville and we went to the race and did all that. Then we went back to the hotel and I said come on, honey, let's take a walk. Let's go down on Broadway and see what's going on. I've been there quite often. She has not, so we get down there. There were so many people, the road was closed off, there were so many bachelorette parties, there were things going on on the corner that you don't want to talk about. There were fights. It's like all right, honey, I'm sorry. Nope, if you want to go and enjoy some nice music, go at 10 o'clock in the morning until about six o'clock, and then you took the words right out of my mouth Probably time to go.
Speaker 1:If we do that again, we'll go over like 10 or 11, walk Broadway. It won't be as crowded. There's music going. You and I both know, and anybody that's been there knows, that's nonstop music all day, so it doesn't matter what time of the day you go.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's true. Yeah, so did. When you work these places on broadway, were you working for tips? Only no there's a little bit of a base pay.
Speaker 3:Okay, base pay is just enough to help you rather than um depend on yeah, so they give you enough, so that you are mostly depending on the tips that you can make. So it's hard, especially slow season, which slow season for musicians and even bartenders on Broadway is between late December until early March. That's when tourists they really don't have a reason to come to Nashville because it's cold and icy and it's really not. It's not summertime, no holiday. So, people don't really come, and so we're kind of, when no one's there, we're playing to nobody.
Speaker 3:sometimes and we're not making much tips, which is kind of hard in the wintertime.
Speaker 1:What was when you did make the move? What was the most difficult thing for you making that transition?
Speaker 3:I would have to say, yeah, just really finding a place to live.
Speaker 1:A lot more than 2,500 people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I will say, though, moving in 2020 kind of made it a little bit easier for us to transition, because there was really no one on the road, because all the things were shut down and only some places were allowing people to drive to work. So that was kind of a blessing in disguise, because I think that if we would have moved at any time other than 2020 or 2021, we probably would not have stayed because of that's how bad the traffic is in Nashville, and Kelly and I we don't do it. We don't like traffic, we can't. That's not how we grew up.
Speaker 1:How would you, being you know the twins and Sarah and Kelly you're, you depend on each other? Probably quite a bit.
Speaker 2:Can I say that yeah?
Speaker 1:It's just awesome. I see you're both like best friends there and you know I mean. But maybe when the camera goes off it's you're arguing over the ice cream. No, that was my soda, that was my gatorade. I don't know you. You know, let me ask you this have a little bit, let's have a little bit of fun. Uh, if you could pick a theme song for your lives, what would it be and why? What would be your theme song?
Speaker 3:oh, I know it would probably be.
Speaker 1:Uh, sisters from white christmas yes, yes, oh my gosh with that one, but you know, one thing I always ask um artists like yourself is what's the best advice that you've ever been given?
Speaker 3:there's a lot of advice, yeah good, bad, indifferent I think one thing that kind of stuck with me is don't do music unless, like, don't do it because you love it. Is that what it was? Um, I think it's. Don't do it just because you like to do it. Yeah, do it as a business, because if you're not going to try and make money doing music, then you're not going to. Yeah, and you have to be okay with not liking some parts of doing music, like there's going to be hard parts and you have to be prepared to not like doing music sometimes because I love to do music. But there are just some days where I'm like this is hard, we want to quit. Don't do it, yeah, so don't do it because you just cause you love it. Do it because it's going to be a business. Yeah, I guess for me, uh, I got, I got some advice that was say yes to everything, and I really don't agree with that type of advice because I think it's okay to say no to, uh, opportunities that may not help your business.
Speaker 3:It's okay to say no to things that might jeopardize your business, yeah, and it's okay to say no to gigs that may not pay what you need to be paid, yeah. So I guess that's kind of an interesting advice that I got. It's not good advice.
Speaker 1:No, I agree with you, Sarah. Yeah 100%, because I know I had a thing for a minute. It's going okay, but no, I totally agree with you, because you can't say yes to everything. Only you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Only you know what you want to do. Only you Don't let somebody say just say yes to everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you might regret that, you're in trouble?
Speaker 1:Yeah, how say, just say yes to everything? Yeah, yeah, you might regret that trouble. Yeah, how well do you handle criticism? I have a tough time handling criticism I?
Speaker 3:yeah, I think we have a tough time. I think whenever we do get criticism, we have to talk to each other about it and be like okay.
