When I asked Camilla Staveley-Taylor whether or not The Staves would break into the charts and challenge the traditional pop girl bands, she said “You never know… maybe if we take our clothes off!”
Well, that might work. But the three sisters from Watford – Emily, Jessica and Camilla – are a girl band with a difference. A unique sound harnessed since early childhood. Folk’s answer to the Brontës, according to some. Whichever definition you wish to take, they are something special, something up-and-coming and something to look out for.
Speaking to Camilla, the youngest member, she told me the group are not entirely sure where they fit into the folk spectrum.
“I don’t think we’re massively folky. We are the more singer-songwriter kind of folk like modern folk rather than traditional folk. I don’t really know how we fit into the scene; you don’t really think until you get asked about it!”
Our conversation was taking place just minutes after their arrival at their Lisbon hotel, having shortly touched down in the Portuguese capital. A tour of Europe’s finest cities with American group Bon Iver awaits over the next few weeks, and it is easy to tell that Camilla simply cannot wait.
“We’re going to lots of places we have never been before such as Zurich and Madrid, it’s going to be really cool. The experience of playing to crowds that size will be a real treat and a real challenge.”
In fact, November is likely to be a thrilling month. Immediately after the European tour, The Staves will release their new first album, Dead & Born & Grown, on November 12th, produced by Ethan Johns and Atlantic Records label. This comes a week after releasing their stunning single ‘Tongue Behind My Teeth’, a powerful song with sumptuous vocal layers underpinned by a stirring beat.
After the album is released, the group will be touring the UK and are planning performances at Bristol, Manchester and Edinburgh amongst many other places, although York is not on the cards just yet.
“I think the album as a whole is kind of ‘us’. Some of the songs are ones we have had for a very long time and have been gigging, others have been finished in the studio and are very new.
“There are not going to be any shocks – there are no guitar solos or any dubstep music on there. I would like to think it’s honest-sounding and intimate, so that’s what you can expect.”
The Staves were founded in 2008 and it is clear that a musical environment predominated from an early age, something key to their development as one of the UK’s best up-and-coming groups.
“We had a circle of friends who would always play together, so if we went round to one of their houses it would get to the stage where someone would take out a guitar and we would always end up singing something.
“It’s difficult to say when we decided to become a band. We would occasionally do the odd mic night in Watford, but the moment came when we realised that we couldn’t do proper jobs, and we thought ‘we’re a band now’. It’s not like we stopped and made a masterplan, it just started happening.”
Shortly after this life-changing “moment”, Camilla says meeting Irish folk musician Fionn Regan was another critical step they took.
“We were, and still are, massive fans of his and he’s a very special kind of character; he’s very quirky and puritanical in the way he looks at things. It gave us a reality check that you should always be like that and not to get distracted by the other things.”
Then things just got better. In what was to later prove a valuable experience, the group met Ethan Johns and collaborated with the great Tom Jones, providing the backing vocals to his 2010 album Praise and Blame. You could argue the words “turning point” don’t do this period justice for The Staves’ later success.
“It was a massive turning point and it was amazing to meet up with Tom Jones and Ethan and do some gigs with him – his voice is incredible. We recorded it to tape, Ethan really liked it and he ended up making our album with us.”
Camilla also tells me that their experience touring the United States, and supporting The Civil Wars, among other groups, has prepared the band for even bigger things to come.
“The America experience was really fun, we felt really chuffed driving across such a huge country and playing in so many different places. It felt like a real adventure.
“We played in Dallas, Austin, Houston, St Lewis, New York… It’s been really cool to play a lot in the south then in the north because you see different sides to America.”
As we reached the end of the interview, I asked what advice can be offered to aspiring singers in today’s music market, and how you can stand out from the crowd.
“I think the best thing to do is play loads. Focus all your energy on gigging, writing and especially with folk musicians, embracing that there are lots of other people playing that as well, collaborating with them and inspiring each other.”