Artist Spotlight: The Bishops

We’re stoked to present The Bishops as our May Artist of the Month ⚡️The duo just returned from an international tour in Russia, and released a new single, ‘Truffle Trap‘.

Troy & Cara Bishop are best friends that finish each other’s sentences more often than not. Their infectious energy and creative chemistry flows through their music, as they’ve been playing and writing together since their pre-teen years. The Bishops dropped by AMFHQ last week for our Artist of the Month interview, and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know this dynamic duo a little better.

 

How did you guys hear about AMF, and what made you want to get involved?

Cara: Our dad always tells us to come in here and ask the questions that we have about our music. That y’all help local musicians and artists on everything from booking information to management help.

Troy: You provide KNOWLEDGE.

C: The most important thing is knowledge when you’re navigating your way as an artist in Austin.

 

What does being recognized as Artist of the Month mean to you?

T: It means a lot. I don’t know if that’s happened until now. We’re honored, because there are a lot of good artists here.

C: Yeah, we are honored. To to be recognized means a lot, and it keeps us motivated.

 

Let’s go back to the beginning. How did The Bishops get their start?

T: Our dad is really into music and he bought me a keyboard when I was 10 years old. I started learning songs by ear and writing my own songs on this cheap little Casio. After that, my older brother Chris downloaded some software to make beats for himself. But he was really bad, so I started making the beats. I was about 12.

We formed a little duo, a rap group. I was the producer and he wrote the songs and rapped. We were really bad, but we kept on doing it for a couple years. Then Cara saw us, and she got a little jelly.

C: So I got a guitar from my dad, and I learned a few chords and started singing. And then I recorded a song, in my bathroom, ‘cause I was too nervous to show Troy. But I got the courage and sent it to him, and then he was like, “You gotta start writing music.” So I started writing songs and they took me to the studio and we ended up forming The Bishops trio.

T: The OG Bishops. And we’re just fine-tuning it now.

C: Now we’re kinda just fast forwarding.

T: A lot has happened in the meantime.

C: Yeah, we left out a lot but like…

T: That’s the spark notes.

 

Is Chris still a part of the project?

C: He’s always gonna be a part of The Bishops, ‘cause he is a Bishop. But Chris is going to school right now and getting an education.

T: The short answer is yes. Moving forward, we want The Bishops to be more of a collective; We don’t want to be confined or limited to just music. Chris is doing marketing at school, so a lot of things that he’s learning right now, he can use to help us. And he’ll always be a part of it because he’s blood. The Bishops is not just music, it’s our family.

C: Some people think that we, like, banished him. But we were just chilling last night freestyling. He’s our blood, we love him.

T: It was actually a decision that he made himself to go to focus more on school. He’s the smart one.

 

There’s a definite vibe you two share. I know you’re not twins, but do you have that powerful sibling connection?

C: We’re like twins, but I came out a year and a half later. I decided to stay in the womb.

T: I actually talked about that in an interview in Russia recently. I was telling this interviewer that [Cara & I] were amphibians in a past life. We knew each other. We were some type of amphibian, that’s all I know.

C: We were good friends. Laughs. Yeah, we do have a good connection – we’re best friends, you know? It’s honestly the best thing.

 

What is your writing process like?

C: The writing process is never the same, I’d say.

T: It’s very sporadic, and kind of random because we don’t really have a formula. What happens, happens. Sometimes I’ll make a beat and send it to Cara, or Cara will write lyrics and I’ll make a beat to that, or Cara will just write to nothing.

C: Or we’ll write together, randomly or without a beat. I’ll write in my bathroom for like a day and not talk to Troy and then I’ll come out like, “I did it!”

T: Sometimes we’ll be out in public and think of a line and then she’ll write that down.

C: I keep the notes.

T: I never write my shenanigans down. But sometimes I’ll come up with a one liner and not write it down, so Cara keeps all of my lyrics on her phone – she has more of my lyrics than me. Our process is all over the place, we get inspiration from everything. Cara is a very visual artist as well, so we draw inspiration from the visual arts. And everyday life.

C: The good, the bad, the mediocre.

T: The moderate vibes.

 

Are there any artists that particularly inspire you two?

T: I guess our main, together, is probably Kid Cudi. He’s the dopest. We both grew up listening to him.

C: Even our dad loved him.