Speaker 3:Well, this is why they said it. It's okay. It doesn't mean you're terrible. They said one thing that's going to help you it's not. They're not trying to break you down. Even if they are trying to break you down, take it and learn from it. Learn from it, yeah, and I mean, if worse comes to worse, we just call our mom and, yeah, make her, make us feel better mom, we want to come home, even though we don't take criticism, well, we get through it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how often do you get to? Do you talk to mom or dad?
Speaker 3:All the time. All the time. We probably call almost every day. Yeah, every other day. We talked to her just before we got onto this podcast, actually.
Speaker 1:Nice Now, do you have siblings besides we?
Speaker 3:do? We have two older siblings.
Speaker 1:They are half siblings so they're 20 years older than us.
Speaker 3:Wow, it's quite an age gap. We've got an older brother I get it and an older sister.
Speaker 1:Now do they visit.
Speaker 3:My sister. She will visit probably every other year and bring her kids and they just have a blast here in Music City. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I love it if, um, you could perform any. I have my questions here. Uh, if you. Normally I just wing this, like I told you, like I'm concentrating on too much who who's who, um, but uh, if you could perform anywhere in the world, where would it be? Where would you love to go?
Speaker 3:We thought about this yesterday and I think the place that we really want to perform is the Ryman, which is in Nashville. It's the mother church, is what they call it Also, yeah, red rocks.
Speaker 1:Red rocks, beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 3:Just because I'm sure the acoustics are fantastic and I would just cry if I heard what we could do there.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 3:We went and saw some artists perform at the Raymond and it was just a great experience. So that's why I would just love to perform there.
Speaker 1:Now have you had the opportunity to take in the country music, country radio seminar at all? Do you know what that is?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we haven't yet.
Speaker 1:We were hoping to In two weeks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's from like February 19th, 20 and 21st. Yes, I believe we have gigs on every single one of those days.
Speaker 1:But you're down on Broadway.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that is true. We also have Indiana too.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah. See, that's a good thing. It's a good thing you got the gigs. Going to the seminar doesn't pay the bills.
Speaker 3:But it's still something that we really want to do. I wanted to do it last year, but I don't know why we couldn't do it last year either, but I don't know why we couldn't do it last year either, but I don't know. It's one of the things that we will do.
Speaker 1:No, I get it. I totally get it. What's that?
Speaker 3:It's one thing that we will do, whether it's not this year, we'll do it next year or what we're going to.
Speaker 1:I just think it's a big plus, though, for artists If you're not out performing. It's a big yourselves that you can go down and and meet a lot of these people. Anybody and everybody is there, for all different levels, which is pretty cool. You get some great advice, you network, you know all the good stuff. So all the good stuff. So what is a day like in the life of kelly and sarah? I mean, do you get up, do you go work out? What do you do? You know?
Speaker 3:what's your day like? We think about working out every day. We think about it. That's as far as we get.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, what we do for our workout you don't have a peloton there in the living room.
Speaker 3:Come on I wish we do a lot of dancing.
Speaker 3:That's our workout every weekend we like to go dancing if we can, but I guess for a regular day. If we were going to do a gig on a what day do you want to do? It's always different every day we would. If we had, I would say we should do a friday. If we were going to get up on a friday, we would get up early, which I mean early to me is nine o'clock in the morning, but we would get up at eight and we would head down down downtown to our uh gig at the stage on broadway. It would start at 10 and then we would perform and perform until 2.15. Then we would get off and grab some lunch, probably at the Broadway Brewhouse.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is a great place. Good place, yes.
Speaker 3:We like to go there because it's like kind of chill, it's not loud, we just got done doing loud live music. Let's like take a break with our ears and have something good to eat, and there's also a discount for for performers. So then after that sometimes we'll have a gig out of town or we'll have one in town, whether it be at old red, or we would sometimes drive out to one of the surrounding towns. We'd even go go up to Kentucky. Sometimes I think we're going up to Kentucky after our gig on Friday in a couple weeks, going up to a casino. So our Fridays are usually really busy because we like to get just a couple gigs on that day.
Speaker 3:Because it's the weekend, that's when people go out, that's when people are listening to live music. So we'd go out, take our sound equipment most of the time. If we're going to go out of town and we'd set up our sound and we would play another four hour show, whether it is acoustic with Kelly and me and our guitar, or if it's full band with drums, bass and a guitar in us Uh, then after that we would probably either drive back home that same night or we would stay in a hotel and then drive back the next day. We like to always get a gig on a saturday as well, because, like fridays, that's when people want to go out and listen to some live music. Our days that we don't have gigs are a lot different. Oh yeah, but I mean, we're still always doing business work, it's not?
