Musician Spotlight: In Layman Terms Interview

From Virginia comes two really talented blues singers by the names of Cole (17) and Logan (14) from the brother/sister band 'In Layman Terms'.  Logan has an unbelievable voice for someone of her age and can play guitar. Cole, the other half of 'In Layman Terms, like his sister, is a great guitar player and singer.

Earlier in July that took the side stage at the 2014 North Atlantic Blues Festival in Rockland, Maine where they wowed the crowd. It was great to meet Cole, Logan and their parents.

Recently, we had the honor to interview these two singers , here is what they had to say.

Are there challenges being in school and pursuing a singing career?  YES!  It is really difficult to travel and miss school and keep up with everything.  We do most of our traveling during the summers.  Our mom is a teacher, so she is off all summer and devotes it to us.  We really have to pick and choose what we do during the school year so that we don’t miss too much school…. Some gigs are just too good to turn down!  Our high school is very supportive of us and we always
write a letter for special permission if we are going to miss a period of time (like a week).  We go to all our teachers and get assignments before we leave.  School is important to us- so we work hard to keep our grades up.

If both of you could perform anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?  We would love to tour other countries.  When we go to The International Blues Festival in Memphis we always make it a point to go see the international acts.  There is so much to learn from other cultures and their interpretation of the blues, and from their culture.  Plus, it would be really cool to travel.  We have never been outside of the United States.  Can you set a tour up for us?  Haha.

Along the same line, who would both of you love to perform with?  ?  Cole wants to play alongside Joe Bonomassa one day, and Logan would LOVE to play with Bonnie Raitt.  There is a band called Trampled Underfoot that both of us love.  Danielle is the singer/bass player.  Logan looks up to her and we would love to play with them.  How cool would it be if Logan and Danielle sang a duet and exchanged bass lines of had a bass battle?????

We are close to lots of local blues acts in the Hampton Roads area.  We owe a lot to the local musicians.  They have always been very supportive of us and have invited us up on stage with them and to open for them.  Without them, we would not have the experience and exposure that we have.  Some of our friends include Herbie D and the Dangermen (we went to Memphis with them and Cole toured with them), Anthony Rosano and the Conqueroos (we went to Memphis twice with them), and Bobby BlackHat (One of the nicest and most supportive people we know).  We have also made friends in Memphis and at Blues camp and now we try to play with our friend Carson Deirsing every chance we get.  He lives in Indiana and is a RIDICULOUS harp player.  He is Hoener’s youngest endorsee.

What are some of your goals for your Music?  Music is definitely in our lives to stay.  We would love to tour and write and record music for the rest of our lives, but we also have other career interests.  If we choose another career we will still write and record and play whenever we can.  Logan wants to be a Veterinarian, and Cole has always been interested in writing and in dentistry.  I guess we have time to figure it all out.

In Layman Terms, do you have any advice for those wanting to start a career in singing and songwriting?
Keep it fun and keep it real.  Don’t let others change what feels right to you.  Oh, and practice.  A TON.  You need to keep it fun, but you also have to put the work in if you really want to be serious about your music.  Practicing scales and learning to read music really does help you become a better overall musician.  And USE A METRONOME!  We hated it when we first started out, but it really does make playing easier for you and those you play with in the future.  Plus, if you record you will be more comfortable with a click track if you are used to practicing with a metronome.

Questions from another interview-
1) One does not usually think of young performers playing the blues. How did Cole and Logan get started?
We don’t really know exactly when and how we “picked” the blues as our genre.  It is more like it picked us.  It just fits.  It just feels right when we hear it and play it.

We discovered the blues through more modern artists like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Bonnie Raitt, and then started researching who they were influenced by.

2) Are there many young people playing the blues?  Not a lot, that’s for sure!  But thanks to The Blues Foundation and their Generation Blues program there are lots of opportunities for the kids out there who do love the blues, like us!  We have been fortunate to receive their scholarships to go to great blues camps for the past two summers with the Generation Blues Scholarships.  We have attended the Fernando Jones Blues Kid’s Camp in Chicago and in Hampton, The Pinetop Perkins Master class Workshops in Mississippi, and Cole has gone to the Berklee College of Music Blues Guitar sessions twice.

3) What are Cole and Logan's ages? How old were they when they started playing music? How old were they when they started playing the blues?  Cole just turned 17 and Logan just turned 14.  More about how and when it all happened is at the end of this document.

4) You're currently living in Williamsburg, the blues capital of the world. Where do you play? Where did you live previously?  We play regularly at festivals and other great venues from Va Beach to Richmond.  We also travel when we can and have played in several different out of state festivals.  Our parents won’t let us do the “bar scene”, so most of our gigs are either openers, or family friendly events.

