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Interview: Eisley’s Sherri Dupree on family, anxiety and approaching the band anew
Indie pop-rock darlings Eisley have a new album out called I’m Only Dreaming. Singer/songwriter Sherri Dupree took time out of her hectic schedule to talk to The Key about the current tour, working with family, and some of the changes in the lineup. They headline tonight at The Foundry of The Fillmore Philadelphia; tickets and more information on the show can be found at the XPN Concert Calendar.
The Key: First thing’s first, you have a new album out today, how are you feeling?
Sherri Dupree: To be very completely honest, I just woke up and that was why this interview was even delayed because like, if my kids don’t wake me up I’m just gonna sleep. So they didn’t wake up til like 1:30 so I saw you called me and I was like “oh no I have an interview, I just spaced out!” So um, I feel great considering how much I just slept. Our first show of the tour was last night so I think just the buildup to that was so intense and the record release, so I think my body was just like you need to just sleep. So I feel good, really good!
TK: Excellent! I think the last time I saw you guys in Philadelphia was at TLA, you were on tour with Copeland. I was photographing that show and the kids were out in the pit – are they joining you on this entire tour as well?
SD: Hah yes I’ve got the kiddos. It’s fun – it gives me…it keeps me really super busy but um you know honestly there’s a good amount of downtime on tour between VIP meetings or orchestra or sound checks and stuff so you know. It fills in the gap of me just sitting around doing nothing being useless.
TK: And now this album is the first one with some kind of notable departures in the group here. Did this change the way that you and Garron approached recording the album?
SD: Um, I think honestly it just was very natural, the whole process, you know considering we lost a lot of band members right before all of it happened. I think we’ve gotten [encouragement] from Will Yip. He was just so in love with the band. That was really inspiring to us, you know; we’d been through this kind of weird situation where we’d lost people in the band and it’s been years of being the same band and now it’s different and we’re kind of like ahh scary – for me at least you know. But I think you know Will just really took our songs and helped me get focused and just make this amazing record that I’m so proud of. But as far as writing or recording, you know the process is pretty the same. You know, Garron plays most of the guitar and then I do all of the vocals of course. It didn’t really change much within the actual recording process of having different members.
TK: I grabbed the album this morning so I’ve only had to chance to give it a once over so far, and it’s absolutely fantastic
SD: Thank you!
TK: You’re there front and center on vocals on this one – you’ve always kind of been open about your anxiety, and I know that’s helped a lot of people who suffer from anxiety. Did that add anything to it, being kind of the focal point on the vocals this time?
SD: You know, honestly, I was pretty sad before we started this record I have to be honest. There was a period of time where I was just, I was kind of faced with losing a band even because I was like “oh no, it’s all falling apart, what’s happening.” And so of course there’s a big opportunity for anxiety to come into your life and just like eat you alive. But, I have so much faith in the project and the music and I have so much faith in my love of music and Garron’s factor into the project that it really helped me and I was able to just gather all the encouragement from everyone and really put that energy into the record and the writing. If I hadn’t had all these people rallying around me going “you can do this, don’t worry, stop worrying, you’ve got this, you’ve been doing this for years, it’s ok,” I probably would have just collapsed under the pressure but um, you know once I kind of blew past that it became this beautiful gleaming process of, you know just wonderful … my love for music was able to just really come out and I think you can hear that in the record.
TK: I definitely picked that up. I caught that “Louder Than a Lion,” which you did with Anthony Green, was about your kids. And “You Are Mine” seems to be kind of a relationship song, and the perils of marriage and the compromises that have to be made. What other areas did you pull for the other music on this album?
SD: Well there are a couple of songs that are just straight up kind of fictional, I mean they’re love songs or just songs about pain, just that anyone could relate to or wrap around their own experience, which I think is really important if you’re a song writer. I think it’s obviously to write songs – even if they’re about something you went through, to make them relatable so that everyone can attach themselves to that character because that’s how I connect to songs. So there are songs about being a parent on there, songs about my daughter, but those are also still kind of you know relatable even if don’t have kids, you can still relate to the songs. I think if you put on the record, overall you’re going to think oh this is a love record about heartbreak and beauty. Just you know, life as it is growing up.
TK: Your kids are obviously front and center in your life, they’re all over your instagram page, you and your husband Max are always working together. Do your kids listen to your music? They’re still relatively young. Are they always clamoring for mom to put on her new record?
SD: Oh yeah, I mean, thankfully for now at least in Sam, my 2 year old, is always requesting mommy’s songs which basically means any song off the new record. So far they’re really big fans. I don’t expect that to always be the case haha. But I feel lucky so far for now that I have these little supporters
TK: And Will max be with you on this tour? Is he coming along?
SD: Yeah he’s here, it’s so awesome. Especially because this is my first tour essentially with Eisley that I don’t have one of my sisters. We were really close so for me it was a big deal – he was able to come on this tour because he’s not touring right now or working on a record so this was a big transition for me. I was really happy to have my husband here, made it so much easier
TK: And I know that you’ll probably be really busy with this tour so the immediate future might not be known, but I’ve heard rumors that you guys are working on a new Perma project.
SD: Yeah we’re gonna start working on it probably on this tour. We have my cousin Garron, who plays bass in the band and helps us write for Eisley, he’s going to record it for us kind of on the fly maybe in dressing rooms and kind of, as we move along through this tour just kind of casually. It’s just for fun you know. I really love Perma, it’s my husband obviously so I’m excited to get that going on this tour
TK: Well that’s awesome, thank you so much for speaking with me today. We’re looking forward to seeing you at The Fillmore Philly!
SD: Thank you so much! I’m stoked, I love Philly! See you soon!
Eisley plays The Foundry of The Fillmore Philadelphia on March 6, 2017; tickets and more information on the show can