Speaker 1:a day off.
Speaker 3:Days off, they start with looking at emails, looking at statistics on how Spotify is doing or Apple Music or really anything Posting on social media.
Speaker 1:Social media posts.
Speaker 3:Just a lot of busy work. Oh yeah, Writing a song I also. Just this is how I like to start my day. I like to get up, do some Bible. Time really gets my head in the right spot. Absolutely, that's how I start my mornings, and then at night we get some hot tea.
Speaker 2:Yes, I love tea.
Speaker 3:We watch an episode or two on Netflix to just chill down.
Speaker 1:What have you been watching on Netflix?
Speaker 3:For some reason, what we've been watching lately has been body cam, which is okay. It's on discovery. They it's about police officers who have body cameras you see their point of view really and how the craziness that they have to deal with, which I'm like whoa, I didn't know they had to deal with all that yeah, like you get a lot of respect for police no, you do.
Speaker 1:When you start, when you watch those shows and it's reality television pretty much you see a whole different angle.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:You hear a whole different angle. That's our show right now. We've been binge-watching it.
Speaker 1:That's the way it's going. Netflix, baby, I don't know what it is, but it's like every night it's on, one after the other, after the other. But tell me about the birthday the Grand Ole Opry Plaza, the 99th birthday. You guys performed at that.
Speaker 3:That was just a really cool thing, because I think most of the time you don't get asked to play at an Opry event, but we were asked to bring our own original songs and some cover songs to the Opry Plaza's birthday the 99th celebration out there on the Plaza. There were people there and it was just, oh, it was amazing to be able to say that we played our own original songs at the Opry Plaza Exactly.
Speaker 1:There were people there. I like that you said there were people there. Of course there were people there. I mean, especially if you guys are playing, do you go by like Sarah and Kelly or Kelly and Sarah, is that what you go by?
Speaker 3:Right now that's what we go by Kelly and Sarah. I think we may change the name once we get a set band or maybe a label. If it comes to that, we're thinking about going with the Sutherland twins or just the Sutherlands, the Sutherlands yeah, that was our country name.
Speaker 1:I like that.
Speaker 3:No, and I liked it because it was our I think our great grandmother's maiden name. Yeah, Nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm like, I like it.
Speaker 3:That's the sound of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what a way to pay tribute, exactly, grandma.
Speaker 3:Yeah. We actually just wrote a song of about that side of the family too. It's not out yet, but it will be on our cd.
Speaker 1:It's called wind, if you want all right, tell us about the cd, oh yeah, so here it is we got. Oh, you just happen to have one next to you. Yes, that's cool it's supposed to look our own tracks online?
Speaker 3:um, just about um. We've got three. Well, let me see how many do we have out there?
Speaker 3:we got eight, eight that you can download off of our website. Then we have seven that are out on spotify and itunes and youtube and anywhere that you listen to music. But then on the cd we're gonna have 10 songs on there, two of the songs we are finishing up in the studio right now, and then the other song is ready to be sent out into the world. We just have have to wait on that for a minute, cool but this is the cd and it is up here.
Speaker 1:It just it's so convenient that you had it right there. That is so cool. I like the. Uh, what's the the art on it?
Speaker 3:it's hard it's supposed to look like you're looking down at a glass of whiskey with ice in it.
Speaker 1:Yep, now I see that. Yeah, because the album is all whiskey. No, absolutely, that's cool, that's cool. So if somebody wanted to, well, that's your CD. I guess it's not really available yet.
Speaker 3:Right, but you can pre-order it. You can pre-order it off of our website, kellysaramusiccom.
Speaker 1:Okay, perfect, you fell right into it. Pretty cool. So yeah, and so your socials. That's a lot of work. You guys do all that yourself.
Speaker 3:We do and especially at the beginning, it didn't come natural for us. We actually had to hire a social media consultant to help us out for the first couple months and we learned a lot from it. So now we're able to do it ourselves. We, oh my goodness, I can't believe how much work it actually takes to be consistent with social media. Thankfully there's two of us. I definitely understand how people do it as a career because it is a lot.
Speaker 1:That's why I was asking.
