The Burney home has always been filled with music and a plethora of talent. Now, local Columbia band The Burney Sisters share this talent through their performances of original music and covers. The indie folk/pop trio played the prominent Roots N Blues festival at the end of September.

Sixteen-year-old Olivia Burney and 14-year-old Emma Burney have been performing together for around four years, with their first song, “Constellations,” released in 2017. The Burney Sisters recently switched from a duo to a trio when their youngest sister, 11-year-old Bella Burney, joined the mix after their cover of “White Christmas” in 2019. 

The Burney sisters’ mother and manager of the band, April Shafer, homeschools the girls and has found ways to incorporate music into their lessons, making sure the trio practices every day. Olivia found her first instrument when she was around 12 years old and has loved playing ever since.

“I picked up a ukulele for like $1 at this garage sale and it was a really nice ukulele; I think the guy was just trying to get rid of it,” Olivia said. “I started teaching myself on YouTube and all that kind of stuff, and then I started writing after that. That’s when Emma started playing guitar.”

All three of the Burney sisters play their own instruments. Olivia plays ukulele, guitar, bass and banjo; Emma plays fiddle, cello, guitar, bass, piano and banjo; and Bella plays the bass and used to play the drums. 

In addition to playing their own instruments, the girls write their own music.

“It’s usually me that’s writing, but Emma has a few songs too that she plays a lot and she’s still working on,” Olivia said. “I write all the time. I have like four books’ worth of actual material that I like.” 

Olivia wrote her first song when she was 11, and now several books are full of original material including some for the group and some for herself. 

People often ask the Burney Sisters about the impact being siblings has on their songwriting. 

“People always ask us, ‘Do you guys fight?’ and we’re like ‘Well, do you have siblings?’” Olivia said. “It’s kind of inevitable. We’re able to get through all of that and still be able to make music. As individuals, we all enjoy music just like if we were friends.”

They fight the most about arrangements of songs or staying on pitch. Emma said that it isn’t about the actual music, just the way they get there.

The girls mentioned that growing up together has helped their band, but it makes it difficult to work with others. Olivia and Emma both mentioned the frustrations that come from adding different people to rehearsal. Emma said rehearsing as sisters is so effortless that when someone can’t pick up a note change instantly, it’s more frustrating than it should be.

“We’ve been working together for so long that we know what each other wants,” Emma said.  “When we’re doing band rehearsal [with other people] we’ll be like, ‘Ugh! Why can’t he get it right in 10 seconds? Olivia can.’” 

The girls’ talent seems to come naturally, but they worked hard for what they have. Shafer said the first ever Burney Sisters show at a nursing home made the girls so nervous that they ended 30 minutes early because they struggled talking to the crowd between songs.

“We’ve gone through some hardships over four years of having to practice, going back to fix things, learning an instrument for the first time, getting the callouses, not being able to reach on that one fret,” Shafer said. “It’s just about consistency — it’s about doing it every single day. That’s where the fight was, trying to get them to keep practicing every single day to get to the point where they master their instruments.”

Shafer gets to see the success from years of practice with her daughters from the back of the room while slinging t-shirts at the merchandise table.

“I love seeing people discover them for the first time because everyone’s sitting around and you can tell they’ve heard of them or at least seen them online, but as soon as they go into their harmonies, there are jaws dropping,” Shafer said.

Edited by Elise Mulligan | emulligan@themaneater.com