Though they started in 2002, it would be nearly six years before the world would learn of the beautiful harmonies made this family of musicians. Joshua caught up with The Bridges to see how their debut album Limits of the Sky came about and what’s next in their future.
Joshua, PopWreckoning: You all started with just Brittany, Natalie and Stacey. Why and how did you decide to get Jeremy and Issaca involved?
Brittany, The Bridges (vox): I got Jeremy involved and the other family members wanted to get involved.
Stacey, The Bridges (guitar): It started out with just me Natalie, and Brittany. We were together for three years, but then we were stuck in this area where we only play really small venues or coffee shops. We always had this vision of being on bigger stages. So we said, if we’re going to do this, we need a band, because you can only get so far playing in a coffee shop. So we got some guys that backed us up for awhile and it totally did not work out. So Issaca and Jeremy, well not totally, they’re great guys, it just didn’t work out, but Issaca and Jeremy kind of, Jeremy was already playing drums.
Jeremy, The Bridges (drums): I thought they already wanted me to play in the first place. Then they didn’t and I was like, “Woah. Thanks.”
Stacey: So Jeremy was playing with another band and Issaca was picking up the mandolin and random other instruments. She was like 14 or 15 and finally we were like maybe Issaca can play the bass and Jeremy can play the drums. It took us awhile before we were all set. 
Jeremy: It took us a really long time just to play a whole entire set.
Stacey: We kind of just spent a whole year where we went into a basement and just had to rewrite all of our old songs and write all of our new songs. So finally, a year later, we came out of our basement. I felt like we were hermits. And we were like maybe we should play a real show? So it just clicked. It was so right for us and we had no idea and it was there the whole time. It was really awesome when they joined the band. In depth sorry.
PW: That’s how we like it. We’ve had so many strings of interviews where people are like, yeah I like music. I can work with that.
Stacey: We just really like music.
PW: When did you all start playing your instruments? I think you just went into that. So next, does being a musician run in the family? Are your parents musicians?
Natalie, The Bridges (keys): My dad is a really great pianist and he did praise and worship for our church at home where he is the pastor. My mom plays piano and guitar and she did kind of that hippie thing with Britney’s dad. They sang. There are pictures of them doing little festivals in little towns and stuff. So yeah it is. They all started with worship in the same church and then branched off. I remember the first songs where we learned with my mom sitting at guitar and piano-folk songs. And my mom saying why don’t you play this chord on the guitar or you play the harmony and so that’s how we learned. With our parents.
PW: Remember that time where I dropped the f bomb like four times before we even started and now I felt bad after that answer?
Natalie: Haha, no worries. I thought we should say, can we order f bombs here because I want a drink.
PW: Limits of the Sky came out in 2008, but you formed in 2002. In the six years before releasing an album, how has the band changed?
Stacey: Argh. That’s a hard one. It’s changed.
Jeremy: Well they added two members.
Brittany: We added two members and we had to start writing and we had to throw out all our old songs. We threw them all away. We found out who are influences were, we listened together, this is our sound. It happened naturally. We felt them on a same level. We listened to what our parents were saying, we know these great bands from back in the day, and all of a sudden it started changing and it was huge, the influences from the 60s and the 70s and how we wrote. It set it for Limits in the Sky.
Stacey: We wrote a lot of the songs while we were in the studio. We either wrote them or recorded them while we were in the studio and that was in dec or jan of last year.
Brittany: February.
Stacey: I don’t know. It’s been several months and it has changed a little bit. Not drastically. We are still about sounding pretty and what not.
Natalie: here’s the deal. The more you’re in the business, the more you’re going to have things build up and you’ll be like wait a minute. I’m upset right now. Then it’s not about the influences and more about your own feelings. And how hard it is right now. It has.
PW: How has the transition from indie to major been?
Brittany: Well, first of all, it is really helpful that there are people there that believe in you and you have to generate belief in a band between five people and parents. It is totally different when you have a label behind you and you’re like wow this is somebody that doesn’t have to love me. They did. And if they drop you then you’re like oh my. I’m unemployed. I need this partnership. I need to work for a living. That’s kind of another thing that we dealt with on this tour.
Natalie: It doesn’t matter if you’re in the mood to play a song or not. You’re signed on for it. It isn’t a hobby.
Issaca: You kind of become a little questioner-is this really what I want to do? Then you’re like yes. It is a decision you finally have to make.
Jeremy: Let’s play rock and roll.
PW: This isn’t on my sheet, but how was the process with recording with Matthew Sweet?
Natalie: We were just asked this the other day and I just messed up this question.
Brittany: Matthew was great. He totally went where we wanted him to go with our own songs and he is a musician himself so he didn’t want to step on anybody’s toes. It was the most welcoming atmosphere.
Stacey: We did it at his home.
Brittany: He had a home studio. It was our first time in LA, so that was an experience in itself. We got there and he was just so open to all of our ideas and he didn’t push us or not. We’re still trying to figure out if that was a good thing or not because now after the album we’re like, should he have pushed us harder? Should we have pushed us harder?
Jeremy: I liked to work with him, but you always wonder if you could have done better.
PW: Your album is incredible. Very good.
Natalie: Thanks.
Stacey: I love it, but I can’t imagine an artist going back and saying I’m happy with absolutely everything I hear. We are not that. We are like, I want to change this and this and this. And that’s ok. It’s the mood we were in.
PW: That’s true. It gives you a drive.
Natalie: You wouldn’t know what to do if you were completely content already.
Jeremy: You may not want to make another record. Nope, that was perfect.
Stacey: We were happy with Matthew. All of his stuff with harmonies and pop forms, they were good for us. He had a good understanding what we wanted to do pop wise.
Brittany: We love pop music, but he had a good understanding of where we wanted to go, but not too extreme.
PW: We bumped you sort of into the Laurel Canyon movement. It is where the artists that were previously pop-oriented sort of switch into a kind of country mode.
Stacey: Yeah. Our whole influences came out of the Mamas and the Papas and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young harmonies. Stuff like that. Hotel California. We read about that while we were recording. That’s exactly what I love. The musicians I love. Like Emily Harris and Linda Rostandt. So we love that influence.
Jeremy: I think it is coming back.
PW: I think a lot of it has to do with the industry dying.
Brittany: You have to do it. You have to be diverse and mature.
Stacey: The whole movement, when it was big in the 90s, then it was pop, and now it has been broken down and is coming back up. You have to go back to basics with music and lyrics. I’m excited to meet other bands that have the same outlook. The feeling that I want to write a good song. I don’t care who signs me.
PW: Music has become so self-promoting. You don’t have to be signed. I found you before you ever signed to anyone.
Brittany: That’s awesome.
Natalie: Label or no label, you’re still working really hard for yourself and you have to make sure that you still get out there.
PW: Ok. One more and it’s pretty. What can we expect in the future from you guys?
Stacey: Just more music that hopefully you guys want to hear. All we want to do is make albums and aside from that we don’t really care about anything else. We just want to play in front of people and make albums. We want to evolve.
Natalie: I want to do more rock and roll and folksy stuff.
Jeremy: Rock and roll and blood.
Natalie: Jeremy wants music-rock and roll and blood. Brit, what do you want?
Brittany: I want to learn. I am really listening to a lot of bands now. I just want to listen to a lot more people to bring in other influences. I like an edgier vibe for us and our album foreshadows a lot of that. Good taste. Just more fun. Rock and roll that’s it, but I don’t want to say typical rock and roll. Our music will be about actual stuff with our experiences and actual feelings and hopefully people will recognize the difference.
The Bridges: website | myspace
