Interview with The Jensen Sisters
On the list of things synonymous with Minnesota, country music isn’t exactly one of them. For The Jensen Sisters, that leaves plenty of room to blaze a trail all their own. Which is exactly what the young songwriters are doing. It was only 5 years ago sisters Kansas (17) and Kendra (20) kicked off their musical careers, performing Waylon Jennings’ “Good Hearted Woman” on a whim in their high school talent show. “That was the moment. If there was ever one moment for us, that was it,” says Kendra. “It was such a natural snowball. That’s how I would describe it. We didn’t even conscientiously realize we were becoming musicians. It just kind of happened. I’m lucky that it’s never felt like something we had to push. It’s always just been something we’re behind and it keeps pulling us.”
The girls have come a long way in those few short years. First releasing their EP Highway Hippies in 2019, then honing in on and evolving their personal brand of country music “new wave retro county.” Kansas said, “People will ask us what’s our sound, and we just say “just listen.” If we say country, people tell us “there’s so many versions of country what do you mean?” So we were like, let’s just come up with a name so people can listen to us and with this name they can know what we’re talking about.” Kendra said, “New wave retro country just fit it all into the same package.”
Pushing their self proclaimed brand even further, The Jensen Sisters released their first full length LP, Yellow Frames, in early October. The idea for the title track - and eventually theme of the album - came to them purely by chance. Kansas says, “I remember we went to the gas station and I bought a cheap pair of yellow sunglasses. And was like ‘everything looks better through these.’” The girls didn’t waste the moment and quickly penned the title track. Kendra, who’s working on her degree in sales and marketing took everything a bit further and envisioned an entire album based on that one track. Kendra says, “Instantly my marketing brain went haywire. I told Kansas our next album was going to be called Yellow Frames and it’s going to be orange, yellow and retro.”
The ten track album is mostly originals with the exception of “Good For You” which was penned by friend and fellow musician Zak Norton. According to Kendra the tracks all tell tales of where the girls currently find themselves in life. Sometimes it’s the go-with-the-flow vibe of “River Song” and others it’s “On The Fringe,” which plays on the girls’ love of fashion and growing up in the small town of Goodridge, MN. “It’s not even a full dot on the map. It’s half a dot,” jokes Kansas.
Kendra says, “The song that I really love though is “All the Way Through.” I think it’s just a sweet song that is about getting to know people for who they really are. Once you get to really know someone, you get to see every part of them, the perfectness fades away and you get to see them for who they really are. I think that’s more beautiful than anything that’s picture perfect.”
Living in today’s world, The Jensen Sisters hope above everything that the intertwined theme of positivity and seeking out the bright side resonates with listeners. Kendra says, “Hopefully when people listen to this record, the goal is for them to be able to come out of it feeling just a little bit happier than they were before they listened.”
Hard copies of Yellow Frames can be purchased directly from https://thejensensisters.com/ and is also available on iTunes and Spotify.
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