Behind the controversy and media, Killiope Jones are a band rich in talent and ability and have received raves for their sound.  They have drawn influences from June Millington (Fanny), Haim, Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse, David Bowie, Anniex Lennox, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Beatles.

The band took their love and passion for music and from their musical influences and created its magic in the form of music which has culminated this past month (July, 2016) with the release of their debut LP as their biggest achievement to date.  "In our first summer together as a band (2012) we played at The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, which felt like a really big deal. Last summer (2015), we sang the national anthem and played the halftime show at Pride night at a WNBA game at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. Last winter (2015), we were in a documentary called Don’t Call Me Cute, which won awards at the Slamdance Film Festival. Our biggest accomplishment, though, was our CD release party, which we held in July 2016 at The Ashfield Lakehouse in Ashfield MA. That felt huge and extremely satisfying because we did it all ourselves. We worked hard on the CD for almost a year. We found the opening acts, did the promotion, made the merch, and hosted the entire evening. It was a huge success, and it meant a lot to us that our local community came out to support us in such an enormous way."  

 
Kalliope Jones is the new self-titled CD by the band.  "We just released our CD (self-titled, Kalliope Jones) in July of 2016, after working extremely hard on it during the past year, and are very happy with the outcome. We now have a logo and some merchandise, and we threw our first-ever CD release party. It was a million times better than we ever could have imagined, and we really appreciated all the hard work that so many people put in to making it possible. This summer, we are all involved in various theater and music camps, and intend to make at least one music video to go along with the new CD. We have enlisted a videographer, Tobias LaMontagne, to work with us, and are really looking forward to brainstorming with him.
The CD is comprised of eleven of our songs that we have played throughout our four years as a band, so there are some oldies in there amongst the newer ones. All three of us help write and arrange the different parts of the songs, so being able to listen to the final versions that mix all of our musical tastes and experiences is really amazing to us. Admittedly, a few of the songs are written about books or TV shows, and others are pure teen angst, but sometimes that is the most relatable to our audience and that is part of our own right to telling our own stories, so it still works well to create the connection. Furthermore, some of the songs are anthemic and reflect on injustices and standing up for yourself, which is really important to us."

The band also released a video called Nightlight for the CD that portrays the struggles that teenagers deal with in modern times.  "We are all teenagers, so the inspiration for the song, Nightlight, came from many of the struggles that teenagers face in their day-to-day, dramatic lives. The song uses the cliche phrase, “living the teenage nightmare” to convey the feelings of real teens like us. We picked from things we had felt and gone through, and what we know other people go through. Overall, it became this kind of thing that really related to a certain audience -- teenagers -- and let them know that other people are going through the same thing. After writing the song, we knew we had to make a video, so we kind of just chose settings that artistically reflected the lyrics and inner meanings of the song." 

 

"Our message to the world is that people should be free to do whatever they want (specifically, in the music business) no matter what their race, gender, or sexual orientation is, Alouete said. Whoever they are, they should be granted the right to perform in an environment in which they can play their music, rather than being judged based on preconceptions or stereotypes perpetuated by the media. You don’t need to form yourself into this appealing object at which people can marvel because it fits their preconceived notions of what art and culture are supposed to be like. The best forms of art are those born out of new-age ideas and radical thinking." 

 

"Our main, ongoing goal is to improve as musicians and people together; this means building our instrumental, vocal, and writing skills, since we mostly perform original songs. We really value learning how to collaborate in the group environment, and it is always extremely helpful to get input from one another. It is also really important to us to try to spread messages that resonate with us and promote global equality and justice."

 

"We were thrown into the spotlight last fall for objecting to a county fair judge’s assessment that we didn’t “use the sultry” enough to draw in the crowd. We felt that the message we were given -- that we needed to be more “sultry” in order to succeed in the music business -- was way off-base. We are not interested in being sex symbols, nor in perpetuating the objectification of women in rock and roll (although if you want to “use the sultry,” we totally support that). We just want to play music. We were perplexed and, frankly, shocked by the events and reacted publicly, in a Facebook post. We never expected it to take off the way it did, and we did not, by any means, intend for it to be a so-called “publicity stunt,” but there you have it."

The band actually met at a summer camp devoted for girls who rock and had the opportunity to work with June Millington of the all female rock band Fanny who took on similar issues only intensified as early pioneers in the late 1960s.  "We met at The Institute for the Musical Arts in Goshen MA, a summer camp devoted strictly to “girls who rock.” There, we were taught that, just by being female, we automatically have to work harder and play harder to be taken seriously in the music business. We were taught to fight for our rights as musicians, regardless of our gender, sexual orientation, or race. We were taught to stick up for ourselves, and speak out, and not take any nonsense. That is exactly what we did, and what we will continue to do. Our reaction to the sexism we encountered was, at first, astonishment. We had been warned about it, but hadn’t yet experienced it first hand. We are lucky to have a strong community who stood by us and encouraged us to hold our ground. It all made us really anxious, to be honest, but we received a lot of support from our community and feel that we did the right thing by speaking up. Since that first experience, we have become much more aware of the issue of sexism in the music business and elsewhere. It is hard for us to accept that this is “the norm” and we are all, individually and as a band, committed to fighting it on every level."

"Sadly, it seems that many all-girl or all-women bands face the statement, “Well, you’re good for a girl” all too often. If we are as good as male musicians, it is a somehow huge accomplishment. It is not necessarily an intentional judgement, but instead an ingrained notion of what the face of rock and roll is and how that is portrayed through the media."

Kalliope Jones are musicians and want to be looked at as just musicians and not as girl musicians.  "As far as stereotypes go, we are faced with them from a few different angles. First, we are all girls and people tend to pigeonhole us as “cute” or “hot” before they’ve even heard our music. Initially, they don’t take us very seriously. Second, we are teenagers, and people assume that we are “liked” because we are a novelty, rather than because of our musicality. They think we’re inexperienced and naive -- too young to actually know how to be musicians in a band. What they don’t know is that we work really hard to be good musicians and to function together. We work almost as hard on our relationships with one another as we do on our music. We overcome these stereotypes by remaining true to ourselves and our causes. We are musicians. We write songs and play music. We believe strongly in equal rights for everyone of any race, gender, or sexual orientation." 

You can find out more about Kalliope Jones and get their music from several places online.  "We have a website: www.kalliopejones.com, where people can sign up to be on our mailing list, though we only send things out when we’re having a big show. We have a Facebook page too, but it’s set up as an individual person named Kalliope Jones, rather than as a band page. We did it that way because, at the time, none of our parents wanted our personal information on Facebook. We also have an Instagram page with the username, kalliopejonesband. If you want to directly contact us, you can email us at kalliopejonesband@gmail.com, or Facebook message us."

"Our message to the world is that people should be free to do whatever they want (specifically, in the music business) no matter what their race, gender, or sexual orientation is. Whoever they are, they should be granted the right to perform in an environment in which they can play their music, rather than being judged based on preconceptions or stereotypes perpetuated by the media. You don’t need to form yourself into this appealing object at which people can marvel because it fits their preconceived notions of what art and culture are supposed to be like. The best forms of art are those born out of new-age ideas and radical thinking. We’re not sure the world needs to know anything about us right now; we’re just three kids in a band, and we love what we do."