Brothers record debut album

They haven’t topped the music charts, but the Zylawy Boys have certainly become familiar to those living in Mineral County. Roman, Kenley and Wyatt have been playing throughout several events in the county this past year as well as at one or two in Missoula.

The boys are currently working on the first CD entitled “Hiawatha,” which is also the name of the instrumental they wrote, which will appear on the CD featuring 10 other songs. It all started when Roman received a violin from his grandfather in the mail.

“I started playing violin when I was eight. It was the instrument that my grandfather played and he told me, ‘You should play it.’ He sent me a violin and in the mail and I got lessons and I learned how to play,” Roman said.

He started out learning classical music and developed an ear for it.

“I was reading notes, but I had an ear for it and ended up not wanting to read notes because if I heard the song, I could pick it out without looking at music,” Roman explained.

Roman eventually moved from the violin to the fiddle and then from the fiddle to the mandolin, which he plays the most.

“I loved the mandolin so much I didn’t want to go back to the violin,” he said. “The mandolin has the same fingering. It’s like a violin that you pluck.”

Kenley described his experimentation with instruments as a little bit more sporadic.

“I first tried the piano, but it wasn’t much of a group instrument,” Kenley said, “so I stopped doing it. I guess I lost interest. I picked up some brass instruments, the trombone and French horn and never did like them.”

It was a violin that he found in his grandmother’s attic that captured his attention next.

“It was a very nice violin and I loved it. My parents made me promise that I would learn to play it if they fixed it so I picked that up,” Kenley said.

Kenley’s also dabbled with a cello and plays the base with the band as well as it frees him up from having something underneath his chin so he can sing.

“The more I know how to play, the more diversity I bring to the band,” Kenley said.

Wyatt, who wasn’t at the interview, plays guitar for the band, an instrument that Roman said he’s only played for a year.

“He’s only played that guitar for a year, but he’s really stepped up to be able to play with us,” Roman said.

The boys sort of loosely came together in the living room when they would sit around and play. As Roman put it, they figured out that they “could make noise.” Before too long, the boys played at a funeral for a family member that had passed away.

“We were united by playing for someone who passed on that we knew and loved,” Roman said. “And we realized we kind of like got together, planned and practice for that and thought we can do it again. It sort of broke the ice.”

The boys fell into playing folk and bluegrass music somewhat by chance. Roman explained that when they were young, their father always played a record by The Seldom Scene.

“He played it so many times that I memorized the words as a kid,” Roman said. “When we moved to our new house it got stacked away and sort of rediscovered a couple years ago. When we played it, I remembered it and I could play it. I knew the lyrics and we could figure out the songs.”

“One of the main reasons we also chose to do bluegrass I can personally say is because of the instruments we were drawn to,” Kenley added. “You can’t play rock with the mandolin. I mean, I suppose you could. Bluegrass was and is part of our family and what we listen to. It’s very fun to play.”

Kenley said that folk music is different in that while the traditional bluegrass’ lyrics are sad the melody is always happy where as country music today seems to constantly be complaining.

“Blue grass songs are solemn, but they’re also thanking god for how their life is good or whatever,” Kenley said. “Bluegrass has history and roots. It’s what people were playing when the first came west and it’s what they heard. What they were playing, there was soul in it. It just wasn’t a song to make a million bucks. And bluegrass is a root of a lot of the music we have today.”

Roman said that bluegrass is unique because they can sit down and play for a bunch of people they don’t know, do a song in G and everybody knows it.

As far as performing with each other, Roman said its “pretty good with us brothers.”

He also said that they probably don’t practice as much as they should. The boys don’t really set time aside to practice, but when someone wanders into the living room and starts playing, usually Wyatt, the other two follow, drawn to the music.

People across the county who have heard the Zylawy boys play have mentioned that they sound great. Roman said that it makes him feel good when people enjoy their music because that’s what his goal is.

“I feel good. It makes me feel good when people still enjoy that old time music,” Roman said.

Kenley admitted that he doesn’t like too much attention afterwards.

“I like my quiet time after I’ve been playing,” he said.

Working on their first CD with Chuck Seward, Roman is anxious to announce a release date for the CD, but Seward cautions that “you can’t put a time limit on it.” The boys don’t really know where their music is going to lead, but both Kenley and Roman are hoping that they continue when they can after high school. They’re thinking about taking a year off and coming back after Wyatt graduates, but didn’t say for sure.

Kenley wants to continue with music into college and open up to more genres, but always wants to stay true to folk music.

Roman said that he doesn’t want to go to college for music because he doesn’t want to read sheets of music.

“I’ve learned more from just sitting down with people and playing than I have from a book or anything,” he said, adding that if it were a job he was getting paid for he wouldn’t consider it work. “I love it.”

Kenley added that he hopes more young people will give folk music a chance rather than just dismissing it based on stereotypes.

“I hope more young people will come to appreciate bluegrass,” Kenley said. “Most people shove it off, ‘oh it’s just deliverance music’ or it’s for weird people or hicks, though most of us here are proud to be rednecks, but I hope some of the younger crowd could come to appreciate it without stereotyping it because we make it different than the traditional stuff.”

The boys’ CD, “Hiawatha,” will feature some of the other songs they’ve done and they said that the instrumental they wrote of the same name is just based on Montana and the stuff that’s around here. While Roman would like the cd to be out next month, Seward was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen.

“We just have to move steadily along with it,” he told them.