The first time we played music together, we grabbed a couple of acoustic guitars and it was pretty instantaneous. Like the the communication. Started, starting in Priory at Brandon's house while he was brewing beer. And we wrote an album really fast and and uh got down and dirty. We toured on that album for a little bit. And for two years we toured on our own like town to town. We had it all mapped out like oh, we have to sell 10 t-shirts tonight or we can't get to St Louis. Exactly. It was It was on Yeah. And surprisingly we always made We never went completely broke even though we toured everywhere in.

And all the kids now, they come running. And it's the weekend. It's the weekend. And all the parents that they keep calling, but there's no answer cuz it's the weekend.

Hey guys, what's going on. This is Brandon from Priory.

I'm Kyle from Priory. Uh I'm the lead singer and guitar player.

I play guitar and sing backup vocals live.

And welcome to Young Hollywood Backstage Diaries.

The word Priory is a word that we love. We like how it looks. Uh it's a rehab clinic in in England. It also is a place where monks live. Um they kind of hide themselves away and they did the first written music. They created, you know, they did brewed beer, drank, meditated, whatever they did. And we hid ourselves away making a record. So it's just a word that resonated with us. You know, I mean Portland has like an amazing music scene. It's it's flourished especially in the last six or seven years. I grew up downtown off of Broadway and Jefferson. So like in in the city. As far as the way the Portland music scene influenced us. You know, I I would say Kyle and I honestly, you know, we're we're tied into the music scene because it's so small and we love it. But when we were creating the album, we really kind of set ourselves apart uh in a lot of ways. Like we locked ourselves away. We built our own recording studio and we locked ourselves away for, you know, 12, 15 hours a day for a year and a half making this album. Um the Portland music scene has a a kind of a specific aesthetic. Uh you know, they they lean towards things which are acoustic and uh lean towards things which are extremely weird and avant-garde. And I think that's neat because it actually that's a cool thing because it actually encouraged you to step outside the box. So when Kyle and I were making music, we made this decision early on that there's no rules. There's no wrong or right and we're going to do, you know, whatever comes to us naturally. Uh so if one of us has an idea, we're going to fall follow through with it to the end. Uh, you know, regardless of whether or not it's a keeper.

First, he was like Uh, before the Wiltern show, I have a weird thing. I I pace around. I do this odd pacing thing. Uh where I just kind of walk around stuff and at sound check I'm I'm I'm not super approachable for some reason. I get really nervous just in sound check. I don't get nervous playing. I just get nervous in sound check. You can ask Brandon. I get kind of weird. Um and I have to do a uh kind of a stretch. I do this little stretching thing with my legs, which somehow evens out my my brain. Um but at the Wiltern, I mean, I tried to think of it just like any other show. And just go out there and perform for people cuz that's what we love to do.

Back up. Look at these lip bubbles. Laga. I'm doing them back there. I've got them down. No, it's good.

So essentially what it is is you're trying to get the larynx to drop. Uh because if you sing in tense and out of the top of your throat, it'll eventually close off and and that's when you can cause damage. So a lot of it is just it's getting your stuff to open up. We start with these these things which are lip rolls. You know, all over your range. Yep. And then I do a series of lagas, which is and I'll do that through the scales. And then I'll do mas, which is and you actually want to make it sound like you're almost crying when you're doing it. And what that does it forces the larynx down and it actually opens up the soft palette. See you.

So I I get all my tattoos from this guy named Clay Welsh. This is a big sumi brush tree, which comes up uh over my chest a little bit and this is Box family crest. I grew up playing like orchestral, you know, upright bass and cello. Uh and so I took uh my initials and my wife's initials and I mixed them in here. So it's kind of the ode. So down here is like the craggy roots of the tree and then it comes up and it's wind-swept and it has a bunch of birds and stuff. I'm sure you guys have seen it at some point. Starts taking it off. Right, you know? I always feel like I need to take off my clothes when people ask about tattoos but This tattoo, this um this dollar sign here actually I put over my old plasma scar. I used to give uh I gave blood for three or four years as we were making uh music and making the record uh just to get by. So after we finished the album and started touring, I I tattooed over it with the dollar sign just to remind me that I used to do that for money. And it's it's my pride and joy. It was supposed to be a lot smaller, but there it is. In all its glory.

And all the kids now, they come running. It's the weekend. It's the weekend. And all the parents that they keep calling, but there's no answer cuz it's the weekend. Hell yeah, I just got paid. Hey, what's up? We're Priory. Hey, thanks for coming and hanging out with us in Young Hollywood Backstage Diaries. But I'll never give down hard.