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Q&A: The Castellows - Three Sisters From Georgia Who Sing Traditional Country Music, Speak Korean, Fly Planes and Artificially Inseminate Cows

The Castellows: "We've been singing and playing pretty much all our lives but never really thought that this was something that was in the cards for us. We love great instrumentals and, singing harmony, and writing good songs about our lives."

The Castellows – Ellie, Powell and Lily - may look like it, but the three multi-talented blonde-haired beauties from Georgetown, Georgia, aren't triplets – exactly. Ellie and Powell, both 20 years old, are two of three triplets, but their brother isn't part of the sister act. The group's baby, Lily, came along about 18 months later.

The Castellows, who released their debut single "No. 7 Road" on Warner Music Nashville and Warner Records in October, lean into their Southern roots with a neo-traditional sound showcasing Powell on banjo, Ellie on lead guitar and Lily on vocals.

If you ask them how they accumulated 1 million Instagram followers, they'll say they have no idea. They didn't even plan to be a group and move to Nashville until March. But now that they're here, the charming sisters are all in.

"One thing fell to another, and here we are," Lily said. "It really has been a roller coaster, very fast. We're just along for the ride, and we're very just thankful and happy to be here."

1. You all must really value each other as friends, in addition to sisters, to be willing to tackle the music industry together.

Ellie: We grew up homeschooled, so we were each other's best friends; even though we might've been the weird kids to everyone else, we've always had each other. So we don't mind extending that a little longer for our career.

Powell: I tell you what, though, I feel like it's a whole lot better than doing this by yourself. It's so comforting having two people with you, especially. They're your best friends. So yeah, we couldn't do this without each other.

2. Pretend you're on an elevator, and you have 10 floors to introduce your group to the people there with you. What do you say?

Lily: Shoot, that's like four minutes.

Ellie: We aren't very familiar with big buildings. We've been singing and playing pretty much all our lives but never really thought that this was something that was in the cards for us. We love great instrumentals and, singing harmony, and writing good and real songs about our lives.

3. Tell me about "No. 7 Road."

Powell: It was our third co-write ever, and we got to write it in Nashville with Hilary Lindsey.

Ellie: We feel super blessed that we were able to do that and that she was willing to write with us. We were very nervous, but it went so well. I think that's why the song was special to us and why we kind of want it to be our first drop was … sorry, I'm eating a Reese's Cup right now.

Lily: Anyone who's ever written with Hillary knows she can take anything and make it so personal. I think one thing we were kind of nervous about writing with people other than just the three of us was we were worried about how it would change us and our voice and what we wanted to say. And she took something so personal, like a road that we grew up on walking down and that our granddaddy walked down. We grew up in the house that our daddy was raised in. Take something so personal to us and make it feel like a song that three of us wrote, even though we wrote it with her. It was just an awesome ride.

4. Who did you grow up listening to?

Powell: We grew up listening to a lot of classic country like the George Straits and the Alan Jacksons. It's funny; we all have really different music tastes. Ellie loves hard rock and went through a big hard rock phase in high school. I play the banjo, so I like a lot of folk music. And then Lily, in her early high school, likes a lot of theater. But we all come together for country music. It's all of our favorite.

5. If I come see you play, will you be playing banjo on stage?

Powell: Yes, ma'am, I am. I play every song, and I love it, too. I feel like I'm not the best player, but I've absolutely fallen in love with the instrument.

Ellie: She's modest. She's a great player.

6. I heard you all had some crazy hidden talents. What are they?

Ellie: I studied Korean in college for a semester. I did international business in college. It made me do a language, and I'd been studying Korean a little bit. I'm not fluent. It's kind of a hobby. I can sing a song in Korean, but I don't think I could translate one from English to Korean. That'd be really hard.

Powell: I got a degree in agriculture at UGA. We grew up on a cattle farm, and I took a course on how to artificially inseminate cows. About a year ago, I got my artificial insemination certificate. So before I was doing music, I was going to go into the cattle industry, and that was going to be something that helped me with that career.

Lily: I guess my interesting fact is that I'm a private pilot, and I fly planes. That was my backup plan.

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