Larkin Poe: “The language of music is such an effective way to communicate across cultures.”

For American blues rock sisters Larkin Poe, the release of their new album, Bloom, marks the end of a period where the duo have dug deeper into their personal story. Self-acceptance, embracing their flaws, and societal expectations inspire Bloom, an honest, authentic collection of songs.

From exploring missteps in “Mockingbird” to “Pearls,” where the sisters face the challenge of maintaining authenticity in a digital age, Bloom plays out to a soundtrack of contemporary blues and rock influences.

In our latest Cover Story, V13 sat down with Rebecca and Megan to talk about self-reflection, delving into their flaws and keeping integrity in an industry where AI and algorithms are increasingly responsible for dictating how we should be living our lives.

You described Bloom as about finding yourself, knowing yourself and separating the truth from society’s expectations. When you started back at the beginning of this record, and you had your blank piece of paper, where did the theme come from?

Rebecca: “I think that is truly the beauty of the creative process. You get to leap with faith, not knowing where you will wind up. So, this album, Bloom, really did take us on quite a journey that we didn’t necessarily anticipate making. That being said, in records past, I think from a songwriting perspective, we have relied upon a device of writing from characters and I think that can also be attributed to confidence.

Being a little bit younger as songwriters, it was a lot easier for us to create these bulletproof, braggadocious, badass caricatures of who we are as people and that serves as also a little bit of armour between you and the world. If someone has a poor opinion of a song or something, we’re protected.

With this album, I think we made the commitment that we wanted to which was to dig deeper in a more vulnerable way and specifically as sisters co-write every song on the record together. Then, with a fine-toothed comb, we went through each lyric to ensure that it was representative of our real-life experience. Ultimately, that led us on a journey in a way that we didn’t anticipate but, in hindsight, we’re very grateful that we chose to go on.”

You talk as well about embracing your flaws. Was that, was that part of that journey or did that manifest itself from the journey writing the record took?

Megan: “I don’t think that we set out with an expectation that we were going to write about self-acceptance in this record. More that we were sitting down and having just really frank conversations with each other about things that we’re thinking about and things that we wish and hope for ourselves and knowing more about who we are as we come into our thirties and being more okay with the real inside versions of who we are.

Coming out of the process, when you look at the body of work, suddenly you see so much more about what you were thinking about during that time because all of those songs stack together and tell a story that we didn’t see when we were in the middle of it.

How challenging was it to dig into your flaws and write about them? It’s not something a lot of people find easy to do…

Rebecca: “It is very humbling, but I think it’s also very freeing too. The artists that I love are those artists who are willing to share their imperfect nature because that’s what it means to be human. If we were to get everything right all the time, then it would be a little bit boring. Part of the trajectory that we all are hoping to continue to travel is this upward growth of gaining more maturity with time and having more personal insight and experience to treat those around you and yourself with more love kindness and tenderness because we all are works in progress.”

“Then, with a fine-toothed comb, we went through each lyric to ensure that it was representative of our real-life experience.”

Megan: “There is something on the inside that you feel uncomfortable with. That’s probably the thing you’re supposed to be sharing. There’s so much of the grass is greener approach. I think we all want what we aren’t like, if you are a quiet person and wishing that you were a bombastic person, that bombastic person is wishing they could just shut their mouth. Honestly, I think that sharing those parts, it’s freeing because you realize how much of who you are naturally. You feel that what my flaws are somebody else looks at and thinks that is a cool part of you. It can help putting those dark places out into the world sometimes, it gets a little light on it and you feel a little less crazy.”

Without wanting to cause a fight, out of the two of you, who is the best at admitting their flaws or when they’re wrong?

Rebecca: “Historically, I would say it’d be Megan. One thing I will say in defence of both of us is that we are very pragmatic people. If anything, I do think that we struggle with having too little ego as opposed to too much. There is this sense of not enoughness so I do think that we’re both ready to fall on the sword which creates its own set of issues.

I do feel very grateful in our relationship that, if we have a row or we’re at each other’s throats, it’s very brief because we are very much on the same page and we do genuinely prefer for there to be equanimity. Also because if Megan and I are pissed at each other, the audience can tell. We’re not good at faking so we would prefer to just hash it out and get back to peace.”

Larkin Poe Cover Story Issue 77

You also talked about societal expectations inspiring the new record. A lot of that expectation these days comes from digital sources, social media etc. There’s been a lot in the news recently about Meta saying they’re removing things like fact-checking. AI is becoming more prevalent these days. How much more difficult do you think it will become to know what’s genuine and what’s an expectation based on an AI-generated algorithm?