 

Even WZRD?

T: I loved WZRD! There was some good songs on there.

C: I feel like he just wanted to experiment.

T: That’s what Cudi wanted to do the whole time.

C: That’s what he wanted to do in the beginning but he needed to make enough money to keep doing what he wanted to do.

T: ‘Cause all of his influences are rock stars. That album is tight because he wasn’t afraid to just change genres. I feel like nowadays that’s more common but back then that was crazy to just –

C: Change your sound entirely. Yeah, we love him.

 

What’s been the most incredible experience that you’ve had through your music?

T: We toured Russia, that was crazy. ACL [2017] was fantastic! ACL was probably the most fun just because it was our hometown fest. The goal is to headline that one day. We could die after and just be good.

C: It’s been a lot of fun just playing shows. Austin is wild. It’s insane – there’s always a good show every week.

T: There are some shows we play here that couldn’t happen in any other city. We had a show at the W swimming pool, and the line was out the door!

C: People were like, “Let us in!!” That was so much fun.

 

Do you ever think you’ll ever leave Austin?

T: There are definitely some places we’d like to see, but I don’t think we ever want to leave permanently.

C: I definitely want to go out into the world and build experiences, meet other musicians around the world.

T: The goal is to go international. We have to go out of the city a little bit to do that, but I don’t think it has to be permanent. It would be fun to live in different places for a year at a time and just play shows. I feel like that’s good for our city, it brings more attention back to the city, you know?

 

The Bishops always release singles. Are you interested in recording an album at any point?

T: We have no plans; no plans for singles, no plans for albums. We just make music.

C: People started mentioning us recording an album after our first single. But usually you find your sound a little bit first. I’m just trying to make music. I want to do a [full-length] project and we’re working on stuff, but I think it is important that we feel comfortable and find our sound before just putting a project together and releasing it because people anticipate that project.

T: Even if we do drop a project, it’s not gonna be a year in advance like, “Hey guys we’re dropping this project!” It’s just gonna be like *boom*

C: If we feel like we should drop something, we just drop it. But it’s not really that planned – it’s a little sporadic.

T: But we will definitely have a project before we die. That’s all we can say. We will drop a project in the future.

C: In the near future.

T: No, just in the future.

 

Where do you see The Bishops in 5 years?

T: Hopefully we can play some shows in London. We want to world tour, that would be crazy. Hmm, 5 years. I don’t know, we’re kinda just playing it by ear.

C: We have some goals, though.

T: We want to headline a festival.

C: I want a membership at Orb Studios. I’m working on it. It’s not a thing, but we keep telling them we want a membership where we pay a certain amount at the beginning of the year and just go whenever we want. That’s my dream.

T: We want to open a studio. To open a studio in Austin would be crazy. Five years is a little ambitious, but you know never know!

C: Might as well dream big, right?

T: Yeah, we’ll open a studio. Maybe a label.

C: But a label with all artists: visual artists, photographers, web designers, stuff like that. I really wanna make a clothing brand. That’s gonna happen within the next year, though. I sew a little bit, and I like to do digital art so I want to get into heat pressing things and vinyl, and patches.

T: Oh! And we want to get a tiny house. Like a tiny house studio.

C: We will each have our own tiny homes, and a tiny studio in the middle. And land! And then we’ll just stay out there and make music.

T: Oh! We should put a stage on the roof.

C: Okay, now we’re just talking about our life goals.

 

The last question that I usually ask is…

T: What’s your favorite cereal?

 

Yes!

T: It depends on the day, but today I would probably go for some Fruit Loops.

C: I would probably go for some Cinnamon Toast Crunch. With almond milk, not cow’s milk.

T: Okay, change my answer to Apple Jacks. With almond milk.

 

How can people connect with The Bishops? Where can they buy your music?

C: People can connect with us on our LinkedIn. We have Myspace.

T: Laughs. Nah, but we’re on all streaming platforms. But mainly, if you really wanna stay connected then follow us on Instagram > @thebishopsmusic

C: We’re everywhere! Under The Bishops Music. Or come to one of our shows and say hi!

T: Or if you’re within a 3-mile radius you can get on PictoChat.

C: Yeah! I’m on Pictochat. I’m under CUB. Hit me up on PictoChat!

 

Photo by: Ismael Quintanilla