Lennon Stella, 15, and Maisy Stella, 10, have been charming viewers of ABC's Nashville for the past two years while blowing away millions of YouTube users in their spare time.
The girls grew up in tiny Oshawa, Ontario, with no television or Internet before moving with their parents (known professionally as The Stellas) to Nashville in 2009.
Known onstage as Lennon & Maisy, the duo hit it big in 2012 with the combination of their TV gig and a viral Robyn cover. They're currently working on their first major album, but it's tough to find time to write and record when filming, playing shows and still trying to figure out how to make friends at school.
In the meantime, the duo recently played in front of 18,000 people at We Day and released an original holiday single, "Christmas Coming Home," that's currently featured as iTunes' Song of the Week.
When we called them at home on Sunday morning, their mother, MaryLynne Stella, answered the phone before happily turning it over to the girls.
Music Times: We're getting closer to Christmastime, which ties in to your origin story. Maisy, didn't you pick up singing when Lennon was recording a Christmas album?
Maisy: Yeah. We couldn't afford to get all of our family gifts, because our mom is one of eight children, and she has a lot of cousins. We have a million cousins. So it was hard to get everybody presents.
Lennon: I sang "Where Are You Christmas?" and Maisy was listening to it the whole time.
M: I was so mad, like, 'When is it my turn to sing a song?' I think I was probably, like, three.
[MaryLynne chimes in from the corner with a correction for Maisy.]
M: I was a month shy of two, my mother says.
L: She knew all the words. She was this baby singing. Like, actually singing. It was so good.
MT: Your parents have a music background, but it sounds like you pushed yourselves into it more than they did.
L: I'm sure we wouldn't be nearly as much into it if we didn't have them to be the musical influence. I think having their music talents surrounding us always - that's definitely why we're still in love with it. We grew up without TV or Internet in the middle of nowhere.
MT: You guys are from Canada, right? How much different is Nashville?
L: Honestly, it's pretty similar. It's only when you look outside when you go, 'Oh, there's Nashville.'
M: There's no snow in the winter. You have to make a snowman out of frost. You have to pick off the frost from the grass to make a snowman [laughs].
MT: You've probably told this story a lot, but you could you rehash the time when Maisy was auditioning for Nashville?
M: We were not fancy. I had a piece of paper. Lennon took a picture of me before we left. We wrote my name and my age. Everybody else had portfolios and fancy binders that had swirls on it. Everybody was so fancy.
L: Maisy was auditioning for the older daughter.
M: When I got called back, I was very surprised, because I thought the second audition was so bad. But they winked at me and said, 'We'll see you again.' I was like, 'Okay. That's fine.' [laughs]
L: We were so excited because we'd never done anything on the acting side, or the television, or film, TV, anything. She went to the final callback, and on the way there, the casting director called my mom and said, 'Where's Lennon? Is she with you?' And my mom was like, 'Yeah, she's with me,' and we were so confused because we didn't know why in the world they wanted me.
She was like, 'How fast can you get over here?' and we were like, 'What?' They were saying how they were going to change the ages of the girls so I could audition.
M: She had been a really good big sister and worked on all the lines with me, so she knew them all.
L: We were prepared. And then we sang a song, and they told Maisy to sing a song. It was awesome. After that, we just somehow got the parts. They changed the 6-8 year old [part] to an 8 and a 12-year-old.
M: It was so exciting when they called. That was the best day of my life.
MT: But there were still issues to iron out after that, right? I read something about a problem with work visas.
L: We're Canadian, and our parents were here with work visas, but we didn't have them because we were 8 and 12 years old. So we got the part for the show. And before filming, they realized we were Canadian. In the United States, you can't work here without a work visa. It's craziness to try and get an O-1 [visa for "individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement"].
M: Oooh, look at you talking all smart [laughs].
L: I've been picking up on the fancy language. We tried to get the O-1 visas, but we didn't have any work history. We ended up singing the song "Call Your Girlfriend" [by Robyn] at our school talent show, and then wanted to make a YouTube video to show our family in Canada. So we made it, and it went absolutely crazy. And the press from the video was enough to get our visas for the TV show. It was all meant to be.
MT: That seems like a pretty close call.
L: They said, 'Okay, guys. I'm so sorry, but you're Canadian.' They recast the roles.
M: That was so sad.
L: We literally could not do it. But then we got our visas.
MT: You guys are obviously busy with the show, but what else is on the agenda in the coming months?
L: We've been doing writing sessions for the eventual EP or album. We've been writing a lot. And then, school takes up so much time. We go like once every two weeks. It gets ridiculous. We're in public school, so when we're not filming or traveling or playing shows or doing all the crazy things, we go back to public school. It's cool. It's neat. But it's just a lot to try and fit it all in, obviously.
MT: How do people treat you when you go back?
M: It's my first year of middle school. It's been a big difference from elementary school. It's a bit harder for me this year.
L: No one's ever mean. It's more just like they treat you kind of different, you know? But it's not a mean, negative thing. You're just kind of in a different space.
MT: How hard is it to maintain a friend group?
L: It's totally hard, but luckily I have friends that stick with me. There are three friends I can lean on, but other than that, it's so hard to try and make new friends. You're so busy. It's hard to see people around and be like, 'I'll never get to hang out with you. But I still want you to be my friend.'
MT: Have you thought about careers outside entertainment? What are you interested in studying?
L: I love photography. Anything creative. If I'm not entertaining, it'll still be something associated with it.
M: I've always wanted to be a teacher. Or I think it'd be really fun to be... well not fun, but I think it would be really good to be a doctor.
MT: Well, you've both got pretty cool jobs right now. When will you be ready to start recording that new album?
L: Once we get to the point where we have so many songs that we absolutely love, we have to choose from them...
M [interrupting]: Then we get to make an album!
L: Then we get to make an album. Eventually we'll have enough songs that we love, love, love. And then we'll just pick through them and make an album with the best.
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