Rebecca: “That is such uncharted territory. I do feel that as humans in the modern era, we are bombarded with so much information and so much technological space that frankly feels like an overwhelm for this very old hardware that we’re all operating with, this is evolved hardware. This is biological hardware that I think is still having to figure out how to adapt to such a wildly technological world. It does give us some pause for thought. It is a very delicate balance to be able to utilize the tools of social media, and clearly, there are many, many gifts of connectivity.

Through the pandemic, without the internet, I think so many of us would have gone off the deep end because we were able to find and seek that connection through Zoom. I mean, whoever thought that we’d be thankful for Zoom? We’ve been able to build a career, outside of an industry by having our record label, producing our records, and writing our songs, because we’re able to find our fans on social media and people who are a little bit left of centre like us and who appreciate our records.”

“I do feel very grateful in our relationship that, if we have a row or we’re at each other’s throats, it’s very brief because we are very much on the same page…”

Megan: “We were writing for the record and we were having a conversation specifically about the internet and how strange it is to be able to just immediately read comments about yourself and how important it is to trust your source first. You don’t have to take in random information, you can actually go out and discover the source that you trust and then take information from that. Otherwise, it’s better just not to take in anything unless you have some sort of trust in it. That includes the random hater comment on a post. Even when there were 20 nice comments, for some reason, we want to just listen for that one negative.”

Creating a record label and using the internet as a tool for that. How did you approach that and what was that learning curve like?

Rebecca: “Yeah, we’ve had a great deal of support from our team. Larkin Poe HQ is occupied by very few people. It’s my sister and I and a couple of managers and agents and distribution partners around the globe, but it has been probably one of the more important decisions that we’ve made in our career as Larkin Poe to start our record label because it did in every way open up the field for us to make whatever creative decisions we deemed important to make at any time.

I do think it pressurized our situation a lot more because everyone in our team chose to accept a lot more responsibility, and there is so much more coordination that goes into seeking out and maintaining all the relationships in all the different countries because we’re so fortunate to be able to have a global touring presence. We’ve been to so many countries and, as a result, we want to be able to offer our records in those countries to fans. We have to salute our managers, Peter Leak and Anna Pearson for really carrying a lot of that weight.

That being said, I think Megan and I, from the very beginning, have always had that indie spirit and we’re good at self-tasking, we’re very high-octane individuals. We go from one project to the next, to the next, to the next for the last 10 years. We are very insatiable in the way that we want to create and release records. By having our record label, that has afforded us that freedom.”

Bloom is coming out through your own label. What are your plans for the label? Have you thought about other artists? Is there anybody you’re looking at that you think they’d fit with the ethics we’ve got?

Rebecca: “There are so many incredible artists that we would love to collaborate with. Whenever I see these doom and gloom articles on the internet, like ‘rock and roll is dead’ and, you know, ‘analogue music is dying.’ It’s not, you guys just aren’t looking in the right places. When you’re out on the festival circuit, the raw human talent that is out there, it’s mind-boggling and it’s refreshing. That being said, I do think that we’re up to our eyeballs with all things Larkin Poe right now. We still feel that we’re pushing pretty hard to continue to establish our legacy.”

Megan: “We do want to work with other artists. As a family, with Tyler Bryant, who co-produced with us, I think we’re starting to dip our toe into the idea of working with other artists and being able to have that brain work that we could share with other artists. I think that we will do that in the future when we have a little bit more brain space.”

“We believe that our purpose and part of our mission as a band is to create inclusivity and union between people because I think that we live in a world that wants us to dissect each other…”

On the subject of collaborations, now would be a good time to throw out the name Ringo Starr…

Rebecca: “It’s unbelievable. When we received the call, we had to shout out T-Bone Burnett, who produced that record, he has brought us into a lot of really cool creative musical situations. Somewhat ironically, or maybe it’s not irony, maybe it’s just a cool coincidence, one of the first projects that T-Bone asked us to come and participate in would have been back in 2015, 10 years ago, acting as part of the house band for the Tom Petty Music Cares Gala surrounding the Grammys, out in Los Angeles.

We came to find out that Ringo Starr was in the audience and had made note of Megan and I performing as part of the house band and had gone to T-Bone and said, “Those sisters are talented.” When it came time for him to make this country record and he and T-Bone collaborated, our name got thrown into the pot and we were so happy to participate.

Getting to go into rehearsals for some upcoming shows that they’re going to put on surrounding the release of this record… just being in the same room with Ringo, you’re like, “Oh my god, you’re a Beatle, this is so crazy.” He is so down to earth, so relaxed, so chill, everything that he presents himself to be feels like what he is.”

What did you learn from that?

