No one can accuse Twin Sister of taking the easy route. With two vocalists, five songwriters and no two songs that sound bloodrelated, they definitely had their work cut out for them on their debut album. Wowing ears with last year's Vampires With Dreaming Kids and Color Your Life EPs, the Long Islanders have taken some big, bold chances with In Heaven. Although they're hardly genre-benders, Twin Sister take reticent indie pop and flip it entirely from one track to the next. The transitions aren't exactly jarring: the bouncy funk of "Bad Street" meshes with the hasty, New Order-indebted "Space Babe" without any real consequences. But the sequence that begins with the illusory shoegaze of "Kimmi in a Rice Field" and ends with the Sergio Leone-tinged noodling of "Gene Ciampi" could throw off anyone hoping for the consistency of their two EPs. The string that ties it altogether is the exquisite voice of Andrea Estella, but even she can swap ethereal for flippant in the blink of an eye. In Heaven could have been a disaster, but Twin Sister's studio curiosity was thankfully matched by their proficient musicianship and gifted ear for sequencing. As a result, they've made a memorable debut with enough adventurous turns to keep it fresh for years to come.
Do you think being so nebulous with your music has helped you stand out?
Guitarist/singer Eric Cardona: I think it has. Very luckily, when we started out, the five of us were coming at it from different angles and I think that produced this energy we got addicted to. It was like anything can be under the name Twin Sister. There are corners of our band that are so different; it's really cool and we want to always stick by that. We're just trying to go further into each direction.
How did things change once you signed to Domino?
There was a record label involved, so a lot of firsts for us. We definitely got nervous or anxious, so there were new emotions in the mix because a couple years ago we were in our bedrooms making music in our underwear, just hanging out together. We definitely had our share of underwear time making this record, but it was all done in a studio, as well as a bit in a house we rented in Long Island.
How hard was it to sequence In Heaven?
It was definitely hard, but the way it ended up was just the most comfortable to listen to. The songs jump around a lot, but that sequence felt good, to us.
(Domino)Do you think being so nebulous with your music has helped you stand out?
Guitarist/singer Eric Cardona: I think it has. Very luckily, when we started out, the five of us were coming at it from different angles and I think that produced this energy we got addicted to. It was like anything can be under the name Twin Sister. There are corners of our band that are so different; it's really cool and we want to always stick by that. We're just trying to go further into each direction.
How did things change once you signed to Domino?
There was a record label involved, so a lot of firsts for us. We definitely got nervous or anxious, so there were new emotions in the mix because a couple years ago we were in our bedrooms making music in our underwear, just hanging out together. We definitely had our share of underwear time making this record, but it was all done in a studio, as well as a bit in a house we rented in Long Island.
How hard was it to sequence In Heaven?
It was definitely hard, but the way it ended up was just the most comfortable to listen to. The songs jump around a lot, but that sequence felt good, to us.