By Jolene Ogle
It was an impromptu singalong at a family barbecue that started Tewantin sisters Briannah, 17, and Tiana, 16, on their musical journey.
While the family was relaxing Tiana was coaxed into singing a song and as soon as the first note danced across the summer air it was clear the young girl had a gift.
Tiana started gigging, learning the guitar and exploring different genres of music and while many siblings often can’t stand each other or need their own hobbies, it’s simply not the case for the Dennis sisters.
The love between these two sisters is palpable.
They support one another, laugh together and genuinely enjoy each other’s company, bouncing off each other like old friends.
It is this love and support for each other that has seen them conquer the often terrifying world of live performances at the Gympie Music Muster twice and the Tamworth Country Music Festival, which led to an appearance on reality TV show, the X Factor.
The girls started training at the Australian Institute of Country Music under the talented and watchful eye of Dr Geoff Walden who encouraged Briannah to pick up the bass guitar and helped the girls find their unique country, pop, folk sound.
“He’s a great mentor for us. He is the one who formed us,” Tiana said.
“I was a soloist before and then Bri joined and he said you can pick up the bass and you can sing too.
“At first it was overwhelming. I hadn’t sung in public before and I hadn’t ever played an instrument,” Briannah said.
In 2016, and just six months after forming as a duo and not much longer after Briannah first picked up a bass guitar, the sisters won the Junior Aristocrats Entertainer of the Year award at the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
This win was not only a dream come true, but also the start of a journey into the often volatile world of reality TV.
“After we won we got a call from the X Factor,” Tiana said.
“We were invited to a private pre-audition in Tamworth during the festival and then we were invited to audition for the show in Sydney, which was on TV.”
After two days of filming, the girls took to the stage faced by a panel of international judges, TV cameras, bright lights and the intense pressure to perform, but for these seasoned singers it was no big deal. Tiana and Briannah took to the stage and blew the judges away.
“We had each other and that was a big thing. We were able to bounce off each other. There were soloists there packing it, but we had each other,” Tiana said.
“We were really lucky to have big stage experience before the X Factor performance, so we were really comfortable.
“But we hadn’t really done filming like that before so there were lots of cameras.”
For the girls, the key to getting through the performance without stumbling was to simply ignore the judges.
“We just ignored them, honestly,” she said. “If you looked at them, they make faces on purpose to put you off. It’s reality TV, but I didn’t want to look at that.”
“Out of sight, out of mind. So we just focussed on our performance,” Briannah added.
After making it to the X Factor top 30 and bringing a tear to Guy Sebastian’s eye with their rendition of Vance Joy’s Fire and the Flood, the girls remain open-minded to the possibility of more reality TV appearances.
“We’re all about keeping doors open and not closing off options,” Tiana said.
“If the opportunity presented itself and we think well it’s there, it’s opened a door, we could walk through it.”
But while they await a possible call-up, the Dennis sisters are busy working on their first EP due to be released this year.
All the funds from gigs are being directed straight into the production of their first release, with the girls busy writing songs.
So what can fans expect from their first EP? What all teenage girls are into – love, friendship and life.
“We keep it pretty real,” they said.
“We have some nice love songs because we are 16 and 17, we have crushes. At the same time, our friendship is a strong thing. We prioritise our relationship together as sisters.
“We’re very close and we do a lot of things together.
“And life, we write a lot about life and experiences we have had.”
While the Dennis Sisters are quickly reaching the dizzying heights of stardom, they are still aware of those who want to try and cut them down and when they made the decision to leave school and study through distance education, they were not immune to criticism.
“We get told by so many people that we’re too young, we need to grow up, live our childhood and why are we working all the time and being home schooled, you’re supposed to be in a real school,” Tiana said.
“We’re not doing anything negative. We’re having fun and we’re not hurting anybody. We do it because we love it, it’s our passion. We’ve found home school to be really good.”
So the girls did what any artist would do, they wrote a song about it with help from Sunshine Coast-based Sony writer Mishelle Bradford-Jones.
“The song is called Won’t Leave The World For Later and it’s about us just doing our thing and what we want,” Briannah said.
When the darlings of the Tamworth Country Music Festival look to the future they see tours, headlining festivals and more album releases, and with such determination, grit and a genuine love for their art, it won’t take long for this dream to come true.
“A big goal is to support ourselves through our music,” Tianna said.
“We’re very lucky. We’ve played Tamworth Country Music Festival and the Gympie Muster and we’re applying for more festivals, but it’s exciting when you see every year that your name gets bigger on the line-up. That is something that’s really cool to watch.”
“We’ve gone from being fillers on the line-up to now, we’re creeping up there with the rest.”
