The Prices

There’s an old saying that “a man travels the world over in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it,” and that has certainly been the case for ska-rock duo The Prices. Brother and sister Virgil and Brit Price were pursing solo careers, until they both accepted the invitation to play a one-off gig together at their old grade school in New York last October. That show rekindled their unique musical chemistry, and the two quickly began trading tracks back and forth online, writing the songs that would become The Prices first CD, The Awesomeness.
Older brother Virgil had been deeply interested in music since he was a toddler, asking his parents for a ukulele when he was two. Sousaphone, piano, saxophone, bass guitar, banjo, acoustic guitar and electric guitar; Virgil never met an instrument that didn’t intrigue him. During his time at Davidson College in Charlotte, NC, he and his roommates turned the house they were living in into a recording studio; staying up all night to record and play. Brit was also intensely interested in music, but chose to focus on classical piano. After following her brother to Davidson, she achieved her dream of performing Rhapsody in Blue – and discovered that her true aspirations were elsewhere.
At this point, Virgil had been traveling the world, playing keyboards in Australian pop-punk band called Worst Case Scenario, and living and playing music in Barcelona. He then settled into the South Florida music scene, and put out his own CD in 2008 of quirky, melodic material, a la the Counting Crows. Brit put down roots in Charlotte, and also recorded her own CD of more pop-influenced material in early 2009, but was already thinking of moving away from that sound when she and Virgil began writing songs together that October.
Virgil started writing the music on bass, looking to “create something fun, so you could rock out to it, but at the same time, have catchy hooks.” The new tracks came together quickly – the first song’s lyrics, “The Fugitive,” took Brit 20 minutes – including the memorable line, “Innocent in orange/More destined than kings/Take cover where the golden girl sings.” “We basically did a song a day,” remembers Virgil.
Ironically, the song “Long Time” took almost no time to write at all. Brit said, “I heard him play it on keys first, and I said, ‘that has to go on the record.’ A lot of the lyrics are actually written by Virgil on that song. It was fun to get inside his head, and sing it from a female point of view.”
“There are so many great female lead singers right now, but there are so few with real power, who can really rock out, like Gwen Stefani and Alanis Morrisette,” observes Virgil. “Brit’s voice has that quality, and she also has a flamboyance to her delivery that’s really exciting.”
With six new songs, and two written by old friend Brent McCormick, the two booked time at Echo Beach Studio in Jupiter, FL just before Christmas 2009 to get the tracks down, with Brit on vocals, Virgil on bass and keyboards, and Brent on guitars; rounded out by Brian Dunne and Jonathan Erickson on drums, Mike Lyons on guitars, Patrick Boyd with additional guitars and keyboards, and Carey Sims on backing

vocals. Virgil and Patrick produced the recording, along with Roy Hendrickson (Wilco, Mary J. Blige, Michael Jackson, Cheap Trick).
The resulting recording brings to mind the bouncy, 80’s –ska-influenced rock of No Doubt, Dance Hall Crashers, Save Ferris, The Killers, and Kings of Leon. Despite the brevity of the writing and recording process, the evocative songs have a complex, layered sound and thoughtful lyrics. But what comes through the most is the pure enjoyment of the two siblings playing music together. Hence the title. Why The Awesomeness? Says Virgil, “We don’t want to take ourselves too seriously and come out with this ‘bad’ attitude – it’s going to be awesome; it’s going to be fun.”