Sibling Group Bailen Are Ready to Fall Head Over Heels On Melodic New Ballad: Exclusive
New York-based sibling act Bailen (David, Daniel and Julia Bailen) explore the feelings of excitement and hesitation that come with falling in love on their song “Something Tells Me,” premiering exclusively on Billboard today (April 18).
David initially wrote the chorus and one verse of “Something Tells Me” after meeting his current girlfriend. Upon hearing the lyrics, Daniel told him, “You can’t have a cheesy verse and a cheesy chorus!” before rewriting the verses with a darker and more mysterious angle.
“When you meet someone, you don’t know who they are, where they’re from, or anything about them.” David tells Billboard about the verses’ inspiration. “They could just paste on any identity to themselves and you wouldn’t know.”
“Something Tells Me” will appear on Bailen’s debut album Thrilled To Be Here, a project that has been years in the making for the trio. Produced by Grammy award-winner John Congleton, the LP will drop April 26, and features 11 songs that show off the group’s mesmerizing three-part harmonies.
The Bailen siblings — comprised of fraternal twins Daniel and David and their younger sister Julia — stressed the importance of showcasing their various “musical personalities” while keeping a sonic through line across the album. The three play off each other’s strengths in their songwriting: a combination of Daniel’s knack for crafting melodies, David’s skill writing catchy hooks and Julia’s ability to keep their songs fresh.
While they are collaborative in their approach, Julia says all three of them have distinctive styles in their writing that are easy to spot.
“If David brings a song in, it always retains that very David style. Or if Daniel brings a song in, it has that Daniel air about it,” she says. “It’s kind of fun to hear, when you talk to people who know the music and hear us play a lot and they’re like, ‘These are my favorite songs,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, you’re a Daniel person.'”
While it may be the band’s first album, the group has found tremendous success this past year, playing a sold-out show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom in January and charting on Adult Alternative songs with their lead single “I Was Wrong.”
The siblings attribute their growing popularity to having amassed a loyal following the old-fashioned way — not by social media pushes or digital promotions, but through playing a “crazy” amount of live shows and meeting their fans face-to-face.
“All of our momentum is based off of people coming and hearing us live and coming to shows and telling their friends and coming to more shows,” David says. “It’s a nice thing in this day and age, because it means we had a personal connection with each of our fans and not just a computer screen between us.”
Listen to “Something Tells Me” one day early below.