Twin Love Interviews The Henningsens.

Thursday afternoon, we had the pleasure of hanging out at EMI with some of the most gifted and down to earth people that we have yet to stumble upon here in Nashville, the amazing and talented, Henningsens.  While relatively new to the Nashville scene, these guys are making some major waves namely via songwriting, having written and/or cowritten 5 of the 12 tracks on The Band Perry‘s self titled debut album includinggg their current, almost number one, single “You Lie.”  They also recently got a major cut on Sara Evans’ latest album.  Don’t get it confused though, these guys are more than just songwriters, they are artists.  The family band, consisting of Bryan (Dad) and two of his awesomely good looking kids, Aaron and Clara, are first class performers with crazy good vocals, rockin’ stage presence, and obviously, amazing amazing amazing songs.  We absolutely love these guys. Absolutely.  They’re fresh, and fun, and just what this industry needs.  They’re also really genuinely great people and we’re so glad to know them!  So.. wanna know a little about them?!

What brought you guys to Nashville?

Clara: What brought us to Nashville? Originally not music.  Years ago we came down here because Dad wanted to restore an old house,  and so my parents bought a really old house that was pretty run down, so they could fix it up.

What got you into songwriting

Bryan: I did singer songwriter stuff back in the 90’s.  I wrote some music back then but I’d never written country.  Aaron went to college and switched from being a drummer to playing guitar and he started writing some really cool stuff.
Aaron: It was jazz/folk funk/rock/rap/acoustic/reggae/bluegrass.  I was in a band.
Bryan: Yeah, so we met this guy who was an inspiring country writer, and we’d all written a little bit of music, but no country it was kind of more folky.  Aaron’s was a little more rock/alternative stuff, and Clara had written a little bit with her sister up in Illinois.  It was just kind of middle of the road, folky stuff.  We had never written together, and this guy convinced us to go to the Bluebird Cafe.  And so, he had a ticket, you’ve gotta have a two timer ticket to get in and to actually play, and he let us have it, so we all got single tickets that night.

Did you guys play together?

Bryan:  No, we did something separate.  I think I did a song, maybe Clara and Aaron did a song they had written together,  and then we went back, and on the way home that night we had an idea for a song, and so we said ‘well let’s write it.’  The next day we got together and we wrote our first song called, “Just Between You And Me.”  The next week we went back to the Bluebird Cafe, and Aaron played guitar and Clara sang and that was the first time we’d ever done that.

How was the reaction?

Bryan: Crowd reaction was really cool, which I thought, ‘aww this is gonna be dorky, nobody wants to see a family.’

Do you think doing the family thing has worked as an advantage, or does it get rough some times?

Clara: Oh it gets rough
Bryan: As far as I know we’re the only father daughter trio out there, right now.  I mean, The Wilkinsons did it for a while, but we didn’t even set out to do this, it just kind of evolved out of us beginning to write for a while.  Me and Aaron were writing a lot of stuff together so me and him would go to writers nights and play together, but then it always seemed like it had the most impact when Clara would sing.  So we just kept writing and writing and writing and now here we are at EMI.

The Henningsens are a huge family, how did you three get together and do your other siblings do the music thing as well?

Aaron: They all kind of do a little bit.
Clara: Yeah, they all can sing.  We have a brother and sister between us and both of them can sing really well but they’re in Illinois, married and have babies, so it’s kind of hard.
Bryan: Well, the younger ones are coming on, we don’t, like, push them to do music, it’s not like our family enterprise to do music, this is just our thing we started to do, and it took off and flourished.  So we’re just goin’ with it.

Bryan, you used to do a solo thing how did you get into that?

Bryan:  I started in the 70’s.  I did stuff in high school, towards the end of high school I was in my first band, and when I was in college I was in some country bands. I kept doing it, all through the 80’s I played country, and towards the end I was in a couple good bands, to where we just started thinking maybe we should branch out and go a little wider, regionally.   Eventually I got tired of the life style and I just quit.  Then, in the 90’s I wrote sort of James Taylorish, more like Christian songwriter stuff with a folky edge; sort of life songs.  It was just kind of middle of the road, couldn’t quite predict it.  And I made some contacts in Nashville in the ’90’s and I was talking to a record company and a couple of publishers down here.  Even then I don’t think they quite knew what to do with me.  I wasn’t real main stream.  Then I took over my family’s farm, in ’96, my dad got hurt real bad in an accident.  In fact we were on our way to Nashville when it happened.

