BAND HISTORY
"We were once trio vampire hunters, we lived in upstate New York. As time went on, Jennifer and Laura figured out that I myself am the vampire. So they were trying to actually slaughter me so I went on bloodsucking rampage… And then there was time travel, I believe, and there was the golden plated cockroach involved. They got me, tied me up and chained me over the rail track. I lost my head and moustache and top hat. And then they shot me with a stun gun. I liked it too much so they had to get another stun gun!"
- Miyuki Furtado (vocals, bass)
No, not quite. That's just a mini-fiction SUPERSWEET asks them to come up with, just a little something to go with our photoshoot. See, the 'Sisters are made of two Detroitites and a Hawaiian, they all met in New York which is where they're all now based. To be in the same band with siblings, the girls get to be "totally spoiled, totally," as both Jennifer (vocals, guitar) and Laura (drums, vocals) Rogers will later admit.
"I was in another band before this and so was Laura. And then we were like, 'let’s try playing together,' and it kind of worked. So we wanted another person who turned out to be this guy." Jennifer points her third 'sister' out. Unlike most bands with all-men-with-fronting-female format, they are lucky enough to be able to do something a little different. It was by chance that they happened to break this rock and roll cliché, "What really links us together is that we have similar taste in music and humour that we kind of clicked straight away." Miyuki adds.
The girls also own a bar in Williamsburg, it was born way before they knew that The Rogers Sisters could become a career path. "Laura and I opened the bar with my husband which at the time was my boyfriend. We kind of used the bar as our source of income. Thank god we opened it because right after there was the money," she laughs. " We got tired of looking for jobs when we were out on the road so much. We couldn’t have kept our other jobs and we wouldn’t have been able to do the band because there would have been no money and there would be no job to get back to." Miyuki quickly interrupts, "Like myself!" before bursting out laughing.
Life isn't all that peachy yet for the 'Sisters. Being able to write songs on the road is still a luxury they can't afford as Jennifer explains, "If we had a tourbus, and a roadie, someone to put the equipments together for us, making us breakfast. Then maybe we can have a bit of spare time to do stuff, but we still drive the van ourselves sometimes. We still do everything ourselves."
With this line-up, the band have had to date two major releases which are called 'Purely Evil' and 'Three Fingers' respectively, and a new album 'The Invisible Deck' is also right on the way!
They cite The Slits as one of their main influences on 'Three Fingers'. Is it just the musical elements that they look up to or is it the ass-kicking attitude too? Since The Slits are rather well known for their 'girl-power' punk ethics who still yearn for a revolution.
"Our mission ultimately has never been to provoke any ideas, we just wanted to have fun," Jennifer giggles with her sister. "That’s one of the things people ask us a lot, about our politics and stuff like that. There are bands that use music to express some ethical issues but I don’t think it’s ever really worked. Some lyrics are like poetry and it's great because it opens up the different side of your brain," she pauses with a frisky smile. "But actually... there are also other things you do like reading a book!"
For 'The Invisible Deck', the band opts for something a little darker, more mature yet extremely melodic and welcoming as their subject matters are now somewhat a little less abstract. A smart move with the signature intact that many bands could only fantasise about. "We made some conscious decisions, but they’re not forced, they still are us. We did have a talk about song structures and vocal arrangements. We don’t want to make the same thing every time. We still want to have a lot of fun so we try to stay with that but with different ideas," she ponders. "Also this time we were very confident, very conscious with the way the songs fit together as a whole album so we know we want to have a good flow," Miyuki adds.
They have finished with the album that has a month or so and right now they are, "kind of in the middle of figuring out what to record next," as Miyuki will say. Being in the music business isn't the easiest thing any outsiders imagine. Still, it doesn't need to be so slippery, "We’ve always done things ourselves, we initiated the deals ourselves. It’s an ethic, you can choose to be working with the nice people, from the same level to the step above."
"There are some mean people as well… but then again, there are people like that everywhere!" Laura smiles.
"Our dad was in music business so he warned us all about it," Jennifer muses, "He discouraged us about being in a band. So from the beginning, we didn’t want it to be a business, it was more about having people watch us play," she laughs, "Around us."
Sounds like a perfect business then!