12 Breakthrough Austin Bands at SXSW Music
The Bishops
ATX siblings make refreshingly breezy R&B
By Rachel Rascoe, Fri., March 9, 2018
Witnessing the Bishops' three-pronged effort at answering a question, it's easy to imagine the collaborative process behind the trio's refreshingly breezy R&B works. Oldest brother/rapper Chris gets the ball rolling before baby sister/songstress Cara steps in with illustrative examples. Troy, the middle brother and beatmaker, slides in his own short sentiments.
As such, the Austin sibs' earnest words stream in mutual agreement, the same interlocking mechanism behind the group's individually styled, electro-pop meets hip-hop unity. The bloodline music-making began when Chris molded a middle-school-aged Troy into his backing producer, equipping his brother with a demo of FruityLoops software. Next door in her bedroom, Cara could hear their group practicing with another guy singing.
"When their friend couldn't hit this one note, I realized, 'Hey, I could do that,'" recalls Cara. "We started working together, but not talking to people about it, just honing our sound."
"We were taking time to get all our individual sounds into one," adds Troy.
"Our intro was years in the making. It made the entrance grander," says Chris.
The twinkly, techno-styled debut in question, "Blood Ring," unveiled the family band's spacey, carefree aesthetic. Cara's chiming, neo-soul chorus introduces the sibling lineup, counting off "Not one, not two, but three" amid Chris' scaled-back verses. The track took off overnight, expedited by a spot on Spotify's Viral 50 playlist.
The quick buzz landed them onstage at ACL Fest 2017, as well as a chill past few months of private performances.
"I tend to be the MC and Cara's the smooth serenade," says Chris. "If you wanna be hype, you'll be on my side."
"Sometimes I want to spit harder with Chris, and sometimes I want to sing something jazzy," expands Cara. "We basically try to shift the crowd's emotions. Girls fall in love when Troy randomly comes up to the mic."
All this runs on just six singles and no appearances outside of Texas. Cara recently renovated her bedroom at their parents' house into a makeshift recording studio, where the three twentysomethings hope to self-record a genre-swaying debut full-length. Aspiring to embark on their first-ever tour in 2018, the Bishops are looking beyond their hometown.
"We want to make Austin global," says Troy. "It's going to be a family vacation."
