The Burney Sisters are a local band that plays folk music. Despite their skill, these two young women aren’t even high school students yet. Only 11 years old, Emma Burney says she plays several instruments, the main ones being cello, fiddle, guitar and bass. Olivia Burney, 14, plays banjo, guitar, bass and ukulele.
In the Columbia music scene, the sisters said they love the Many Colored Death, a local, alt rock trio.
“Even though they’re not folk artists, they make metal music,” Olivia Burney said. “But they’re really really good, and they’re just such had workers and I think they’re going to go really far.”
The sisters love Violet and the Undercurrents, and Emma Burney added she likes Molly Healey Band. Molly is a violinist, cellist, guitarist, and singer/songwriter currently living in Springfield, Mo.
“Molly Healey, she is such a hard worker,” Olivia Burney said. “She volunteered at the last minute to be our sound tech- to tune all of our guitars and hand them to us at Roots N Blues- and that was just a life saver.”
So far, the Burney Sisters have made two music videos with Karl Bussen. Karl Bussen of Bussen Productions is a photographer and videographer who often shoots music videos, weddings, and other events.
“For this last music video, we kind of came up with an idea of what we wanted the video to be like a 70s skating video,” Olivia Burney said.” “And we sat down with Karl and started talking about ideas with him.”
They said the Kay Brothers, a local folk and bluegrass band, have helped them, especially with their latest video, “Make Me Happy.” Olivia Burney said they had a whole story idea already, and because they had to release the video before Roots N Blues they had to scrap a lot of ideas they originally had for the video.
“We did as much as we could,” Olivia Burney said. “We went to Skate Zone and had a bunch of people come out there to skate with us for part of the video.”
They said including this shoot with friends and family, there were four total shoots to get everything they needed for the video and they put a lot of hard work into it to make the video look as good and as close to their original idea as possible. The sisters both said people in the music industry have mostly been kind.
“I feel like the hardest part of being young and also women is people don’t think we’ll do as well as professional musicians,” Olivia Burney said, “and we love to prove them wrong when we can.”
They said they are extremely thankful for how supportive Columbia and especially their fans have been and they feel very fortunate with their experience so far.
Emma Burney said she has written some songs, but all of the songs they’ve put on Spotify or Youtube have been originals by Olivia Burney or covers. The two have a very interesting songwriting process in which Olivia Burney writes the lyrics to their songs, and Emma Burney writes the guitar and voc
al parts.
Juggling personal life with playing shows, tours, writing and practicing music can be difficult, but Olivia Burney said being homeschooled helps with the pressure they face to work on music-related tasks. She said they usually do schoolwork from about nine in the morning to noon or one in the afternoon, and the rest of the day they set aside for working and scheduling interviews and shows that will typically happen on the weekends.
They said their future goals are to travel more and play more sizable festivals outside of Columbia. If you’re interested in seeing them play locally, you can catch them at Roots N Blues next year, Rose Music Hall, the Blue Note and all around Missouri. Their next show is in California, Missouri this Friday at the Finke Theatre, and you can check out their instagram @theburneysisters for more specific show dates and updates on merch and music releases.
Do you know any local bands you would like to see interviewed for Bearing News? Let us know in the comments.
