"Hippie Country" just might be your new favorite genre, and The Buckleys are here to show you all about it.

Comprised of siblings Sarah, Lachlan and Molly, the Australian trio just released their debut album Daydream, a twelve-song project they created while in Nashville, which includes their previously-released songs "Breathe" and "Money."

For the band, Daydream has been a long time coming. They started playing music "right outta the womb," as they tell iHeartRadio, and grew up in a very musical household. Sarah tells us, "Our dad is a rock and roll drummer from the 80s, and plays piano, and everyone that we've been around as little kids is a musician, or a songwriter, really. And, so we just grew up with musical instruments at every corner of the house. It was just super natural for us to just start playing because that's what our family did, and we just started playing together."

About nine years ago, a career in music really started to take shape while heading to the Tamworth Country Music Festival — and ending up in a busking competition. Molly recalls, "Dad got us busking permits, and we didn't know that that automatically entered you into the top 10 busking competition. I think we needed petrol money to get home or something. And, so the next morning, we went busking, and then the next morning we get a call saying we got top 10, and we're like in what competition? Like, what is this? So, we got to play on this huge stage. It was the biggest stage we had ever played on and the biggest crowd we had ever played, too. So, it was a really big milestone for us. And, you know, we were like little chipmunks up there. It was really funny."

The Buckleys have drawn influence from a number of different genres, which has helped them coin the term "Hippie Country." Their songs are a blend of country with "a bit of funk, and rock, and pop," and you can hear it all throughout Daydream. The band tells us that they worked with Phil Barton, who helped write songs with Sarah, and Chad Carlson who is the trio's producer. Sarah explained, "They started saying 'hippie country,' and we were like, oh, that's kinda cool. And, then more people kind of just started naturally saying 'hippie country' without us even knowing what that term meant. But, I think it kind of reflected all of the things that we're inspired by and that we put into our music. 'Cause for us, it's all just about being really authentic and creating music that we love. And, there's flavors of 70s, and 60s, and modern stuff. It's kind of just what we are."

Molly adds, "But, I would say we're very influenced by bands from the 70s. And, we love, like Fleetwood Mac, and the Eagles, the Beatles, and that was something we really wanted to capture on this album, is that live band in a room together, kind of jamming together. So, on the album you'll hear the band is in the room together, and they're playing live. Lachlan's playing guitar, and it has all of our natural instruments. Molly's playing mandolin, it's really us. And so, that kind of mentality of the 70s and bands is something that was really important for us on this album."

Island Hopper Songwriter Festival