An inside look on how a group of friends is turning ‘what if’ into a reality
by Emma Henson
Starting a band is a recurring pipe dream for many creative college students, but for those in a music-immersed city like Knoxville, it can feel actually attainable. For the members of local folk-rock group Miss Apartment, this dream began unfolding into a reality in December 2024 when lead vocalist Lilli Bryan and lead guitarist Ben Bilbrey performed at their first open mic together while on vacation.
The couple’s friend group had been practicing as a band and jamming together for two weeks before the two participated in the open mic, and that performance kindled a new level of commitment to the endeavor for Bryan and Bilbrey.
Bryan says that their conversations about starting a band had begun in earnest when they attended a music festival with friends and were listening to Shakey Graves. Bilbrey was the first to suggest the idea.
“I know that Ben had wanted to [start a band] for a long time,” Bryan says. “Aidan [Moore] chimed in, and then I chimed in and it kind of just turned into, ‘OK, when are we going to start this?’”
Moore sings and plays guitar for the group and was on board since the beginning. A background in choir primed him for the technical side of the endeavor, and he isn’t the only member of the band who found this type of musical experience beneficial. For Bryan, working in a collaborative music group felt natural after growing up in a family that understood the value of music and bonded over it.
“Two of my brothers are in bands, and my sister has always sung,” she says. “I was in orchestra for three years in middle school and then choir for six years through high school into college. I just love to sing, and I also have some technical background, so I felt comfortable being in a setting where I would have to use that.”
Bilbrey’s upbringing was also permeated by music, as he first began playing more than 10 years ago.
“My dad was in a band called Robbing Reality back in the day,” he says. “I would go to their shows, and that was always a really good time. I just really liked music and playing it with people. It’s more fun than playing it alone.”
From there, it was a matter of finding other people with which to play. The band was in need of a bassist, and Joel Wright answered the call despite having never played the instrument before.
“I always wanted to try to learn the bass, and [Bilbrey] always offered, but I never committed until they started making this band,” he says. “Then they were like, ‘Hey, Joel, do you want to learn how to play the bass and be in this band?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to be in a band if I’ve never played an instrument before.’”
Eventually, though, he acquiesced thanks to the other band members’ willingness to teach him and his desire to have the accountability of the band to help him commit to learning the instrument. He since has expanded his role to include being the self-described “vibes guy” of the band, a responsibility that pairs well with his rhythmic contributions to its music.
Speaking of rhythm, dynamic drumming has become a big part of Miss Apartment’s sound, a process for which drummer Shelby Hansen gained an appreciation long before joining the band. Her background in drumline and an enduring love of 5SOS drummer Ashton Irwin combined to give her an appreciation for collaborative music balanced with her own distinct sound.
“I grew up on rock music,” she says. “My dad was in a band, and his band would mostly play classic rock. … I feel like watching them play Fleetwood Mac specifically is kind of what made my love of live music happen. Just seeing the way that they would take a song and make it their own. Fleetwood Mac is a big inspiration for me just because the drum parts are usually really cool and experimental and they really add to the overall song. They’re not just the beat in the background.”
Unlike Hansen, harmonicist and vocalist Davis Welch didn’t grow up playing music. Similarly to Wright, he learned on the job as a friend of the core members but recalls his entrance into the band as a more inductive process, as he began sitting in on practices and decided that this band was something of which he felt like he needed to be a part. So, with very little musical training under his belt, he picked up a harmonica and began carving out a space for himself.
“One day we were having a band practice,” Welch says. “And I don’t think I was officially in [the group] yet, but we were trying to make up a song and I remember playing the harmonica and after that thinking, ‘I have to be a part of this. I have to learn an instrument to be a part of this,’ because it was so fun, and it was unlike anything that I’ve experienced.”
He emphasizes how everyone in the band has a niche that they have been able to create for themselves and fulfill, something that has allowed him to step into a role of helping structure the band and their practices while members with more musical experience deal with the technical side of things.
Accruing instruments and delineating roles are necessary when it comes to starting a band, so once the group had taken care of those things, its next challenge was to choose a name. Miss Apartment is an homage to the group’s feline friend Sarsaparilla Apartment, also known as Sassy.
“When we first got Sassy, we were deciding on names,” recalls Bilbrey. “She was owned by me and my three other roommates at the time. And we didn’t know what last name to give her because we all had shared ownership of her, right? So her full name is Sarsaparilla Apartment. The band is named in her honor as Miss Apartment.”
With Sassy as its good luck charm and loyal mascot, the band has evolved around two common goals: creating community and playing gigs. The varied backgrounds, musical tastes and creative visions of its members meld to create a sound that is Miss Apartment’s own. The band has been expanding from putting their own twist on covers of songs like John Prine’s “In Spite of Ourselves,” Tyler Childers’ “Jersey Giant” and “Red Moon” by Big Thief to writing and performing original songs.