Speaker 3:We split it Kelly takes a load and I take the other load. I work mostly with making the posts and the reels and the captions and stories.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:Kelly works on commenting and messaging people and working on ads, and I know that more ads. So I think we split the load pretty easily.
Speaker 1:That must mean you're pretty good with like the graphics and all that too.
Speaker 3:Well, we're getting familiar yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know what you use, but I know a lot of things I do. I dive into Canva. I love. Canva. I have a pro account and I'm able to. You know that does everything you want it to do and it makes it makes it pretty easy.
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm definitely going to start using that a little bit more. I think we just got a subscription for it last week, so Yep, very cool.
Speaker 1:What do you if you were to give other female artists a bit of advice? Because it's been unfortunate? I hate this. The men kind of dominate the chart and now we're seeing a lot more females come on board. What advice could you give female artists? They want to be like you, they want to get on the radio, is there? What advice would you give them as a female?
Speaker 3:I would say, and then you can go. I would say work on your performance. A lot of female artists get up on the stage and assume that their voice can carry them as far as they think that they can go. But you have to be exciting to watch. And I wouldn't put too much into the way you dress, because I know that a lot of people, especially on Broadway, will dress kind of seductively and I don't think that that's necessary because you kind of want your voice to shine and not take what you're wearing away from that, but be entertaining to watch on stage. Move around, interact with the other people on the stage, interact with your audience. Look like you're having fun.
Speaker 1:Yes, Look like you're having fun. You are having fun, exactly you're having fun.
Speaker 3:Yes, I think like you're having fun.
Speaker 1:You are having fun, exactly. Yeah, have fun on stage, you know. I'll tell you a story. It's funny that you say that, um, doing what I do my radio side of things and we have the artists come through on a radio tour, and especially before covet, it was like every week we'd have a different artist come by. These two young ladies showed up I won't mention names, but they showed up like they might, as they had like all it was was a bikini.
Speaker 1:All it was you know, I mean they had a skimpy top, skimpy skimpy shorts and all this. You know the belly, the, the piercings and all that and it's like all right, wait a minute, why are you doing? All right, wait a minute, why are you doing? I actually said something to the label. I said it's great that you sent these people to me, but if it's not about their looks, it's not, it's not their music. If they think their looks are going to get them played on the radio, that's not going to happen. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, and I'm a guy saying this going oh, timeout, timeout, don't do that, don't do that In a really bad, bad way have a little bit of class.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the way I look at and that's what I told the label and they, you know what? They, they weren't upset at me at all. They, they said thank you, we need that feedback and we will pass it along. But it should have never have gotten to that, because before most artists go out on a radio tour, they've been through a briefing with their label or whoever, for you know how you're supposed to look, how you're supposed to act and all that.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I'd say that's my advice. What would? What would be your advice? You have any? Oh, it was. It was that. That was it. Yeah, performance and what you wear is important it's not what you wear.
Speaker 1:Stop, stop. Oh man, you guys are awesome. Now I lost my train of thought, but let's see. So that's Kelly in the blue and Sarah. Okay, I got it. I've been going through this all the time, but it's very cool that you guys are twins and you live together and you love each other the way you do and you're performing together and you both have that equal amount of passion. From what I can see and you know, I can only imagine or maybe I can't imagine you tell me what's it like for you guys on stage? What are you all over the place? Do you get into it? Do you jump up on the speakers? Do you climb the scaffolding? I don't know. Tell me a little bit about your stage performance.
Speaker 3:We really just like to have fun and play off of each other yeah. It depends on where we are going to perform, Like if it's for a festival for only two hours, then that allows us to create more of a show to watch. If it's just, if it's Broadway, we just we want, we want to play what the audience wants to hear.
Speaker 3:We want to yeah, we want to play with the audience once to hear. We want, yeah, we want to play with the audience once to hear, and we will show the lyrics of the song on our faces.
Speaker 3:And we just like to I don't know. We like to look at each other and acknowledge each other, but it would just be different if it were a two-hour show, Because then we're able to focus on each song and say, okay, I'm gonna go and do this during this part, you should do that during that part. We could do this kind of thing at the same time and a lot of times that will make its way into broadway shows as well. Yeah, it's kind of funny how we have to actually plan some of those things that look spontaneous. Uh, we did a lot of reading and research on how to perform. So, like live music is just, it's a whole thing that I think that if you're going to be a live music musician, you should probably read more about how to perform on stage, cause that's one thing that we really didn't get taught much when we were in college, you know, I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't think there's any does taught much when we were in college, you know, I don't I don't think there's any does.