Megan: “It’s very, very inspiring to be around somebody who is this late into their career, you know, in their 80s, and still finding new ground to cover and that’s what we want for ourselves. We just want to keep pushing. There’s never a time when you can’t push for something and try something new. This is his second country album in a career that has spanned 60 years or more. I think it’s cool to imagine that there’s always new territory. It’s always something to keep you excited and keep things fresh. It makes you look forward to the future.”

It’s new territory for Larkin Poe on this record. We’ve already talked about the personal theme of the record. How does it feel to be putting those flaws and self-representation out for your audience to listen to and dissect? Especially considering your earlier comment about internet comments and haters?

Rebecca: “I do think that we are incredibly fortunate to have a varied fan base that is there for the right reasons. By and large, the interactions that we have with fans at our shows, and that we have with our fans on the internet, we have so much more positivity. I do think that that is almost a trickle-down effect. Megan and I, believe that our purpose and part of our mission as a band is to create inclusivity and union between people because I think that we live in a world that wants us to dissect each other and create distance and I don’t agree with you because of X, Y, or Z.

Increasingly, what we’re experiencing in this world, is a need for unification, for people to come together to celebrate the similarities over the differences. I do think that being willing to level with our people in a new way, we’ve always tried to do that to our utmost with records, but I think that we just lacked some of the facilities. Now at this point in our career, we can dig a little bit deeper and have also the courage to, and self-knowledge to, dig in a bit more and share some of this more intimate discourse with people.”

Larkin Poe ‘Bloom’ Album Artwork

Megan: “I think that people have always felt that when we are speaking with folks and, or just in general, what we’re sharing is very real, we’re not characters, what you see is what you get. That’s why we started the record label just so we could just be very, very real. Maybe it’s like this for everyone, but I just feel that when we’re meeting people, there’s this instant vulnerability that we experience, and the stories and the things that people share with us are quite unbelievable. It’s like this immediate knowing of each other when we meet fans, and I think that more of that is what we’ve been wanting. Every time that we put ourselves into a song, I think that we reap a lot of vulnerability back.”

The connection you’ve got with your fans, how does it feel touring the world seeing those issues in some of those different countries and talking to fans and seeing that connection and being able to relate to each other?

Rebecca: “It feels amazing because, the more you travel, you do realize that there are unique struggles that come with the geographical location of different humans but, by and large, the human experience is the human experience. I think that we are all driven by very similar motivators. We want love and we want safety and we want to feel our lives as they’re passing and that takes some doing.

I do think that, ultimately, that’s why the language of music is such an effective way to communicate across cultures because you can speak to someone’s heart with an instrument, you can speak to someone’s heart with a melody and that’s what we want to do ultimately. We want to sing love songs to ourselves and to anyone and everyone who will listen.”

Megan: “It’s very interesting as a group. I think we’re very different from country to country. The audience as a whole that we encounter in the UK is different than Spain, is different than Japan but then when you meet like individual to individual, it always feels like it is the same no matter where we are. There’s a lot of friendship even though our experience on stage is different, which is cool because it differentiates each country from the next.”

What do you hope an individual takes out listening to this record?

Rebecca: “I hope people feel a little bit less alone that’s what I feel I think about having written this record. The conversations that Megan and I had, while we know each other just about as well as anybody could know another person, just based on our close relationship, and working relationship over the years, I do feel like we got even closer through sharing some of these vulnerable stories with each other. That’s what I want. I do hope that people will feel themselves inside the music and hopefully find a piece of their own experience in these songs.”

How do you think you’ve changed as individuals and as sisters from writing about those flaws and the more emotional side of your personality? Has that changed your relationship at all? Has it brought you close together or shown you things you didn’t know about each other?

Megan: “We’ve always been very in line with each other as we’re changing so there’s never big revelatory moments, but I do notice small things here and there. I think certainly we help each other discover things about ourselves. I could say something to her that might change her mind and vice versa specifically about some of these ideas of self-acceptance because we’ve grown up in the public eye, we’ve been touring since we were children.

I think there were these external pressures that we didn’t realize we were signing on for as children. Every bit of our changing from children into adults, into young adults has been broadcast. I can go back and watch videos of myself giving an interview at 17 and that’s a little bit strange. I think that we are understanding more about how that’s had an impact on how we’ve developed as humans.

We’re trying to heal some of the stuff that came from that and mostly I feel that we have grown up to be big like people pleasers, which a certain amount of that is good. We’re empathetic people, but not at the expense of yourself and your own opinions. You can’t just be a vessel for other people’s wants and desires and needs. Understanding that and trying to turn some of that bright light that’s shining on you inward on yourself is what we’re hoping to accomplish in the next few years.”