“Big Thief was my favorite band going into it, and their last album, “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You,” really got me into playing music before the birth of the band,” Bilbrey says. “I think now we’ve shifted more towards keeping elements of the folk-rock indie style of music. We have some people in the band who are really into blues. I’m really big into Americana, and so all of those styles come together, but I think folk rock is pretty accurate [to describe us].”
Wright says that his appreciation for jazz and R&B enabled him to bring unexpected sounds to his basslines, and he values having the freedom to improvise on songs as the band workshops new songs or improves upon existing tracks. This collaborative atmosphere is emphasized by Hansen, who says that the band creates a positive group environment in which the members are able to pool ideas and de-stress through a shared creative endeavor.
“I feel like one thing that I really value in our music is the diversity,” she says. “It is all a vibe that fits together, but it’s all technically very different genres and different types of singers, different tones and all that. I really appreciate that.”
The process of writing and performing their own music is special for all the members in the band, and Bryan emphasizes that this process is a team effort throughout. One member may contribute some great lyrics or a catchy riff that the rest of the group then has the opportunity to build upon.
“We kind of take the approach of having one person have an idea, like how I wrote that song about my OCD,” she explains. “No one else can really write lyrics for that except for me. I write those lyrics because they’re personal to me and then take it and make it a band song by everybody having a part in it. And with my songs, they have free reign on what they want to do with it. I want them to make it their own, as well, because it’s my lyrics, you know? So it’s special to me, and I want it to be special for them.”
Lyrics like, “I’m on the highway/going the wrong way/and you’re on the landline/ending the call/white lines and subtext/what ifs and what’s next/begging for quiet,” from Bryan’s original, “Swingers and Scalpels (or Something Along Those Lines),” are delivered from a place of personal meaning that she wants to share with her bandmates and the listeners. Her background in poetry undoubtedly lends to the complexity and poignancy of her lyricism, but she says that it also has made it difficult at times to find the balance between abstraction and convolution when it comes to writing.
“With poems, you can write about anything, and it doesn’t have to rhyme,” Bryan says. “It doesn’t have to have the right amount of syllables, it doesn’t have to really make sense. But with lyrics, I’ve tried to do that a couple of times, and when I brought it to the band they were like, ‘OK, what does it mean?’ … [I’ve realized that] if we are making a song, I want the audience to be able to understand, to follow us and have there be a story.”
Bilbrey says that he gets a deeper level of fulfillment from performing songs that he and his bandmates have crafted into a story to share with the audience, describing it as an adrenaline rush when he gets to perform a song like “Joint Pains,” which he wrote based on a story about his grandfather. Similarly, Welch finds that the rush he gets from seeing genuine excitement or enjoyment on the faces of audience members is a huge motivator.
“It’s like when someone reads something you wrote and they can’t help but laugh,” he says. “It’s a genuine reaction, and seeing those genuine reactions from people … Whether it’s my other band members when I do something or someone else when we’re performing, I can’t get that anywhere else, you know?”
Miss Apartment’s focus is to continue making original music, performing as often as possible and sharing its collective appreciation of live music with anyone who wants to listen. The band hopes to release music on Spotify soon, and fans can look for an EP sometime in the next six months and an album within a year. Right now, though, the group is content with where it has landed in terms of motivation for making music.
“For now, not focusing on monetary or listener success makes it less stressful, especially for me,” Wright says. “You know, going to a gig and playing and making songs is fun, and I feel like if you put those metrics on it, it makes it more stressful than it needs to be.”
The band members see their music – all music, in fact – as a necessary creative outlet in stressful times. They are proof that whether you grew up playing music or just listening to it, anyone can participate in the therapeutic exercise of songwriting. Their low-pressure approach to making music respects the sanctity of the process and its inherent beauty.
“You have to cling to art, you have to support it,” Hansen says. “And Knoxville is a fantastic place for making art and for appreciating it.”
Miss Apartment is currently preparing for a September show at ‘70s-themed South Knox craft-cocktail bar Fly by Night. The band hopes the performance will be an opportunity to showcase new music and its diversity with a setlist that branches out beyond the songs it has played live previously.
“Th[is] show’s gonna be different than the last shows we’ve played,” Bryan promises. “But I think it’s gonna be exciting for us and for other people that come to see us. This is going to be like a breath of fresh air.”
Those interested in learning more about Miss Apartment can follow the band on Instagram (@missapartment). The official details about the Fly by Night show should be forthcoming soon, and look out for more exciting announcements in the coming months.