So tell us about the songwriting process as a family.

Clara: A lot of arguments, but I don’t know, It’s different every time.

Do you ever not agree on a song?

All: Yea.
Bryan: It freezes up a little because you don’t have to be near as polite as a family, but it’s also a hindrance because we sit down with a co write and we’re like, a free for all.  Some people, especially those from a small family, aren’t used to conflict.

So you probably really bonded well with The Band Perry, having the whole family thing in common?

Bryan: Actually yea, it’s been a very cool learning experience, because they’re a lot different.  They’re much nicer than we are.  We tease each other a lot.  I think it took them a while to figure out that we like to tease.
Aaron: Also, the more we write together the more we understand each other’s philosophies on things; we have different roles.  I’m pretty good and knowing and feeling a song whenever I hear something, I’ll be able to say “well this doesn’t fit right or this doesn’t feel like the right emotion coming out of that.”  Clara for instance, she’s pretty good with coming up with a melody off the top of her head, she’s brilliant.  And dad, he’s kind of more of the crafter, he’s better at kind of coming up with the lyrics.
Clara: He’s the lyricist.
Aaron: So we tend to kind of trust each other a little bit more than even we did a year ago, with, if I have a feeling, or if Dad has some lyrics.  I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, and agree with him right away, or the same if Clara has a melody.
Bryan: Because I’m usually always right.
Aaron.  Yea, most of the time you’re half right…
Bryan. Three quarters right.  Three quarters and seven eights right.

One of the things that attracted us to you guys was in fact your writing.  The wordplay and the structure, we think it’s so fresh.  What do you think makes it so successful?

Bryan: Sometimes I can’t pick that out because I’m not immersed in anything else, so we go play it for the publisher and they go “Oh my god! That’s so fresh” and I don’t know why but we do a little bit of unconventional stuff.   We draw from a really large source of styles that we like.   I mean, I go clear back to the 70’s and Aaron was playing in the 90’s so we’ve got this big pool that we’re drawing from all the time and I love wordplay.  We used to sit around and read poetry like 1700’s, 1800’s and we’d sit around and read at night and you just get used to unusual sentence structures, and the way they describe stuff, trying to think outside the box.  I really got turned onto Wendell Berry.  It’s like the greatest thing I’ve ever read in my life.

Tell us a little bit about the artist thing, you guys got goin’ on.

Clara:  I think we do have the common string with the Perry’s, being that we are a family band, but we’re a lot different.  Occasionally I will sing something or Dad or Aaron will sing something, so it’s not just all about me.
Bryan: I think we will be a lot different because we have a different dynamic.  With The Band Perry, the boys are so cool with their presentation and just all about the stage and you know, Neil’s got a multiple instrument kind of deal and Kimberly’s just a star, and… we’re just different.  We’re a little more laid back, we’re a little more country and folkier with the songs that we gravitate to.

Do you think you’re going for anything, or are you just going to be The Henningsens and rock it?

Aaron: Rock it.

Who are your favorite country artists right now?

Clara: Miranda Lambert.
Bryan: We like Blake Shelton, and Randy Houser, but sometimes it’s more of the song than the artist.  We like some stuff that Eric Church has done.
Aaron: I like “Mean.”
Bryan: Yea, I love that song.

Okay soo we’re going to play a game.  We’re going to say a word and you tell us the first thing that comes to your mind.

Lindsey Lohan:

Aaron: Drugs
Clara: Jail
Bryan: Red hair

Nashville:

Clara: Country
Aaron: Greed
Bryan: Fun

Crow:

Bryan: Eat it
Aaron: Sheryl
Clara– The Band Perry

Kimberly:

Clara: Perry
Bryan: Star

Twin:

Clara: Love
Bryan: The Dryburgh Twins

Yourfavoriteblogever  😉

All: Twin Love!

Country Music:

Bryan: Paul Worley
Clara: Brad Paisley
Aaron: Miranda Lambert

Henningsen:

Aaron: Crazy
Clara: Disfunctional, or german would be a good one

(We also ran into Laura Bell Bundy, we made her jump in the photo.)

• Aaron Henningsen
• Bryan Henningsen
• Clara Henningsen
• emi
• Interview
• Laura Bell Bundy
• Sarah Evans
• The Band Perry
• The Henningsens
• Twin Love
• Wendell Berry
• You Lie