Despite having an early Friday set, Austin family hip-hop group The Bishops kicked off Weekend Two of the ACL Music Festival to a crowded tent.
All smiles as they delivered synthesized beats and rhymes to festival goers, the trio seemed to be flying high having just performed at their biggest music festival yet.
"We’ve played Euphoria and Oaktopia, but I’d say every festival is major to us," said Chris Bishop, 24, in an interview after The Bishops' set. "But this is our biggest one for sure. This is all new to us so it’s all pretty major in a way."
Already hitting the Texas music festival circuit is pretty impressive for a group of musicians that have only been together, according to 19-year-old Cara Bishop, for less than two years, a feat that could be credited to two advantages.
One, they're a band of siblings.
"Working together, it just flows so smoothly," explained Cara. "We get along and we really understand one another. We grew up with the same struggles and the same opportunities."
"It’s pretty dope," added Chris. "It’s a lot easier. We’re more comfortable."
"We have very similar experiences and background, so we’re always on the same page," chimed in 20-year-old Troy Bishop.
"We don’t have the same exact story, but we have the same...," Chris trailed off before Troy could finish his sentence.
"Roots!"
The second advantage? They get a leg up by living in the Live Music Capitol of the World.
"I feel like it’s given us a diverse sound," explained Chris. "Also, we have to have a strong live set because there’s such a strong live music scene here. So I feel like it’s helped us a lot with that. And I feel like we make kind of weird stuff, so that is definitely a big influence."
The band explained their sound as "swavy," a combination of spacey and wavy, and credited the musical influences of acts like Kid Cudi, Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu, The Fugees and Chance The Rapper, who they said they'd definitely be checking out during the festival on Saturday.
"We also got some Jimi Hendrix up in this," added Troy, who provides the beats for The Bishops.
"We can really make music anywhere," said Chris. "Troy starts the beats and then we’re writing everywhere we go."
Troy agreed.
"I can make a beat anywhere," he said. "I’ve even gotten ideas while just sitting at a stop light."
While growing up in East and North Austin, said they really hadn't had a lot of music experience, other than taking choir in school, and a little bit of middle school training with the trombone (Troy) and trumpet (Chris). But the brothers did have a bit of practice as a duo before Cara joined the crew.
"It was a rap group at first," said Chris. "It was called …should we tell him the name?"
"No! Don’t look it up," Cara piped in. "It doesn’t need to be heard."
"It’s a secret actually," he laughed.
But as The Bishops today, the trio said they're planning to expand touring past Texas and enjoy making memories together, still riding off the feelings of playing one of the biggest music festivals in the nation.
"I just got to soak it up for a little bit," said Troy.
