Music, Style & Culture

In Conversation: Twin Sister

Jamie Milton talks to Twin Sister guitarist Eric about future paths, and becoming a 'real band'.

With their debut album on the horizon, Jamie Milton talks to Twin Sister guitarist Eric Cardona about future paths, and becoming a 'real band'.

How are you? Are you getting everything sorted before the album comes out?
Yeah, we’re rehearsing a lot and seeing if we can add anything to the live show. We’ve been playing the same sort of stuff over the past year so we wanted to add some new stuff to make it feel fresh.

With the album, ’In Heaven’, about to come out, are you getting a sense of relief or are you slightly nervous?
I’m getting slightly nervous as time goes on. It’s been done for so long and of course, I’m really excited for people to have it and to be listening to it. We worked really hard on it.

It must be a completely different feeling to when you released the EPs.
It’s like a whole different thing. Our first EP, we just posted on our website for free!

Your first show, what was it like? There must have been a huge sense of anticipation…
Yeah, it was at the Lexington and we were shocked because there was a great turn-out. That was the first time I’d ever been overseas personally, I just remember thinking “There’s 200 people here!” We were nine hours away on the plane, we were just a little band who had started in our bedrooms.

Was that a difficult process; going from a bedroom band into something bigger?
We’re definitely getting more used to it; we’re finding out how to get more comfortable as we adapt, we’re growing to be more of a ‘real band’. It’s a very odd lifestyle!

With the record itself, how old are some of the songs on there?
The first song on the record we wrote when I was 14/15 and Andrea was 16/17. Then there are some songs that were brand new. [The album] has a good mix of very fresh ideas as well as showing the way we used to do things.

Some of the songs seem to suggest potential paths that you could go on after this first album. There’s one song especially – ‘Spain’ – that shows a completely new side to you. Is that something you’d agreed with?
That one was really fun. While writing the melody we thought it sounded kinda spooky which is interesting for us because we never tend to write songs in the minor key. That was one of the tracks where we just played it a couple of times and didn’t really think about it too much. Usually we’re very conscious of the rhythm section and what everyone is doing but that one was kind of a free-for-all. And it’s my Dad’s favourite; he says it sounds like a heavy Beatles song!

Were you under a lot of pressure when recording? It sounds as if it was quite an organic process.
We put ourselves under a good amount of pressure. We’d write the songs and they might have been without lyrics and then a couple of days before we went into the studio, Andrea would think of something and it’d come together really quick – it was quite organic, yeah.

Was it a case of having several songs and then having to refine them?
We spent a lot of time on those ten songs that made the record, actually. We wanted to record around eighteen songs – we had a lot ready and we wanted to be able to have the choice. But, well, it was our first studio experience and it wasn’t exactly what we thought it was gonna be...

Could you tell me about how the video for ‘Bad Street’ came together?
It was filmed with a lot of Andrea’s family. We just asked to come to this party – one of her family friends had a daughter and she was turning two in a couple of days and they held a birthday party for her. It was cool – we were thinking about how funny it’d be when she grows older and she’s able to watch this video; I think it’s cool to have your second birthday documented in a music video!

What made you decide to make that actual occasion into a music video?
M: When Andrea made the words for that, she was writing about the neighbourhoods around our home town, about the families getting by without a lot of money but who put a lot of effort into partying. We didn’t wanna portray anything political but we just wanted to show them having a good time and it really came out great.

What’s your aspiration in terms of when this record is over and done with?
In between our tours this Fall, we’re planning on going back into the studio in order to lay out two – maybe three – ideas for us to work with. We have a bunch of new songs that we’re really excited about. We just want to keep that momentum going; of staying ahead of what we’re releasing.

Is this something that runs through your other songs – a sense of togetherness and friendship?
Yeah - overall we try to bring out a very positive feeling. Looking back on the record, I like the fact that it’s light and that it’s really simple to listen to.

How do you feel about people trying to dig out various themes from the record?
Well, I really like doing that with records that I fall in love with myself, so I hope people do that. Hopefully people can find themes they can relate to in themselves. But at the same time, I hope they can also just put the record on in the background.

Are there any other bands out there doing a similar thing to you who you admire?
There’s a bunch: we’ve made a lot of good friends; these guys from Brooklyn called Ava Luna, they’re incredible. There’s Bear In Heaven too; we went on our first tour with them and they were amazing.

And you’re full time now, as a band?
Luckily it is full time. For the past year or so it’s been like that. Dev, our keyboard player, he’s a freelance web developer so he’s very lucky in that he can work wherever he is!

How’s your experience with the UK been?
The one time we were in the UK it was right before we signed with Domino. And it was great, we stayed at our friend’s house and everyone from the Domino office came to our show and they just made us feel like they really, really cared and they took a lot of effort to make us feel comfortable. Everything in the UK has been wonderful so far – I’m excited to go back. We’re gonna be spending a week and a half there this fall.

Is there anything on the album that you feel suggests a new direction?
Well, what’s interesting is I think there’s a bunch of paths we can take. There’re definitely some ideas kicking around. For example there are a lot of ideas that sound more like [recent single] ‘Bad Street’. I think the real aim for the future is that we want to stay as genre-less as possible.

Twin Sister's debut album 'In Heaven' is out now via Domino.

Taken from the Autumn 2011 issue of DIY, available now. For more details click here.