“I think there were these external pressures that we didn’t realize we were signing on for as children. Every bit of our changing from children into adults, into young adults, has been broadcast.”

Rebecca: “Showbiz is such a head trip too, because I think from the very beginning, like so many entertainers, it’s drilled into your code. Like the show must go on baby. Whatever’s happening, the show must go on. If something devastating is happening in your life, the show must go on. Don’t cancel a show. Suck it up. These people paid to be here. You got to put the show on and that I think has given us a lot of resilience to find the inner strength to rise above whatever we’re going through. But, by the same token, I think that can distort your sense of reality a little bit when you’re constantly compartmentalizing and finding new places in which to tuck old baggage.

I think we’re willing to look at that a little bit more and be like, “Hey, you know, I think there’s a lot of humanity in the human experience,” and people I think would understand if we wanted to level with them and be like, “Hey, you know, I’m just having a tough time on stage right now, here’s why.”

To share that while it feels like you shouldn’t put that burden on an audience, that’s what they’re there for. Like, we’re all here to share something real. So, the more real that we can all be, it allows us to be humans, and it allows the audience to also participate in what we’re all seeking, which is again that connection.”

Going back to the interviews you did when you were 17 and how you’ve grown up in the industry does that tie in with the song you wrote a song about attitudes to women on the new record? Have those attitudes changed over the years and do you still experience issues or things where you think that’s not that’s not right?

Rebecca: “We do still run against but it’s subtle. It’s subtle, outmoded ways of viewing equality. I think that we have to sort of temper our experience because clearly, we have had such incredible experiences with specifically a lot of male mentors over the years. Incredible humans who put so much faith and responsibility in our creative abilities and gender had nothing to do with it. They were just treating you like a human. We’ve had those kinds of experiences while still running up against just odd interactions, but I don’t think that we even at this point take it very personally because we know who we are and you can spot it from a mile away.

More than anything, I do feel empathy because it’s just an outmoded way of existing in the world and I would wish for anyone to be able to truly not judge books by covers. That piece of wisdom is enduring because it’s so true and there’s so much to learn to just let people be who they’re going to be and they will show you who they are, you do not have to make assumptions.”

The other song on the record I want to pick up on was “Mockingbird.” Again, a song about looking at your mistakes and a self-reflection song. Who’s the one out of you that looks back and thinks, “I wish”?

Megan: “That’s definitely me. I think I’m a fairly introspective person in that way, whereas Rebecca is more “Let’s leap forward, let’s charge forth,” whereas I’m more, “let’s research this, let’s think hard and look at every detail before we move.” Maybe because I experienced some regret in a very real way but I think that that’s also something I’m working on letting go, but yeah, I would say that would be me.”

“Some days you have just got to respect someone’s autonomy and let them go through the emotional process that they need to go through…”

One of the things we noticed going back to lockdown was people struggling with things that you’ve mentioned like being on their own. How did you keep each other on track, maybe not specifically in lockdown, but generally going throughout your career? How do you manage that? I think one of the songs you talked about in the record was written when you’re having a low day?

Rebecca: “I think that it continues to evolve. The ways in which we were able to be there for each other evolved. Some days you have just got to respect someone’s autonomy and let them go through the emotional process that they need to go through, which has been harder for me. This is something that as, as a duo when we’re out on tour, and sometimes touring can be hard. Especially in the last few years, pre-pandemic, we were significantly on the road more than we were at home.

I remember some moments on tour where you’re tired, you’re away from home, you’re in a strange place and, you get a little bit disenchanted with where you are in life. While I can sometimes have a little bit of toxic positivity and I’m like, “well, let’s just have a coffee and smile a little bit” sometimes that doesn’t help. Sometimes you gotta fake it to make it, but sometimes you gotta feel what you’re going through and just be there with somebody. We’re continuing to find that balance as sisters and what we both need and what we both need is always evolving.”

Megan: “We’re goal-oriented and having those things to look forward to and work towards but, at the same time, they say trust the process and that it’s cliched, but it’s true. There’s nothing wrong with feeling uncomfortable. There’s nothing wrong with experiencing pain. Sometimes you just have to sit in it and allow yourself to be in it. Sometimes you sit in it and you allow yourself to experience it and you come out with a great song.”

If you could sum up the general message behind Bloom, what would you say it is?

Rebecca: “I think Bloom is a war cry for vulnerability because sometimes you’ve got to aggressively fight to find the beauty in life. So, while this is almost a siren song of a record, it’s the most beautiful record we’ve ever made. I think that we have expanded on having some beautiful, beautiful songs, and beautiful lyrical moments. It is very impassioned in the way that it’s fighting for finding the beauty in life.”