We recently caught up with Laurie Shook, one half of the mesmerizing Shook Twins, ahead of their Seattle show at Tractor Tavern on December 14. Here’s what she had to say!

Seattleite: How long have you all been making music together, and what’s your favorite thing about being onstage as a pair?
Laurie Shook: We’ve been making music together since we made up our first song about going to grandma’s house when we were around 4 haha. Then we wrote our first songs that had verses and choruses and such when we were 17 and 18, and they were terrible.
I love the commitment I feel on stage, to try to perform my songs the best I can for an audience. When we are up there committing to that together, it makes the performance feel stronger and more safe.

S: How do you describe your musical vibe to those who’ve never seen you perform?
LS: I’d say that we play eery folk pop songs with lots of harmonies with our good friends who add to our songs in a wonderful way. We’re really just having a good time.

S: How do you devise each night’s setlist, and do you allow for much spontaneity once up there in the spotlight?
LS: Katelyn is the setlist queen!
She always knows what songs would be best in each environment. And if a song doesn’t feel right to play at that moment under the spotlight, sure we switch it up. We generally like to mix up our sets, but definitely stick to a core list of songs for a while. It’s always most fun to play the new ones, ya know, but we have to find the right balance of oldies that people want to hear.

S: ~In what ways do you believe in magic, and how does it inform the ways in which you move through the world?
LS: I Love this question. We definitely believe in magic in many ways around love, healing, protection, general wonderment, really inside any pursuit of joy and peace I think. We are privileged enough to experience joy on a regular basis, and I think there’s magic in spreading that beyond ourselves. We often set that intention with our music.

S: How do you gear up before a live performance? Wind down afterward?
LS: Getting ready and warming up our voices gets the mood rolling for me, then we have a group swirl that wraps us all together in the same mindset pocket.
not sure why we don’t have a post show swirl, that would be good I think.

S: What can audience members expect of your Seattle show?
LS: Oh we’re gonna have a real good time. The whole band : Niko, Alex, Aber and Steve on sound, the dream team will be with us. We’ll be playing some new songs that we’ve been working on and some new fun covers most likely, you know how we like to shookify songs that catch our ear. And the classics too.

S: What are you most excited about in the months to come?
LS: We are so stoked for all our annual fall and winter home court shows that we’ve been returning to for a decade now. We’re excited to continue working on a new record and to also have a lot of time off to explore other parts of our individual lives.

*Photos by Sam Gehrke