TWINS PEAK

The Veronicas may be about to rock to new heights on the back of a second album surge, but twin sisters Jess and Lisa Origliasso are looking to the horizon and beyond

WORDS HUGH BALDWIN

Photo: Getty ImagesAn encounter with The Veronicas is like reading the first chapter of a really good book; it’s satisfying, enticing and you can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen next.

Their talent, drive and unusual beauty are almost impossible to miss but the most striking thing about the 23-year-old musical duo is the synchronicity between the two: synchronicity in thought, word and aspiration. So much are they in tune with each other that throughout a conversation their speech is inseparably intertwined – sometimes finishing each other’s sentence or speaking in unison.

So we bounce – from the runaway success of the singles from their second electro-pop album, Hook Me Up, to childhood in Brisbane, to their eponymous fashion line with Target, to songwriting, to international travel, to sisterhood.

There is strength in this relationship. The bond between them is epitomised by how regularly they’re seen holding hands at public appearances. And their combined positive attitude stands out. This is highlighted by the story of how Archie Comics went from one extreme – wanting to sue The Veronicas – to the other – writing them into their comic book.

“Archie Comics had an issue with us,” Jess begins, with Lisa chiming in. “They read in an interview that we said that our (band) name was based on the character Veronica in Archie Comics, because we had grown up reading the comics. I think they had no idea who we were and were worried about their brand name being tarnished, so they wanted to sue us.”

It’s hard to deny that
twins are twice as
nice. The Veronicas
– Lisa (left) and
Jess ( right)
Photo: Photo Library“For a s***load of money!” adds Lisa. “And we were just like, Archie Comics know who we are?! So cool. We were just so excited. Our management were like, ‘This is not cool. They want to sue you.’ But we had a meeting with them [Archie Comics] in New York. And they just fell in love with us.

“They ended up writing us into three comics, which they’d never done before… ever! I think they realised when we had the meeting with them, what big fans we were.”

These two Archie Comics fans grew up in Brisbane “surrounded by music” thanks to a dad who played guitar and synth’ in his own band, and a music-loving mother. Their supportive parents encouraged them to pursue their dream from an early age and they now manage Jess and Lisa’s personal affairs.

Unburdened of any pressure to pursue traditional careers, the sisters have been free to throw themselves into music while still maintaining their level-headedness, thanks to some wise parental advice.

“Our dad’s always instilled in us that we need to be aware of everything going on,” Jess says. “You see all these old Australian rock bands that are all broke because their companies didn’t do the right thing by them. So dad’s always said that you need to be involved, you need to see what’s going on. So we’re very hands-on with the business side.”

That business is now well on the way to expanding beyond music as their fashion line is now in its eighth range and they have begun to explore the possibilities of The Veronicas as a brand.

Photo: Getty ImagesBut growing up in the ’burbs of Brisbane, it was all about the music for these third-generation Italian girls. They’ve been on stage since the age of five and with a single mind, they have dedicated their twin lives to finding an audience for their work.

“We pretty much did every single RSL in Brisbane,” Jess says of the early days.

“We’d sing really old covers, like Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley,” