By Matthew D’Abate for Tom Tom Magazine
Name: Taya Perry
Age: 14 years old
Hometown: Tupelo, MS
Lives in: Tupelo, MS
Current Band: Homemade Jamz Blues Band
Cymbals: Sabian (sponsor)
Hardware: DW hardware
Favorite Venue: BB King’s Bar, NYC
Favorite Band: Paramore
Favorite Food: Chicken strips with ranch sauce
All brothers and sisters have their share of drama — but not all of them channel that drama into a killer blues band. In 2007 Homemade Jamz Blues Band qualified as the youngest blues band ever to be signed to a major label. Northern Blues Music, out of Toronto, released the solid freshman work Pay Me No Mind when the Mississippi Delta based Perry siblings (Ryan, Kyle, and Taya) were 16, 14 and 9, respectively. Since then they’ve recorded three other albums, played all over the States and abroad, and had their song “Hobo Man” featured on the hit Fox series Justified. I asked Taya how she joined her brothers in their Blues adventure.
“I didn’t really have a defining moment, it just happened,” explains Taya Perry. “While my brothers were practicing one evening, I asked them if I could play the drums. Needless to say, they told me ‘no.’ After mom intervened, my brothers reluctantly allowed me to join them for the remainder of their practice session. To their surprise, I was able to keep the beat, timing, and the pace through all the songs they practiced. Later on that day, they asked me to be their drummer. I accepted and never looked back. I was seven at the time.”
Ryan Perry’s vocals are seasoned from John Lee Hooker salt, laced over traditional blues guitar playing often compared with the dexterity of B.B. King. When asked about how Ryan and his brother Kyle felt about their 7-year-old sister joining the crew, Perry explains:
“Initially, we did not like the idea of her asking to play with us (we were 12 and 10), simply because she was our little sister. By the end of our practice set, we knew we had to include her in the band. At the dinner table that night, we swallowed our pride as her older brothers and asked her to be our drummer. Our dynamic is what I would think would come from any family band; a very tight sound with everyone on the same page at all times. With us spending every second together, we know each other, our sound, and body movements to the point where all of us can hear a variation in the music and adjust to it accordingly. Taya being our drummer and part of our band has been a blessing. We wouldn’t want any other person to sit behind the drums but our little sister! So far, being a family band has been an amazing experience. All of us are still learning new things about ourselves and our music every day.”