Speaker 3:Do they have people that do that? I know that there's like live music producers and they can help you create a show pleasing to the eye, because most of concerts are through your eyes, like that's 70 percent of a concert.
Speaker 3:I say it's 100, you're right yeah, right, so we have to be interesting to watch. So we learned that there's different spots on the stage and there's different levels. Like you can bend down, you can stand up there's certain times in the songs or which songs you should do. You can even use your mic, stand there's just any, yeah, yeah so many different things you can do and we like to go?
Speaker 1:do you watch any particular female artists on stage? Do you go to YouTube and go? You know, let's see what. I'm only using this as an example. Let's see what Miranda's doing.
Speaker 3:So much of research. We've gone on YouTube. We've actually gone to concerts just to do research. We've gone to see Carrie Underwood and how she would do things on stage and learn so much from her. Her band was even involved. It wasn't just her doing all the work, it was the band backing her up that was getting engaged and moving around on the stage as well. We also studied Bon Jovi, a lot of Bon Jovi.
Speaker 2:Oh, mind blowing.
Speaker 3:And he has so many cool ideas that we really like we are able to Sparks ideas for us, Spark ideas from yeah.
Speaker 1:Have you seen Bon Jovi there in Nashville? Because I know he was there for a period of time.
Speaker 3:He wasn't known, but I did not see him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of people did I know they did.
Speaker 3:I heard all about it. I was kind of jealous.
Speaker 1:What about, if I may ask, and you don't have to answer this what about relationships? You're young, you're beautiful, you're twins, uh, but you're trying to live your life, too, by, you know, through your music and with your music. Do you have time? Oh?
Speaker 3:it's definitely hard to juggle well back, especially when we were doing our daytime job and our music job. We focused only on the music and the business and how to build it, because if we had any distractions, we weren't going to be a hundred percent in growing our business. We were just starting the business, so we needed all hands on deck.
Speaker 1:I love your thinking. And well, the good news is it took two years of loneliness, but no, it's loneliness, but is it really You're doing something you love and you know what you want to get out of it? Yeah, you get it. It's priorities.
Speaker 3:Right, and it was a lot of saying no. But we also. We were able to enjoy our time on stage with our friends and everything, absolutely, but thankfully, in 2024, we were able to migrate to more of a social life. Yeah, because we were able to quit our other jobs and now we have a little bit more time to maybe find somebody and we're still like powering forward with our music career. But we can.
Speaker 3:We can welcome dating into the life while also keeping an eye on not getting distracted, like we definitely have each other to, to make sure we are keeping ourselves on track.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, that's good yeah.
Speaker 3:So I kind of have an interest right now. Uh, we've been seeing each other for like what six, seven months now. We haven't gotten boarded.
Speaker 1:Your sister.
Speaker 3:I don't care, I don't know. Kelly, she's what Single Pringle? Well, I guess she's gone a couple days. Nothing that is stealing my heart yet.
Speaker 1:Kelly. What do you think of her?
Speaker 3:I think it's because of me that she has him. She's on board.
Speaker 2:I am very much on board.
Speaker 3:We're like besties, so yeah, and I guess like if you weren't on board then I wouldn't still be interested, because that's kind of what happened with you A few folks that she's gone on dates with I've just not been 100% with. So that's why she's gone on dates with I've just not been a hundred percent with, so that's why she's not with them anymore.
Speaker 1:That's a great relationship, though. You know each other so well, so well, and if one will see something that's just not right, something so good for you. Now I won't go any deeper with that, that's, you know. I just really see I hope people when they listen to this and they watch this and somebody that wants to's you know, I just really see I hope people when they listen to this and they watch this, and somebody that wants to do what you're doing listens to what you're saying and how you have to set your priorities. You should be proud of that. I know you are, and absolutely that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3:A lot of discipline. That's what it takes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Very cool If you could play anywhere in the world. Well, I already asked you that, didn't I?
Speaker 3:But the collaboration, though, if you could play with anybody her up is just so interesting and her performing is out of the box and her voice is just.
