First reaction was “Family of the whowhatwhere?” No clue who Family of The Year were. All I knew was, they looked super dapper in their photos. I wished I look like that 25% of the time.

Many thanks to SPIN.com for that piece on 25 Must-Hear Artists from the CMJ Music Festival. Not only did we discover Family of The Year, there are a couple of bands worth checking out. Trust us.

We managed to ask Christina Schroter (she’s on keyboard duties) some questions about the band and life.

Is there a story behind the band name? Are you guys related by any chance?

Well, we used to be appropriately named “Bogie Ogreton,” which of course no one could ever remember or pronounce.
So we changed it, but not after a lot of putting new name ideas in hats and what not. One of our unreleased songs is called “Family of the Year,” which tells kind of a dark family story, and once it was in the running for a band name, we knew it was the one.

We all live together, eat dinner together, hang out together and all consider each other family anyway, so it’s perfect.

But, it just so happens that there are family members in the band. Joe (lead vocals) and Sebastian (drums) are brothers, and have been since birth. Me and Vanessa only became related recently when everyone started asking us if we were sisters. We’re not, but now we just say we are. And Vanessa and Joe may or may not have spent the last year in love, but that could just be a rumour.

Tell us the story of Family Of The Year.

Joe and Vanessa met one night outside of a bar. One thing led to another, and before you know it they’re hanging out everyday and writing music together. They recorded a bunch of songs, and once “Bogie Ogreton and the Yogurt Drops” had scheduled their first show, they knew they had to get a band together. We were already all best friends who hung out everyday and enjoyed the music, so it pretty naturally came together.

How would you describe your sound?

Probably Indie Folk Pop Americana? Something like that.

You guys always look dapper – who/what do you cite as your fashion influence?

Why thank you! If you saw us in our everyday wear of ripped jeans and t shirts you might not think so, but we try to clean up when the time is right. Bubba (Brent Freaney, bass) always looks dapper. Except when he wears pyjamas in public. And he’s kind of our in-house stylist, at least for the guys. Between Vanessa, Bubba and I, I think we enjoy Rodarte, Chloe, Philip Lim, and Alexander Wang… But really we kind of just wear whatever we feel like, novelty hats included.

Describe a typical day of Family Of The Year?

Well we just got home from about 2 months of being on the road, and so far we’ve spent our days getting stuff done pretty much. We’ve spent our days working on the house, running errands, or watching really important episodes of Tool Academy. Then we’ll go to the practice space and rehearse for a couple hours, come back to the house, cook some dinner and have some wine, and then have some more wine. Usually we end up playing Rock Band or Cranium.

What’s the best advice you can give to young & aspiring musicians who are trying to make music?

Probably the best advice that I got is to have confidence and stay committed. I played piano for years in grade school, but once I quit, I didn’t touch a piano pretty much until I joined the band. I learned all the songs in a short amount of time for our first show and wouldn’t have been able to do it if I didn’t think I could have.

Any resolutions for 2010?

Probably just getting our act together. We can’t take any of our opportunities for granted so we just need to buckle down and prepare for them before they happen.

Go to www.familyoftheyear.net for more.

Text >> kittystarr
Photos >> from the band’s MySpace & Facebook page