Swingin' siblings

(From left) Lewis, Kitty and Daisy cut authentic looking 50s era figures. Photo / Supplied

Lewis Durham comes across as a reasonably normal 19-year-old lad. He's down at his local London pub in the suburb of Kentish Town, where he grew up, for a few "drinkie-poos" with his mates. He orders a couple of pints of Guinness, and insists that he'll pay for the round.

"And a pint of bitter too, please," he asks the barman politely.

He's doing all this while talking to TimeOut on his cellphone about everything from his love of buying vinyl records, to his band of siblings - Kitty Daisy & Lewis - and their attention-getting support slot for Coldplay on the band's North American tour. Although he doesn't go on about the tour too much, referring to it as "the Coldplay thing in America".

Which might be a hint that Lewis is not that typical at all - especially when it comes to the music he and his band make, the way they record it, and their suave 'n' sweet 50s style.

Kitty Daisy & Lewis is made up of Lewis, a singer, multi-instrumentalist and guitar maestro; his older sister Daisy, who's 21, sings, beat-boxes, and plays drums, piano, accordion and xylophone; and little 16-year-old sis Kitty who also sings and plays drums, as well as harmonica, ukulele, banjo, trombone and guitar.

Their music is a mix of raw, rootsy blues, Hawaiian, country, and swing music, and vintage 50's rock 'n' roll. It's not the sort of music you'd expect such a young band to be playing. It's take your partner by the hand and fling them round the room-type music.

"My parents both grew up playing us this music, so that passed down to us, and my dad grew up in the 50s and the standards [from that era], and they were passed on to us from a young age and we liked to play them from a young age."

But how does this vintage music translate to 2009?

"I don't know," he laughs. "We just play what we like. But I think our kind of music is timeless because it's about the feel more than anything else and it makes you want to dance."

Kitty Daisy & Lewis play at the Montecristo Room in Auckland on December 16. Also in the touring band is Mum Ingrid, who used to play drums in British post-punk band The Raincoats, and Dad, Graeme (aka Daddy Grazz), a music engineer, on guitar.

Before talking to Lewis, TimeOut had a brief chat with his mum on the phone from their home where Lewis was meant to be doing the interview. She was lovely - "I'm very sorry but it's hard to keep him in at nights" - and had no qualms about giving out his mobile phone number. The Durhams are no ordinary family.

"It's interesting," says Lewis of touring and making music with his parents, "but I'm so used to it, and we've been doing it for nine years now so it just feels natural. That's what the family is all about now - playing music.

"We forced Mum and Dad into it. They were too scared at first, you know," he says in his confident, almost smart-alec lilt.

However, it's the trio - who played their first gig in the early 2000s and get their exotic looks from their Indian father - who form the core of the band.

"We are all kind of equal, and age doesn't matter in the band, and yeah, we are all equal participants in playing the music and we all sing equal amounts of songs. If Daisy suddenly scarpered, God forbid she won't, we wouldn't be able to get anybody else," Lewis says.

Since that first show they have released a handful of singles, and last year's self-titled debut album.

The record is a collection of 10 songs - the recently released tour edition also includes three bonus tracks and a DVD - which are a mix of covers and originals.

Lewis' Buggin' Blues is a toe-tapping stand-out, then there's the delightfully wonky instrumental Swinging Hawaii, written by all three siblings, and Kitty's cute and sassy xylophone-driven (Baby) Hold Me Tight.

And the covers they play are the songs they heard as kids, like Mean Son Of A Gun, which late 50s American country star Johnny Horton first played, and I Got My Mojo Working, a song popularised by Muddy Waters in 1957.

This passion for all things vintage is not only reflected in the songs the band play, but also how they are recorded, how they sound, and the packaging and format they are produced on.

If you're talking to Lewis, nothing sums up the band's passion for a bygone era better than his fascination with vinyl records.

"We grew up with records in our house so it was all I knew and I just like them because they are a physical thing - and you can see how it works, as opposed to a CD or MP3, where you have no idea how it works. So it's the physical and mechanical side."

When he was 13 he got a disc-cutting lathe and started pressing records. "When I started buying records I wanted to make them too," he says.

From there his obsession with analogue recording technology grew. The family went about collecting tape recorders, old ribbon microphones, amplifiers, and other "ancient sound equipment" to set up a recording studio in their house.

"It started out from me looking at old photos of Sun Records [in Memphis] and seeing what gear they had and then going out and finding it. And then, if it's broken or breaks down, you work out how to fix it. It's a long chain of beavering, and a lot of trial and error."

Which is why Kitty, Daisy & Lewis took more than a year to make - because throughout the recording process Lewis was still tinkering with the studio set up and honing his recording techniques. This makeshift approach means each song sounds different, which is a big part of its charm.

"Some of them were recorded in different rooms, we used the bathroom for the echo chamber, and stuff like that."

As well as traditional CD formats the album also came out on five 10-inch records, and limited edition 78rpm vinyl, one of the oldest and chunkiest forms of record.

It's just like the old days, which is why Lewis had a field day buying records in America while on the Coldplay tour.

"It was great, because most of the music I listen to comes from America - mostly jazz and rhythm and blues. I just bought bucketloads from every state we visited and shipped them back.

"You can never have enough records and my collection is always growing. Every record I listen to inspires me more."

LOWDOWN
Who: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

What: Band of siblings inspired by the 50s, making music you can dance to

Where & when: San Francisco Bath House, Wellington, December 15; Montecristo Room, Auckland, December 16.

Debut album: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, out now.