Senior at North Carolina Central University, Ella Brown Hart's post-graduation plans include dropping an album and touring with her two bandmates — her step-father, Jefferson Hart, and 17-year-old sister, Lila Brown Hart.
Ella, Jefferson and Lila formed the band in 2016. Ella is the group's bassist and performs backup vocals, while Lila is the drummer and sings co-lead with Jefferson, who is also a guitarist.
The sisters were first introduced to music at a young age through their biological dad, drummer Matt Brown, who also played in the same band as Jefferson at one point. Lila gravitated toward the drums, with her dad’s drum kit available to her, and also the bass he played on the side.
“I had access to the bass, and I had played piano and guitar, which kind of set me up well to play the bass,” Ella said. “We just kind of gravitated toward those instruments because they were there, and with help of Jeff—and Lila had some drumming lessons with a NC Central student—we got to where we are.”
In 2012, tragedy struck when Matt died of a heart attack. About a year later, their mother Laura sent Ella to take guitar lessons from Jefferson, who was based in Carrboro at the time. Two years later, Jefferson married Laura and also started teaching Lila songs on the drums.
With three instruments down, the band was formed.
“We just started off playing fun little songs,” Jefferson said. “We only had five songs, and next thing you know, we had 10, so it started to actually seem like a band just from those beginnings in our living room.”
The group took off when Jefferson booked them their first gig at a backyard Labor Day party and then a birthday party the next month. Before the Labor Day party, they chose their name Secret Monkey Weekend from a 1967 issue of Tiger Beat with the cover, “Secret Monkee Weekend” featuring the band The Monkees.
Jefferson said the band started gaining traction in 2017. The trio’s sound only got better with practice and experience.
