The group is comprised of singer/songwriter and father Steve, 18-year old daughter Amanda and 16-year-old son Tyler.
Before the hit the big time with their great album, they were living in Belleville, Ontario, where Steve worked as a carpenter. Here they entertained family and friends by singing around the kitchen table. They were even jokingly threatened that if they wouldn't bring their guitars, they'd have to do the dishes. They lived for awhile in Trenton, Ontario entertaining the public .Tyler and Amanda took part in school productions to the delight of the crowd. They also won many competitions including the Cafe..
"We approached this whole adventure when we moved down here to Nashville as a family," admits Steve with his two singing children sitting near him. "We're a unit. When we're making music on stage, we're a unit and also when we're handling business. All of our business decisions are always made as family."
"And we're not misinformed either," adds Amanda. "Tyler and I have our own schedules. It's like school would be and we have our school work organized to fit into our schedule, too. It's cool, because we sit down and have family discussions as to what we're going to do."
"Believe it or not," Steve says, "their opinions are given strong consideration."
"I wouldn't say that he lets us make all the decisions," chimes in Tyler, "but we all have our opinions that will make the decisions.
"We come to a mutual conclusion between the three of us, my wife and our youngest because they're also involved in our decisions," Steve confirms.
"We decided that we were ready for Nashville as far as the act went," he explains. "But what happened was that last year in the spring we had sold our house. We kinda all got together and I said 'I can build us another house and we can continue doing what we are doing, or seriously think about taking that step off the cliff. It was a family decision again that we made to come down here. I'm glad we did. Whether things happen this quickly or not, the worst thing that you can do is spend your life thinking 'what could have been or what might have been if you had taken a chance?' I think everyone in my family are all believers in believing. Hang onto that dream in spite of the downs, because there are downs in any business. Just hang on to them and if you believe in it long enough, it will happen. With hard work and belief, you can make it happen."
"We were in Wichita doing a show and this 16-year-old girl came up to me and was just sobbing," tells Amanda. "I was hugging her and tried to calm her down. She finally got settled down enough to relay the story to me and she said that her mom and her had gotten into this huge fight and that she was going to move to Kansas City herself, which is a huge city and that would have been very scary for her. So her mom must have known what was happening and that her daughter was going to leave. Then she heard '26ยข' on the radio and gave her daughter a copy of the single with a note and a quarter and a penny taped to it. She read the note, listened to the single and because of it, she chose not to leave and patched things up with her mom. If that was the only thing we did with that song, that's the best thing. When I walked away from that girl, it was the best feeling that I ever had. It was great."
"I said to Amanda afterwards when we were done signing autographs and back in the motor home," explained Steve, "I said 'Ya know -- it's really nice that the single is doing great, but we changed someone's life with a song for the better. I think it clicked for me, the power that music really has."
Where Steve is now is a long way from working construction as a contractor and carpenter who was writing songs on the side for several Canadian artists to being the object of a major label bidding war that included MCA, Dreamworks, Capitol, Lyric Street, Arista and Sony. And that way was tempered with hard work and a clear sense of what was important (family). They've made it now!!
Still looking for Kiaya and Chris to sing !!!
Here's a great story about the fast rise of the Wilkinsons: The fella who runs their record company used to manage the Eagles, so Steve Amanda and Tyler got to go to Los Angeles and see the band perform. The highlight of the day, according to Steve, was actually getting to meet the band -- particularly guitarist Joe Walsh. "We walked in and Joe saw the kids. He says, 'So kids -- you wanna help me trash a room? I'm getting too old to do this by myself!' "
