Story Behind The Songs — Family

This album has been a long time coming. It's the kind of record that couldn’t have happened any earlier in our lives, because we hadn’t yet lived enough. We had to fall, rise, meet, grow, lose, and fight our way to joy. We had to become a family before we could write an album called Family.

It all started with raw emotion—heartbreak, pain, doubt—and through the years turned into something honest, powerful, and healing. We didn’t set out to make a concept record. But by the time we looked back at the songs, it was clear: every moment, every lyric, every harmony was about who we are and what we’ve built together. So then we doubled down and followed the energy.

We started this journey in one of the hardest and most defining moments of our lives. It began with heartbreak. A kind of betrayal that feels cinematic when you say it out loud but was very real to us. Ori had just come to Memphis from Israel with a solo band and a big dream. Within days, he found out that the woman he loved—his high school sweetheart and singer in his band—was cheating on him with his best friend, who also happened to be his manager and roommate. It was a three-pronged heartbreak. And yet, somehow, that pain birthed our story.

We made this album at Royal Studios in Memphis, where the ghosts of Al Green, Ann Peebles, and so many greats still float around the walls.. You can feel it in the wood panels. You can hear it in the silence between takes. And now, hopefully, you’ll feel it in Family, the album we made out of joy, pain, love, healing, and truth.

The Story behind the songs:

1. Long Is The Road

We really had to start with this one. It’s not just a song, it’s the beginning of everything. Ori came to Memphis chasing a dream, and what he got instead was the kind of heartbreak you don’t see coming. The woman he thought he’d build a life with was cheating on him - with his best friend and roommate. And as if that wasn’t enough, that best friend was also managing his band. That kind of betrayal is like getting punched in the gut three times at once. But out of that mess came this spark. “Long Is The Road” is about taking that lowest moment and flipping it into something powerful. That’s what we do with pain we put it in a song and keep moving. Long Is The Road can also be interpeted as the story behind the song Don't Give Up from our debut album.

2. Upside

This one is what Ori's guardian angel told him the next morning - like, literally the next morning after everything fell apart. “You don’t have to carry all this. Leave the bags, not your pride.” That message became the chorus. We’ve all been there stuck in our own heads, replaying our mistakes. Upside is about choosing to climb out. It's not preachy. It’s just the kind of advice you’d give your best friend if they were going through it. It’s what Ori needed to hear. What we all needed to hear.

3. Found A Friend In You

This song was born from that very first moment we came together. None of us were in a great place. We were all figuring out our lives. But there was this weird, perfect chemistry. We didn’t even know how much we needed each other until we started playing and laughing and vibing. It was easy, it was safe, it felt like we had all stumbled into something bigger than us. And this song is like a snapshot of that feeling. We didn’t try too hard. We just told the truth. This song is about us getting to know each other and finding out that we are all kind of cool!

4. So Much Love

We always say this one feels like sunshine. It was written about the period where we were just... happy. Not perfect, but really, genuinely happy. We had each other. The music was flowing. We were building something and it felt good. This song captures those nights after playing shows when we’d just hang out, laugh about the day, and feel lucky to be doing what we love with people who feel like home.

5. Family

This is the album’s heartbeat. We all had our own paths—Ori from Israel, Tierinii, Ava and Tikyra from church and Memphis, and yet somehow, the road led us here. Our band became our family. And this track sealed that forever.

6. Late Night Get Down

This one is personal for Tierinii in a way that not many songs are. It's a piece of her Memphis origin story. Picture a teenage girl out on Beale Street, just trying to find her voice, her place, and maybe a little money to get through the night. She had walked away from home, walked away from church, walked away from the script that was written for her—and what she found instead was the real world. The kind that doesn’t wait for you to catch up. She learned how to sing the blues by living the blues. The song’s got that heavy, smoky groove because that’s what those nights felt like. Gritty. Raw. And real. Every word in that song comes from a night she survived.

