Forget the lederhosen: for the younger von Trapps, the sound of music is actually indie rock
The famous name can open doors, say the descendants of the harmonising Austrian singers, but can also create a burden of expectation
The modern-day Trapp family singers are hanging out on the craggy patio of a Washington cafe, each wearing some variation on skinny jeans and combat boots.
Melanie, 25, has wrapped herself in a leopard-print trench coat, while Sofi, 27, is clad in a cropped red leather jacket. Amanda, 24, is in head-to-toe black. And then there is August, just 21, who let his hair do all the statement-making, the bleached-blond wisps of his fringe swooping over one eye, Bieber-style.
"What?" Amanda asks wryly. "You were expecting lederhosen?" Well, uh, yeah. But could you blame us?
The musical foursome known as the von Trapps are descended from the wholesome, singing Austrian clan of fame. Their grandfather, Werner, was one of those von Trapps, who skipped around the world in the 1930s and '40s as the Trapp Family Singers, belting out madrigals and the folk songs of their native Austria for audiences shell-shocked by successive wars.
The older generation of singing von Trapps became the very loose source material for a Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical, and then for one of the most-watched films of all time, an epic mix of romance, musical numbers, Alpine scenery and Nazi bad guys.
But just as Miley declined to follow dad Billy Ray's path into country music, the siblings Melanie, Sofi, Amanda and August are leaving behind the Austrian lullabies for something unexpected.