Speaker 1:I just really respect everything about reba mcintyre and what she does on stage and off stage I'm so glad you said that, because reba is what got me into country and I and I named my very first yellow lab. We have yellow labs, reba. I love it. Well, I don't know if Reba loved it, because the first time I met Reba backstage at the New York State Fair, I don't know many, many, many, many years ago, and I was like so starstruck because that was the one person you know and I said you know, I named my dog after you and then I thought don't open the door, I'll go under it when I leave, just. But she goes. Oh, that's so sweet. You know she's got that and I've been in love with Reba since day one. It's why I'm doing country. I saw Reba at the country radio seminar a couple of years ago and it was just, she was phenomenal, phenomenal I can imagine yeah, what about you kel?
Speaker 3:um, I would have to say probably ian munzik.
Speaker 1:He's up yes, no, no. I spent a weekend uh in boston uh watching him and we went to fenway and stuff it was. I went with his label and we hung out. Ian is pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know he has a great personality. I have a friend who worked with him a little bit and his performing is just insane. And he's also putting different sounds in his music and he just makes it so unique?
Speaker 3:I don't know, I would just love to learn from him. I feel like I would learn from him just by performing with him. I don't know, I would just love to learn from him. I feel like I would learn from him just by performing with him. Yeah, cause it's like his charisma that he has on stage is just something else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. I love that. So if somebody wanted to get ahold of your music, they can go on. What is the website again?
Speaker 3:It is Kelly Sarah musiccom.
Speaker 1:Kelly, sarah. Again, it is kelly, sarah, musiccom. Kelly, sarah or kelly and sarah. Kelly, sarah, gotcha, musiccom. And you're on all the socials, so if somebody was to google you they would definitely find you. Well, whiskey is out there. The song rocks.
Speaker 2:In case you missed it, it's sounds well, whiskey got me up and down and stumbling around.
Speaker 1:Sounds like you're right from the very beginning.
Speaker 1:Me too, and they said it wasn't going to work. What the hell are they thinking? That's crazy. That's crazy. But hey, thank you. Thank you for coming on tonight with Skip Happens. I hope you had a good time. You know you can tell grassroots hey, skip is cool. But maybe I'll see you out and about in Nashville in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll take a walk down onto Broadway, I'll find out where you're playing or whatever, and we'll figure it out. I'd just love to say hello and thank you in person for coming on. Skip Happens, you ladies have something to look forward to. You're going to gonna be stars. You're already halfway there, um, and you got your priorities in order. Everything, everything's just falling into place for you. So you know, and you got each other to fall back on too. Yeah, you know me. Each of you have a shoulder, oh, I know. So, real quick, before we say goodbye, is there a a song that really gets you going? Is there any song from anybody that'll get you going?
Speaker 3:um, I would probably say brooks and dunn um oh yeah, do you line dance to that? Yeah.
Speaker 1:I get it.
Speaker 3:It's just a good song and Brooks and Dunn, they're a duo. They have great harmonies. They're so talented.
Speaker 1:And they're back out touring. How cool is that? I just want to see them one more time before they do call it quits and Rascal Flatts. They're back together and they're out, and their new single, I Dare you, is with the Jonas Brothers.
Speaker 3:I'm going to have to write that down. It'll be our new jam.
Speaker 1:And it just got sent to radio here recently. It's called I Dare you and it's Rasko Flats featuring the Jonas Brothers.
Speaker 3:That is so cool, I wrote it down.
Speaker 1:I love that. All these collaborations, it gets crazy. Kelly, sarah, thank you. Thank you for being on. Skip Happens.
Speaker 3:Thanks for letting us come.
Speaker 1:Please, you're welcome anytime. And it goes back to the people that are helping you out, our friends at Grassroots. They reached out and said I got Sarah and Kelly, do you want to talk to them? Oh wait a minute, it's Kelly and Sarah. But I said, absolutely, let's do it. You know, cause I love finding out about the new artist or even the independent artist. I know you've been doing it for a little bit, but it's so very cool, so very cool, and you're trying to live your dream.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, thanks for coming on, skip Happen. Stay right there Everybody, please, if you can subscribe, right? You know we're live on YouTube, we're live on my Facebook, but if you can subscribe on YouTube, that'd be greatly appreciated. And make sure you check out KellySaraMusiccom. Correct, okay, and I get everything, kelly, sarah, so that's all right. Ladies, thank you for joining me tonight. Stay right there. Good night everybody. Thanks for having us on you guys.