7. Rum Boogie

Before Southern Avenue was touring the world, we were cutting our teeth in Memphis. Rum Boogie takes us right back to those "four gigs a week" nights , sometimes more. Playing Beale, then jumping to Midtown, then driving to the outskirts to do it all again. We didn’t care about sleep! We just wanted to play. And when we weren’t in Memphis, we were heading to Jackson, St. Louis, any town that would let us plug in and play loud. That hustle shaped who we are. It taught us how to entertain, how to flow, and how to take a room full of strangers and make them family by the end of the night. This track’s wild and a little messy because those years were wild and a little messy, too.

8. Gotta Keep The Love

Bands are relationships. That means love, laughter, but also friction and heartbreak. This song came from a season where things weren’t aligning. We were playing with people who didn’t share the same vision, the same hunger, the same energy. It wasn’t personal, it just wasn’t right. Gotta Keep The Love is us choosing to walk away with grace. No grudges. No bitterness. Just peace and a little sadness. It's a love note to the ones we left behind, because at some point, there was love there. We had to protect the core of what made this band work and sometimes that means moving forward without everybody.

9. Sisters

We’ve always been a band built on harmony, but with Ava stepping in full-time, something shifted. Suddenly, it wasn’t just harmony it was sisterhood in every sense of the word. Ava had always been a part of the sound behind the scenes, she sang on 'Whiskey Love,' 'Don’t Give Up,' and more but when she hit the road with us, it felt complete. This song is about the bond we share as sisters and the ways we lift each other up. One sister hypes you up. One watches your kids. One keeps the dream alive. That kind of love is rare. That kind of power is real. This one’s for all the sisters out there who keep each other standing.

10. Kept On Moving On

By the time we hit this chapter of the album, we had been through a lot. People had come and gone. We’d made mistakes. We’d had wins and losses. But we kept moving. This track is about that quiet decision to keep going, even when you don’t know what’s next. It’s not a hype song. It’s a deep breath. It’s saying, “Yeah, that hurt, but look at us we’re still here.” It’s about trusting each other and trusting the process, even when things are falling apart around you. Because the love was always stronger than the chaos.

11. Back To What Feels Right

There’s something about riding in the van together, laughing, arguing about snacks, singing old school jams that reminded us why we started doing this in the first place. That feeling of alignment, of having your people beside you, all chasing the same dream, that’s what this song is about. When Ava joined, it brought this freshness. It wasn’t just about three voices it was about one unified spirit. That’s what felt right. The grind was still real, but the energy felt lighter. The purpose felt clearer.

12. Flying

Post-pandemic, we were all in a weird space. Floating, not grounded. We’d been off the road for too long. Our routines were gone. Our identities were blurry. And in the middle of all that, we had to figure out who we were now. This song came out of those long, hard talks about purpose, about home, about what was next. The story that inspired it is wild—Tierinii’s mom literally had a plane turned around mid-air because she didn’t want her daughter going to New York to chase a theater dream. And Tierinii said, 'If I die, at least I’ll die flying.' That line hit us like thunder. That’s the soul of this song—choosing to fly, even if it’s scary.

13. Believe

Believe is the quiet affirmation we didn’t know we needed. It’s like looking back on the wreckage and realizing every broken piece taught you something. Every wrong turn led you here. We talk a lot about choosing joy, but believing in yourself - that’s where it starts. This song feels like standing at the edge of something beautiful and whispering, 'I’m ready.' It’s also about community, about the friends we made along the way who reminded us of our worth when we forgot it. We wanted this track to feel like someone holding your hand, saying, 'Keep going.'

14. We Are

This one is the last word. It’s everything we learned, packed into one song. We’re not perfect. We’ve made mistakes. But we love each other. We lift each other. We move mountains together. This song is a celebration of that. Of how far we’ve come and how far we still plan to go. The 'we' isn’t just us—it’s anyone who’s felt like an outsider, anyone who’s built something from the ground up. If you see yourself in our journey, then this one’s for you too.

THANKS

Big love to Boo Mitchell and the entire Royal Studios family for bathing us in that Memphis soul energy. To Alligator Records for following our vision from day one and to John Burk, our producer, who helped us craft this into something bigger than we ever imagined. We didn’t just make an album. We made a time capsule.

This is Family.

And now, it’s yours too.

– Southern Avenue