Eisley

For fans of Eisley, it’s been a waiting game these last few years. As Stacy DuPree tells it, the band feels the same. As personal tragedies and frustrations have taken their toll on the DuPree family, the time since Combinations has largely been about coming together, regrouping amidst some confusion and finding hope again both personally and professionally. Here’s hoping 2010 brings more music from the Texas pop/rock family band.

In this SSv exclusive, Stacy – one of three DuPree sisters in Eisley, along with brother Weston and cousin Garron – speaks out about her sisters’ relational issues and the span of time between albums. Stacy laughs a lot in our conversation, yet the weight and solemnity of recent moments is readily apparent. Still she insists the time has been essential for developing a maturity and depth for the band and she hopes their music will display just that in the near future.

SSv: Do you feel like you’ve been sitting for a while?

Stacy DuPree: I definitely do. It’s a pity, but these things in life, you can’t just barge on through. Some things happen for a reason and I’m okay with it. I know that whenever we do put out a new record, I feel like we’ll be coming from a totally new and fresh perspective, not only as a band, but as a family. So I’m really excited about it. I don’t get too overanxious about these kinds of things.

SSv: Maybe you’re not anxious, but do other members of the band get that way?

Stacy: [Laughs] Um, yeah, I guess so. I mean, we all share in the same understanding about it, but we each have our moments of, ‘Gosh, we haven’t been out. What are we doing? What if people forget about us?’ Everybody has those insecurities and everything. But we’re still trying to connect on the Internet and do a few online portals and stay with our fans through e-mail and things like that. We’re putting out small trickles, I guess, of information just to keep people feeling connected. [Laughs]

SSv: For those who are curious, what has the band been up to? Why the waiting?

Stacy: Well, it has so much to do with the personal things in our lives – in each of our lives. Everybody seems to know what my sisters have been through in the past few years. Sherri’s gone through a divorce and Chauntelle almost getting married and then not. It just puts weight on the band and we can’t do anything about it. Some things has to be more important to us, and for us that’s always been family. It’s not the only time something like this has happened. I think we’ve gone through things like this where it’s quiet for some time. Honestly, it’s not how we prefer to be. I think we prefer to work hard and really give it all we’ve got. But as I said, sometimes you can’t do a thing about it.

SSv: How much is happening behind the scenes musically? Is this a dead period for you?

Stacy: Oh, no, it’s not a dead period at all. I’ve got my iTunes filled up with music. [Laughs] It’s good. And honestly, you have to have a lot to draw from things, whether it’s painful or everything’s going well. So for me and all of us, especially with Sherri since she’s been through the most crap in the last year, it’s given me a great wealth of inspiration to draw from. I really feel good about the writing. I think it’s really honest and most vulnerable for sure that I’ve ever been. It’s really vulnerable.

SSv: Does that make you afraid to eventually expose those songs?

Stacy: Well, it is very easy to write these things in your room and sing about these things. It’s very easy to let it out in that way. Performance-wise, it is a different thing. I’ve always tended to be a bit shy in singing, even though I love to sing. It is very powerful live. It’s also sometimes a bit hard to sing those songs, because some of the lyrics can be very close to home, you know? But I think that’s a good sign for us as artists. I think you have to really get honest eventually.

Our band is notorious for writing fairy-tale-ish lyrics or whimsical things with a lot of visionary kind of stuff. That leaves it up to the interpreter to decide what it means to you. But this is more just, ‘Here’s what happened to me. Something’s been broken and now we’re pleading with life to reconcile our lives.’ But we’re on the up-and-up. We’re over the hill. We’re on the other side and we’re almost there. Things are good, like I said. Chauntelle and my brother are getting married. Of course, not to each other, but we’re doing a double wedding. [Laughs] It’s going to be fun. A good party. I’m really excited and just so happy for them.

SSv: You said earlier that you have to be honest. That’s an easy statement to agree with or it feels right, but I wonder what makes that true for you?

Stacy: Well, I think it’s necessary as I’m growing into adulthood for me. I think it’s important for me to come out and show my true emotions, because honestly it makes me feel less alienated. For quite some time, I felt pretty shy. I think I tend to keep a lot of things hidden in my music. I am one person with one life, so why shouldn’t I be really honest and hope that I can maybe touch someone’s life or that someone could relate to me and feel at peace, in a sense, or that they’re not the only one.

SSv: The best art seems to be honest, but I wonder why that’s so.

Stacy: Yeah, that is so true. That’s true of all of my musical heroes. They find something that stirs in them to let it go.

SSv: What does the waiting do to the artist inside? Of course, with these circumstances, you have to go with the flow, but I’m wondering about the feeling.

Stacy: In some ways, it’s a true test of your patience. For me, I’ll go through a dry spell for maybe a month, but ultimately, I never stop creating music. So I’ve just been creating. I don’t really say that just because things are on hold right now that I have to stop writing music. Like I said, I have a whole file folder full of songs that I’m writing. I don’t know what I’ll do with it. I have too much. [Laughs] So I’m just finding other interests whether it’s spending time with my family or fashion or working out. You just find things to express yourself if you’re feeling frustrated.

SSv: I know you just put out the Fire Kite EP, but do you have your sights set on new music in 2010?

Stacy: We’re definitely hoping and praying that our record will be out this year for sure. We’re looking to get into some festivals and help get things moving and hopefully be going full-force by the end of this year for sure. It’s going to be fun, I think. It’d be fun to play this summer, but realistically it will be the second half. But we’ll see. You never know. That’s the thing is that there’s always kinks. You never know when things will free up and people will say, ‘Let’s go ahead and do this.’ With art, it’s hard to know.

Related posts:

1. Eisley – Fire Kite EP

Tagged as: pop/rock, Texas

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