Three siblings with a shared passion for singing are touching millions with their covers of songs that are sung in beautiful three-part harmony.
Siblings Daylon, Daura, and Devon Veater were born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and today they stay together and study at Arizona State University. They also sing together as an a cappella group—Life in 3D.
“This journey that we’re on right now has actually built my faith,” Mr. Devon Veater told The Epoch Times.
Family Support
The siblings were first introduced to music when they took piano lessons from their grandmother; the family was “too poor to actually purchase real piano lessons.” Later, Mr. Devon Veater met someone at church who taught guitar for an affordable price, and he and his sister took lessons.Apart from this, their biggest source of inspiration was their grandfather, who was their biggest champion and who loved singing.
“Our parents, by the way, have like zero musical talent, which is really strange,” Mr. Daylon Veater said. “But [our grandpa] played the guitar with us and sent us songs, and even when we didn’t sound super amazing earlier, he told us that we sounded amazing.”
When Mr. Daylon Veater was 18, he served a humanitarian mission and was away from his family for about two years.
“Over those two years, I loved singing, and I know that Daura kind of did some singing on her own,” he said. “When I got back, by pure happenstance, we happened to have learned the parts to ‘The Prayer’ sung by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion.”
“It was also the song that blew up and kind of took us from, ‘Hey, you have 50 followers who are your grandma and your aunt and your uncle,’ to, ‘There’s a lot of people who really like this!’” Mr. Daylon Veater said.
Sadly, their biggest cheerleader—their grandpa—wasn’t able to hear it.
“The Christmas that we got our first microphone was also the Christmas that he passed away, so he never got to hear any of this,” Mr. Daylon Veater said.
In their beloved grandpa’s absence, the siblings take great comfort in support from the rest of their family, and in comments from their growing following on social media.
“When I’m having a bad day, that’s where I go,” Ms. Veater said. “I read other people’s comments, and it’s just really touching to see how many people are affected by our music in positive, uplifting ways.”
For Mr. Daylon Veater, singing makes him feel like a “superhero.”
The Power of Homeschooling
Daylon, Daura, and Devon were homeschooled by their mother through grade school and junior high before attending mainstream high school. They sang as part of their church congregation and later joined a high school choir. Their artistic name, Life in 3D, is a nod to their shared first initial and also to their mother.“Our mom’s like, ‘It’s kind of like living in a musical with you guys!’” Mr. Daylon Veater said. “It’s like, you wake up, and you’re doing the dishes, and you’re singing a harmony part with Daura who’s doing her laundry at the table. Then you walk in the bedroom and there’s Devon sitting on his bed, playing the guitar. It’s literally like a life of just music and collaboration, a three-part harmony.”
The siblings attribute a lot of their creative capacity to homeschooling, as they were able to spend more time on music and reading than their peers in mainstream education. They even took a trip to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, at the ages of 13, 12, and 9, thanks to a lesson from their mother.
“There’s like, homeschool programs out there that you can buy and then follow, but our mom didn’t do that ... she made up her own program,” Mr. Daylon Veater said. “One of the things that she came up with was memory work.”
Ms. Veater said, “We had a lady in our congregation who worked with the United Nations, and she wanted a group of children to present this document on the rights of children and their families at the UN in Geneva. She saw the program that my mom was doing with us, the memorizing program ... so she chose us, and we memorized the document, and then we went over there and did that. ... homeschooling allowed us to have that experience.”
The trio also believes that homeschooling has helped strengthen their sibling bond.
Mr. Devon Veater said: “I don’t know if any other siblings have spent as much time together as we did. ... We all know how to communicate with each other not to make each other mad, most of the time. Sometimes we still fight, but this is how we really strengthened our relationship and how it’s actually going to last a long time.”
With music being a major part of their bond, they have learned they can push through “difficult things together, yell at each other, but at the end of the day, we still love each other.”
The Impact of Music
As Life in 3D, Daylon, Daura, and Devon have sung many times at church, and more recently, they even sang at their father’s 30th high school reunion. They continue to upload new covers to YouTube and share their clips on Instagram.Sharing about the video, he said that there was a lot of chaos when they were filming.
“On the camera, what you see is three siblings who really like each other, who were standing there, loving the song. But what you don’t know is that behind the scenes, we were cold, there were people behind the camera yelling at us, ‘Okay, now you have to smile!’” he said. “I just won’t forget how, in the end, no matter how much craziness or contention there is, it always ends up producing something that, somehow, is inspiring to literally millions of people.”
Mr. Devon Veater recalls that one of the comments they received from a netizen on this video really stayed with him. He said: “‘I’m an atheist, but this gave me chills.’ It was just an ‘Aha!’ moment, where we were bringing the light of Christ to other people, to our music, and they were feeling it.”
The siblings are working on some original songs, but first, since their channel has grown, they are working on securing music licenses for the songs they’ve already covered in order to monetize their channel.
As their channel continues to grow, the siblings are finding a balance between their college careers and their passion for sharing the music that’s close to their hearts. The impact of their music on other people is part of what keeps them going.
Mr. Daylon Veater said: “I remember having difficulties keeping going with our music channel, even just six months ago when we had, like, 400 followers, because I felt like it was so much work. ... But I had so much support and encouragement from my family members and from my relations that said, ‘No, you should keep going, because even if you’re blessing a few people, it’s worth it.’ Now I could not believe I was ever doubting.”