5) Do you have any CDs out? Where can we get them?  Yes!  We are really proud of our newest release, “It’s the Blues!”  Come to one of our shows to pick one up, or you can fill out a contact form at our website www.3inlaymanterms.com and we will mail one to you.  We also have t-shirts and bumper stickers for sale.

6) What have your experiences been like at blues festivals?  We love playing at the blues festivals!  We always have such a captive and enthusiastic crowd.  Blues lovers love to see young people playing the blues and keeping it alive.  We recently played at The North Atlantic Blues Festival in Rockland, Maine and got to meet and even jam with some of the blues greats that we really look up to.  They were all so kind to us and we got lots of great feedback and encouragement.  When we play at Blues Festivals it is like being at a family reunion or something.  One big, bluesy family!

7) What is blues camp like?  It is amazing.  I can’t tell you how good it feels to be around other kids our age who re really into the same music that we are.  Kids come from all over the country to learn and collaborate.  There are more blues kids out there than you may think…. We are just spread out.  When we go to camp we get to feel “normal”, you know?  The others just get it.

8) (Cole and Logan) What do you do in your spare time? Any favorite classes at school?  We are busy.  We both run cross country at or school, Warhill High School.  We are both also in performance band.  Cole plays drums in performance band and guitar in the advanced jazz band.  Logan also plays upright bass in the school orchestra.   Cole LOVES his English classes and loves creative writing.  Logan likes all her creative classes like art, drama, and of course her music classes. We both hang out with their friends as often as we can as well.

9) (Doug and Sandy) What do you do for work?  Our Dad, Doug Layman (50) is in the U. S. Coast Guard.  We are proud to be a military family and we are proud of what our Dad does for our country.  Our Mom, Sandy Layman (46), is a U. S. Coast Guard veteran and now she is a special education teacher.  She always finds a job every place we move and she is a great teacher who has worked with kids with all types of disabilities.  She has had students with downs syndrome, autism, learning disabilities, emotional disabilities, physical impairments, and more.

10) (Doug and Sandy) Do you play music?  Mom plays drums and is a really good song-writer.  She raps all the time (to be silly) and just has a way of rhyming everything.  She does that at school with her students all the time, too.  She makes up songs to help her students learn stuff.  Dad does not play an instrument, but when our family band started gigging a few years ago we bought a sound system and he taught himself how to run sound for us.  So, he is our sound guy and the best roadie, ever!

11) What was your experience like on America's Got Talent?  We signed a 100 page contract and are really not supposed to say much about our time on the show, but we can tell you that it was a blast being sent to New York to perform in front of the celebrity judges and close to 3,000 people at Madison Square Gardens.  We did “I Don’t Need no Doctor” and got a standing ovation.  The judges loved us.  I don’t know how they decide who moves on, but whatever happens we are proud of our performance and we stayed true to our genre and didn’t change our style just to get on TV.  The staff on the show treated us great and we got to stay in a beautiful hotel and made lots of new friends.  It was definitely a great experience.

12) Any idea where Logan got that voice? It is a gift from God.  Seriously.  She has never had a vocal lesson and when she sings she is just transformed into someone else.  It is all so natural and authentic for her.  She doesn’t have to force anything, it just all comes out naturally.  I am even more impressed with her bass playing.  I don’t know how in the world she plays bass like that and sings at the same time!  She is the best little sister ever.  I am really proud of her.

13) How is Logan's songwriting coming along?  We both write music.  We do a lot of our stuff together.  Neither of us have had our heart broken or been “down and out”, but we sing about what we see in the world and what our friends or loved ones are going through.  For example, our grandpa has cancer and we wrote a song about fighting cancer.  Our best friend’s parents are getting a divorce and Logan wrote a song about their ugly breakup.  Not all blues songs have to be sad, either.  We also write about good stuff, like Sweet Sunrise.  It is a song about a beautiful morning and nothing to do.

14) Any favorite song among the classics?  Of course, Smokestack Lightning (it is on our CD), and I Can’t get Satisfied, by Muddy Waters.  Born Under a Bad Sign (Albert King), The Things That I Used to Do (guitar Slim)… and so many more.  We really love the classics and are peeling back the layers and discovering more and more songs all the time.  We have been finding them kind of backwards.  We also spend a lot of time watching videos of bands that we meet at IBC and at the festivals and when we hear great songs that they do we look them up.  We are lucky to grow up in a time where everything is there on the internet for us to access whenever we want to.

15) Do they ever not get along?  We have our moments.  We are brother and sister!  But, it doesn’t happen often.  We are really best friends.  Our music connects us in a special way.

16) When are you coming back to Time For The Blues?  Is that an invitation?

These two, on their way, blues singer have a really bright future, we feel there is a place for both of them. We can't wait to see where their music takes them. If you want to learn more or to find their full schedule, please go to www.3inlaymanterms.com.