SOUL SISTERS ... AND ACTUAL SISTERS. From left, Mookie, Becca, and Hannah Morton hail from Baldwin and perform as the Morton Sisters. Their new EP is called Neap Tide.

Put down the Bon Iver and explore the sounds of new and upcoming local artists, the Morton Sisters – three sisters making alternative folk-pop music. The singing trio from Baldwin is currently celebrating the release of Neap Tide, their debut EP.

The sisters – Hannah (20, a UW-Eau Claire junior), Rebecca (18, a UW-Stout freshmen), and Mookie (16, and a high school junior) – have been flaunting their sultry sounds ever since they were kids; they sing and play guitar, mandolin, violin, and piano. Throughout their whole lives, the Morton Sisters have always shared a love of music.

“I cannot remember a time when I have not been about music,” Rebecca said. “Music was always being played, practiced, and listened to in our home.”

The band first began when the sisters were asked to do a YouTube cover of “The Cup Song” from the movie Pitch Perfect.

“After we did the YouTube video, then we were like, ‘This is kind of fun,’ so we wanted to make more YouTube videos and do some more live performing,” Hannah said.

Since then, the Morton Sisters have been covering many different genres of music as well as writing original songs and performing in various places around the Chippewa Valley. On stage, the girls take turns singing melody and harmonies and playing lead or background instruments.

“People always ask us who the lead singer is, but that doesn’t exist with us,” Hannah said. “One of us might lead a particular song, but it’s never going to be the same throughout the whole set. We like to change things up and keep it diverse.”

Rebecca, Hannah, and Mookie have always shared a close bond because they are close in age and were homeschooled, and forming a band has only brought them closer together.

“Being in a band with my sisters is insane, but so cool,” Rebecca said. “My sisters rock, and music really does keep us together somehow.” Hannah added: “The exhilarating part about performing with sisters is that there is this weird sense of connectedness between us.”

The inspiration for the EP’s name, Neap Tide, came from the sister’s relationships with each other. Neap Tide is the time of the month when the difference between the low tide and the high tide is the smallest, because the sun and the moon are at right angles to the Earth. It’s all about a specific balance between different forces, representing the different “forces” each of the sisters brings to the table.

True to their own free spirits, the Morton Sisters like to keep their songwriting as authentic as possible. Rebecca explained how intimidating it can be to open your thoughts and share personal experiences through your music.

“It’s like reading your diary out loud for anyone to hear. However, with the risk of spilling our love stories and hard times through our music comes an exhilaration and a thrill that is almost relieving,” she said. “We want people to hear our words and relate to them. We want the words to make people feel ways that they have never felt before.”

 Neap Tide features four original songs and was recorded at Pine Hollow Studio in Eau Claire over one 13-hour session. Evan Middlesworth, the owner and producer at Pine Hollow said the recording process was very authentic.  All the vocals on the record were recorded in one complete take.

“There is a genuineness to their sound, a magnetism, it’s effortless – their sound is them, it happens without fabrication,” he said. “This is one hell of a fresh sound on the scene.”

The Morton Sisters are looking forward to recording a full-length album sometime in the not-too-distant future. You can buy Neap Tide now on iTunes and Amazon Music.