Girl Tones
The recent band founded by two sisters from outside the music mecca of Nashville has seen a startling rise — and they have the receipts to back it up. Girl Tones has been slowly and methodically releasing a string of polished earworms that land squarely at the intersection of familiarity and originality. Their latest of these singles, “Blame,” came out May 14 following a whirlwind of fanfare. But they’re only just getting started.
Sisters Kenzie and Laila are gearing up for a busy summer of touring and a big release, but first, they were kind enough to answer a few of my burning questions about their recent goings on.
YY: The music video for your latest single plays up the sibling rivalry trope. Did sibling rivalry affect your musical development growing up? How would you say healthy competition with each other continues to play a role in the band, if at all?
Laila: I would say it was more of a joint interest in music that contributed to us bonding as siblings rather than causing any competition within our relationship as sisters. We’ve never been ones to try to outdo one another in any aspect. We’re not very competitive as people in general I’d say. We really just work well together because of our passion for music. It’s really a blessing to be able to have a great personal and working relationship with your sibling.
Sticking to your roots, the video was filmed in Nashville’s Dive Hotel. A legendary music town with a diverse, prevailing music community, how do you think coming from the Nashville area helped shape the band in its early stages?
Kenzie: We live about an hour outside of Nashville in Kentucky, and I will say I feel like Kentucky gets looked over a little bit as far as music, especially being so close to Nashville. Nashville has of course helped us a lot but I have to say we really cut our teeth playing small gigs and house shows all over Kentucky. These days we do a lot more business in Nashville and it’s just always lovely. Nashville is like a second home to us. We spent a long weekend at the Dive a couple years ago for my birthday and absolutely fell in love with the location. So it was kind of a no-brainer to film there.
I understand you’re both classically trained. You’ve shared that you think of yourselves as “genre-less” and that your upcoming album will back up that claim, demonstrating your ability as a band to shape shift among styles of rock-and-roll and across genres. Did you run into any difficulties when piecing together such a stylistically diverse collection of songs?
Laila: We have always wanted our album to have diversity in its sound. We try to create a balance throughout the whole of it so nothing feels too out of place or random. It feels like it flows naturally in the album. We both have a wide variety of music that we are listening to and enjoying at any time, so of course that will come across in the music we make. We never want to paint ourselves in a corner in any way. We try to be mindful of that.
In that same vein, is there ever any decision as to which style a song should adopt?
Kenzie: There's no deciding really! It either happens one way or another. That’s the beauty of music. You could write a song on fuzzy electric guitar, but in the studio, it could feel right to do it on piano. Then you have two ways to play it live!
Kenzie shares that she originally wrote “Blame” completely differently and changed the lyrics after revisiting it in the studio much later. How recently were some of your older songs written, and do you see it as a strength to be able to take older ideas and build from them, or is potential dissatisfaction with that material more of a hinderance when writing today?
Laila: I believe that “Blame” would be one of our earlier songs that we still play! I don’t recall exactly when we started working on “Blame,” but it would have probably been about six or more years ago if I had to guess. I see it as a strength. It leaves any of our older material that maybe was never finished or that we no longer relate to on the table really. We can always bring aspects of things we’ve done in the past and revive them into something that works better for the present.
Girl Tones has recently toured with bands like Cage The Elephant, The Velveteers, and hey, nothing, and will soon play alongside a myriad of others this summer — how have your early experiences on the road with bigger bands contributed to the evolution of the band?
Kenzie: Oh, it’s all been a tremendous blessing and challenge for us. Poor Laila had a sinus infection for the majority of the Europe tour, but no one could even tell. Each tour feels like we are figuring out more and more. Physically we feel stronger playing every night. It’s just so much fun.
Can you share an artist or album you’ve had on repeat as of late?
Laila: Definitely “Mayhem” by Lady Gaga. That was our album of the entire West Coast tour.
You’ve already had a busy 2025 and show no signs of slowing down any time soon. Aside from becoming the inaugural signer to a brand new label, touring North America with Silversun Pickups, and playing your festival debut at some of the country’s most notable festivals, what’s next for Girl Tones?
Kenzie: For one, we hope to get the full album out this year! One of our favorite things on earth is playing shows, so that is ultimately what’s next. We’ve already hit incredible bucket list things and are grateful for every single one.
Catch Girl Tones out on the road this summer as they support Silversun Pickups through July and August, also making debuts at Lollapalooza, Shaky Knees, Austin City Limits and more.
SUPPORT Girl Tones by listening, streaming, following. Support all artists mentioned in this interview. Support all artists.