Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaylen Kelsey Kristen Kassab The K3 Sisters Band.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Since its formation in 2009 the K3 Sisters Band has been led by sisters Kaylen Kassab (27), Kelsey Kassab (25) and Kristen Kassab (22).
Kaylen: As the oldest of the three of us, I was introduced to the Suzuki method for violin at the age of 4. When Kelsey and Kristen each turned 4 they also began taking private violin lessons as well as vocal lessons.
Kelsey: That’s right. We each began performing at recitals, then for small groups of adults and gradually in front of thousands of people. This was way before we formed the K3 Sisters Band. You see, our parents were both award winning music producers and performers who home schooled us so they could travel to perform.
Kristen: Some of my earliest memories are performing little cameos on stage across Texas and Oklahoma with my parents and their decorated Double Portion Band. The huge applauses of the crowds after whatever we performed kept us excited to learn more entertainment skills and dream big. On a plane trip home in 2009 from Disney World in Florida we decided to form our own band. We settled on the name K3 Sisters Band because all of our names start with the letter K.
Kaylen: Oh wow! I remember us scribbling different potential band logos on scraps paper on that flight, and incredibly 17 years later we are still using one of those initial designs as one of our two logos.
Kristen: We were supported by several side musicians as well as our parents in those early years, and we soon became a regular act on stages at Six Flags Over Texas, city-wide festivals and fairs, Great Wolf Lodge, for non-profit fundraisers, performing arts centers and dozens of public school assemblies even though we never attended a public school for one day!
Kelsey: As we continued to perform, we began to learn how to write songs as well as expand our instrumental studies to include guitar, mandolin, harmonica, bass and ukulele. It didn’t hurt that our dad plays 10 different instruments and is a great teacher.
Kaylen: And, because our mom holds a Bachelor of Science music degree with vocal concentration we had a built in vocal coach along the way. She helped us refine our signature three part harmonies which captivate many audiences.
Kristen: Then came the twist. We began to post on social media, and people around the world flocked to our TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube channels by the millions. As of now we have generated over 3.5 billion views worldwide and it shows no sign of slowing down.
Kelsey: There’s a lot more to our origin story, however, when the Covid 19 pandemic hit and every one of our in person concerts were canceled we began to live stream our content and concerts on social media. What happened next shocked us. We began to get explosive numbers especially on TikTok. Good Morning America even contacted us and we appeared on national television as a color story on the explosive growth of TikTok.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Kelsey: As with just about every success story, we have experienced struggles and disturbing situations at times. One of the most hurtful things in those early years was the cyber bullying and hate comments we began receiving on social media. At first it paralyzed us mentally. Then we began to think about taking a stand against bullying.
Kaylen: We began composing a pretty long statement of how we felt, but over a few weeks distilled it down to what is known worldwide today as the K3Motto. “I will always believe in myself and celebrate my life and the lives of others. I will respect the music and customs of others as long as they are not harmful to anyone. I will stand against bullying of any kind, and choose love over hate.
Kristen: We had no idea that our K3Motto would affect so many millions of young and not so young people around the world. It has been translated into many languages, and we have received countless comments on how this “not so simple” motto has helped others.
Kelsey: Also, it is not as easy as people think to live together, work together and play together. Can you imagine when one of your sisters is having a bad day and you are involved in performing or rehearsing difficult material? It is a constant balancing act to keep things rolling, even if not so smoothly.
Kaylen: I suppose it’s worth mentioning that as child performers we were often made fun of by those who felt we would never succeed. Some television producers that auditioned us classified us as a “novelty act” and passed on promoting us. When we got older we were offered deals to perform on television, but when we had the long contracts analyzed by experts we found out they were terrible deals for us. This fact continues to be disturbing because now we know the music and television business world is only in it for themselves not the artists.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Kristen: We have been dubbed “the band that defies description” because our music spans multiple genres. These include rock, pop, country, Celtic, folk and roots to name a few. So, at our concerts the audience is taken on a different journey every time. Some shows concentrate on one or a few styles, but the audience never knows what will happen.
Kelsey: We are a hardcore do-it-yourself operation which in our case means we do all of our own recording, arranging, mixing, filming, editing, sound management and stage setup. Frankly, we don’t know of any other band with our kind of international reach that has the skills and guts to do this for as many years as we have. Earlier this year we released our sixteenth album titled “Dinner With the Vampires on Gloria Street,” and we are already working hard on our seventeenth album.
Kaylen: We are known for allowing our fans to listen to all our music for free on our website or on social media. In the last several years we have had incredible success with our name song series. We now sing the names of fans in over 80 countries and in 18 different languages. Those early French lessons when we were homeschooled led to us seeing how similar languages really are, and how important it is to connect with fans in their own language and with cultural appreciation.
Kristen: Later this fall we will be releasing our first feature length horizontal concert film that was shot with five
cameras. It is especially formatted for big screen televisions or phones. It will include many of our Texas and western themed songs as well as several of our warning and comfort songs. We just released another of our K3SB Radio Shows. This one hour episode delves into analyzing certain of the symbolisms and backgrounds of the songs in our all original 16th album “Dinner With the Vampires on Gloria Street.” Plus, we answer many of the most burning questions our K3SB FAM fandom have asked us about. Listen to it and all kinds of our other songs and content at k3sistersband.com.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Kaylen: As mentioned earlier, our parents were always there for us in the early years. And guess what? They are still helping in every aspect of what we are doing today. We are a family operation.
Kelsey: We are grateful to the many different promoters, non-profits and city planners that booked us to perform at their festivals, fairs and events during the early days of our career.
Kristen: As part of our homeschool curriculum we carefully studied the careers of dozens of singer songwriters and bands of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The resulting awareness of style, and creative reimaginings these top performers experienced shaped a lot of what we do today. And sadly, the downfall of many of these great artists has also served as a warning to us to be careful about our actions.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.k3sistersband.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/k3sistersband/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/k3sisters/
- Twitter: https://x.com/K3SistersBand
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyd1FQbwxPyOACQuYgFzsJg
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@k3sistersband?lang=en
