The Band Perry Credit Their Success to ‘Creative Tension’

The three siblings that make up the Band Perry -- Kimberly, Reid and Neil Perry -- admit that living together on and off the road makes them long for their own space sometimes, but they wouldn't have it any other way.

"Being in close quarters on the road, it brings out the best in you and the worst in you," Kimberly tells the San Jose Mercury News. "It's almost like there's a creative tension sometimes. And there's creative release. You really have to have both sides of that to come out with the best product."

The brothers and sister also owe much of their success to genetics, and a unique upbringing. "Dad was the rock 'n' roll lover, and Mom loved country," Reid reveals. "I remember every Saturday evening, after Garrison Keillor had his radio program, there would be an hour of bluegrass. So we were having all these musical tastes coming at us from different directions. That gave us an appreciation for many forms of music."

Those formative years were a foreshadow of things to come. "We used to take family vacations in the summer and this one particular summer, we rented this tiny little RV and piled all five of us into it, including our parents, and there were really long drives out west," recalls Kimberly. "One night, our mother drove the night shift and the three of us just sat around her and started singing songs in three-part harmonies. That's our earliest memory of doing that together. It's a really special memory."

They may be adults now, but they can still recreate that moment anytime they want, since their Mom stays on the road with them. "She is our biggest fan, but also our greatest critic," Kimberly notes. "We love that. It makes us tweak our songs and our sets. And our Dad mans the fort. We live up in East Tennessee now, because we needed to get closer to Nashville. So he works from home and takes care of a lot of the scheduling. Another role they play is just keeping us in the right head space and staying encouraged."

The three singers each had bands as children, with Kimberly fronting her own group at the age of 15, while her little brothers made a name for themselves as the Mobile Music Machine. The big sister then went on to begin her career as a solo artist -- and may have continued down that path if not for the fortuitous words of one of her former band members.

"The first guitar player I ever had always used to say, because band members would flux in and out, 'Kimberly, your band's never going to be right, until it's you and your brothers.'" she recalls. "It was prophetic for him to say that. We ended up tying the knot as a band about six years ago."

Seems like a permanent partnership now. Their third single, 'You Lie,' is at No. 5 on the charts and still climbing. The trio are on the road with Tim McGraw on his Emotional Traffic tour, along with fellow opening act Luke Bryan. They will also head out with Keith Urban to play the Canadian leg of his Get Closer tour. Keep tabs on their concert schedule here.