Photo Credit: Jannica Honey

From The Jackson 5 to the Jonas Brothers, teaming up with your brothers has always been a good idea when it comes to music. JR Green has followed suit. Jacob and Rory Green came at the end of their six siblings. Bonding over being the youngest of the pack made their bond a little stronger than most. Over time they grew from siblings to friends to bandmates as they took an alternative route to making folk music their own. We talked family, music and where they’re sound is compared to their 2015 EP, Bring The Witch Doctor.

Kendra: Being in a group with your sibling is a universal thing that’s common throughout every country when it comes to music. So how important is the family dynamic in Scotland as a whole? Like do you have regular family get-togethers, or are you just people who share a bloodline?

JR Green: Obviously I can’t speak for every family in Scotland. On the whole, family is very important here in The Highlands. Despite the fact that, at times, they drive us insane, they have helped make us the men we are today so for this reason family is very important to us.

Kendra: When you started showing an interest in music did your family kind of lean towards a more traditional path or are the arts encouraged there?

JR Green: Traditional music and folk music were always played to us by our parents. Where we live traditional music is king. We were never really forced to like anything. It was just the music that we grew up listening to and were surrounded by. So it’s only natural that it should have such a special place in our hearts.

Kendra: Now, how does Bring the Witch Doctor compare the music you’re making now?

JR Green: We were still quite young when we wrote the songs on Bring The Witch Doctor. I think it’s fair to say there’s a lot more angst in there than there is now. When you’re younger it’s the little things that have the most impact on you. Every tiny poignancy or injustice genuinely breaks your heart and that shows in the music we made. That can be quite a beautiful thing, but I think we’d feel a bit daft if we’re still singing about things like teenage heartbreak or getting smashed. So I’d like to think the music we’re making now has a lot more depth to it, is a bit less literal and obvious and hopefully more meaningful and worthwhile than the music on the first EP.

Kendra: Any lessons learned from then to now that you’ve incorporated into your songwriting and execution of “Technicolor Native?”

JR Green: We’ve learned to never rush or force our songwriting because we’ll always end up with something that isn’t as eloquent as we are capable of creating.

Kendra: The year’s almost up. Yeah, I cannot believe it either! Any big music based plans before 2017 is over and done?

JR Green: We are currently recording our first album which we are incredibly excited about. It’s been a long time in the making. We finally feel like we have a body of work that we would feel proud to call our debut album. It won’t be released before the end of the year. Hopefully, we’ll have a fair bit of the recording side of things finished before 2017 is out.