Hailing from Wales Kane’d are a seven piece hard rock band that unusually feature three lead vocalists who also happen to be sisters. Rather than any sibling rivalry though this is a family in literal total harmony. Gary Trueman met up with Steph, Stacey and Chez before their show at The Portland Arms to chat about their origins, music tastes and drunk drummers.
For those that don’t know about Kane’d it’s four guys providing the music and then the three of you providing the vocals. That has to be a pretty unique format that allows you to also do some great harmonising?
“We like to think so. We don’t think anybody else is doing it at the moment and a lot of people that come to our shows think so too. We’re sisters and have grown up together. Music is a big thing in our family and we’ve grown up harmonising together and singing. It’s got to that point where it comes really natural to us. Even if we’re messing around we still end up going into our own little aria.”
You sometimes find that with siblings when they’re playing there’s a kind of telepathy between them.
“That happens sometimes with us but not all the time.”
When did you first start singing together?
“Well we did other stuff before rock. We were singing from a really young age. Our mother told us how to harmonise and our dad is a singer. We always wanted to be on stage. We started by singing to old people, and we still sing to old people haha!. “
How did you team up with the guys? Where did you find them?
“We got introduced to Harry because we heard he wanted to do some song writing and we were looking to do some song writing. This was about 10 or 11 years ago. We wanted somebody to come in and write with us to progress the music. We hit it off straight away, started writing straight away and once we got a few songs together we figured that this was definitely the direction we were taking. The songs that were coming out were rock songs and it was definitely meant for a live band. It was something we were all passionate about as well. Harry had friends that he’d been to college with and that’s how we got Josh in the band and he’s been there from pretty much day one. It’s just been word of mouth, we’ve never really put an advert out. George and Harry are brothers. Jack has been with us for the last two years.”
Stable line up then?
“Ooh don’t jinx us. Drummers we normally have the biggest issue with.Although it’s been pretty ggod so far with this one. Considering he got really drunk in Ibeza and we almost killed him it’s been fine. “
Have you ever been one girl down for any reason and done a show with just two?
“Funnily enough we are going to be slightly down tonight because Stacey has a really bad cold and hardly any voice. We’ve got to that point where we’re not only good friends but we know how each others parts in the band work we can cover for each other. We’ve never had to do a gig without one of us yet.”
As a band you’re a seven piece. So are small stages an issue, do they ever get a bit problematical?
“Sardines in a can that’s us. Every time we’re on a small stage someone will step on someone’s foot. Harry has sliced an arm with his guitar string so it does get tight. We did a gig with House Of Lords and the bass player was running around and the singer just walked straight into his guitar.”
As three sisters do you all like the same music or do you all like totally different stuff?
“We overlap a bit. Stacey likes a little bit of pop music, Steph likes a little bit of country music. Cheryl is more into the heavier rock like Alter Bridge and Halestorm. You’ve got to draw your inspirations from everywhere or you’ll just sound like everybody else. It’s not a bad thing to draw from other genres of music.”
A question for Steph which is a bit of a variation on one we sometimes ask. If you could go back in time to when you were 16 what piece of advice would you give to your other two sisters?
“I think we’d all give the same advice. Don’t let anyone tell you what direction to go in and don’t take any shit from anyone. It’s not always the case if someone has been there and done it that they know what they’re talking about. We got ripped off for a lot of money.”
So if they made a film of Kane’d each of you pick a person to play yourself…..
Steph: “I know which one mine would be because everyone says I kinda look like her. Isla Fisher would be the one that would play me.”
Stacey: “A lot of people say I look like a certain person but she’s too old to play me. People say I look a bit like Catherine Zeta Jones but she looks like my mother now.”
Chez: “I have no idea! Mirander Sings haha. No, Angelina Jolie, why not?”
Interview and photos by: Gary Trueman