'We Just Want to Have a Lot of Fun With It': Sister Group Girl Tones Prepares for Festival Debut at Lollapalooza

Some siblings get along just fine. Sisters Kenzie Shultz and Laila Crowe get along well enough to be in a band together.

“If you can’t be honest with your sibling, who can you be honest with?” Laila says.

The sisters make up the group Girl Tones, a rock band inspired by the sounds of The White Stripes with some pop flair and alternative influence.

You can find the duo on the road opening for Silversun Pickups, but the sisters make their festival debut at Chicago’s Lollapalooza this Thursday.

If you plan to see their set at the BMI stage, be ready to bring the energy.

“I don’t think people realize how much power really the crowd and their energy has in a performance,” says Laila, who plays drums, synth and backup vocals. “When you win the audience over and they start engaging and really feeling it, it elevates the whole performance.”

Kenzie, on lead vocals and guitar, may just end up yelling at the crowd. Don’t worry — it’s all part of the show.

“The more comfortable I am on stage, the more I tend to yell at the audience to give me that same energy back,” she says.

That same rage can be heard on the recently released song “Got It.”

“The energy and rage from [‘Got It’] can be applied to basically anything that a person could go through,” Kenzie says.

The song was officially released on streaming services this month, but the duo has been performing it live for years. It just wasn’t time for its official release. Until now.

An older version of the song exists on YouTube, but the structure has been changed for this release, according to Girl Tones.

“Originally, ‘Got It’ didn't have a lyrical chorus,” Kenzie says. It was kind of an instrument break heavily influenced by The White Stripes. Then it just felt so empty, so I can’t wait for people to hear what it sounds like now on a recording.”

How do Kenzie and Laila know when a song is ready to release? It’s just a feeling, Laila says.

“Then you’ll listen to it two years later and be like, ‘Why didn’t we do this?’” Kenzie adds.

“That’s the beauty of music. It’s never set in stone,” Laila says.

Reworking old ideas is part of the art-making process for Girl Tones. When enough small ideas are compiled over time, they can come together to build entire projects.

“If you have an idea that is super small, that you don’t think is going to be anything, still write it down,” Kenzie says. “It could eventually turn into something.”

Laila adds: “After a certain amount of time, if you have enough fragments, you can stitch it all together.”

Kenzie says she writes down singular words that come to her in moments of inspiration. That single word can one day turn into a song. Regardless of what the song is about, one thing holds true: The song has to stick.

“I love making melodies that get stuck in your head,” Kenzie says.

Just like a word may one day turn into a song, an old photo can become cover art. The sisters collect visuals when they’re on the road and have a repository to choose from.

“We just really start digging and seeing what it is that we want to use. It’s just when it feels right,” Laila says about choosing cover art.

That was the case for “Got It” — the art, a photograph taken by Kate LaMendola, was taken for a photo shoot with no real home in sight.

Contrary to most Girl Tones’ covers, which tend to be colorful, the “Got It” art shows Kenzie and Laila in a grainy, dark room. The dark, heavy nature of the song lends itself well to the photograph, the sisters say.

“It’s an era of music where you have to constantly have new photos and new visuals to put out there,” Laila says. “I remember our parents talking about how, when they were growing up, they didn't even know what the bands they were listening to looked like.”

The accompanying stop-motion music video was created by artist Chloe Tyler. The sisters provided general references and ideas, like CD-ROMS, vintage games and I Spy books. Tyler understood the vision immediately.

“When she sent the first copy we were, like no notes, this is awesome,” Laila says.

“It’s amazing to work with artists that totally understand what you’re saying, even if we don’t have the exact words for it,” Kenzie adds.

Following their set at Lollapalooza, Girl Tones heads to Shaky Knees and Austin City Limits before rejoining Cage the Elephant on tour.

“We are incredibly grateful and proud that we are able to do this as a living,” Kenzie says. “We’ve accomplished what we have always dreamed of accomplishing.”

Laila adds: “Every step of the way, it’s like, this is way further than I thought we’d ever get it.”

Girl Tones plays the BMI stage at Lollapalooza on Thursday, July 31, from 1 to 1:40 p.m.