Introducing… Michaelis

These three sisters – Meagan, Mallory and Madeline – from Texas have it all, everything from the the talent to the looks, and they’re ready to put their stamp on Nashville. The trio, whose surname, Michaelis, doubles as their band name, have been performing since sister Madeline was only 5-years-old.

Check out our Q&A with Michaelis to learn more about their influences, how they got their start, and their single, “Shoot Straight.”

CMIL: Did you ever set out to have solo careers, or was being a band always in the cards for you?

Michaelis: It’s interesting because it’s always been a family thing. Our grandparents always sang. After dinner we’d go upstairs and grab the guitar and just started singing. On the weekends, we weren’t out partying. We were out at rodeos and fairs singing. It’s weird. It’s almost like it chose us. Music has always been in the family so it was easy to be like, “Alright, we’re a band.” We’ve never really known any better we’ve just always done this.

CMIL: You always hear about band’s going through various names before landing on the right one. What were some of the band names you used to go by?

Michaelis: We’ve had different names. When we were really little, we were ‘Yes Ma’am’ ‘cause all our initials are M-A-M. After that, we decided we wanted to go by our last name, but our mom was afraid people would stalk us or come find us if we used our real last name. We changed it to kind of a cutesy m-c-k-a-y-l-i-s and it’s better to pronounce. No one ever knows how to pronounce our name. After that, we were something else that was kind of corny and we did a rodeo circuit. It was very country. We were the Rodeo Cowgirls for a few years. After that we were like, “Alright we’re going to start writing and come up with our own music our own sound.” So now we’re finally using our real name and we feel like we should because its really us. It’s kind of awesome because we feel like this is really who we are now.

CMIL: What kind of music helped shape you as artists?

Michaelis: We just listened to country music. We weren’t really allowed to listen to anything like pop, seriously. It was just 90’s country radio. My parents wouldn’t let me buy Backstreet Boys or *NSYNC. Mal had to hide her first Britney Spears CD. So it’s really a combination of 90’s country radio and then my grandpa of course sang the classics like Willie [Nelson] and Merle [Haggard] and all that kind of stuff. We were very influenced by that as well. That’s in our blood. When we moved here we started getting really influenced by stuff like rock and very organic kind of music, hippie kind of music.

CMIL: Which artists have you been compared to?

Michaelis: Sometimes people say we’re like modern day Judds. When they see us they think of Dixie Chicks. People also say they hear Stevie Nicks. They hear Sheryl Crow, that’s kind of our more edgy sound. We have some songs on the record that are just traditional country inspired. It’s really a raw and organic sound more like how the music we were raised singing with our grandpa.

CMIL: What’s on your “bucket list” as an artist?

Michaelis: We went to the Opry not to long ago and we were sitting there in the audience and we decided that if we ever get to play that stage we want our grandpa to come out for a song and play with him. He is the reason why we do music. That would be a dream come true for him and for us. That would just be really cool.

CMIL: What’s the story behind your single, “Shoot Straight?”

Michaelis: (Meagan) I was dating this guy, and like I said it’s always my guys stories, I feel like I always made all the mistakes for my sisters as far as dating guys. This guy I had met – it was kind of a summer romance thing. We were on and off for I feel like five or six years just because of school and he would always find a way to keep me his back home girl and summer romance kind of thing. I just went looking back over the years that I had just told him, “Look if you don’t love me then just leave me alone.” He just wanted to hang around and have someone to go back to. This song is just kind of what I wish I would’ve said. Actually, I did say it to him the last time.

CMIL: Tell me more about your experience shooting the “Shoot Straight” music video…

Michaelis: It was an awesome experience. We learned a lot. We shot it with Sherman Halsey, who did a lot of the Tim McGraw videos. He was great. We styled it ourselves with him. Our Mom and Dad were there. Dad was holding the fans to keep us cool and Mom was setting up the clothes. We shot at Ronnie Dunn’s house, one of his properties that he just bought in Nashville, right down the street. It was an eighteen hour day of shooting. We just shot so many different scenes and so much to pull from. Sherman Halsey he was like he looked at the camera at one point and he was like, “Nobody does seventy eight takes.” It was just crazy the amount of time that we spent. He was really great. We call him the Ralph Lauren of video directing. We pretty much just brought our entire wardrobe and he was very patient. Hair and makeup took like five hours. We had fun.

Check out the “Shoot Straight” music video below.

**Photo credit: Sarah Barlow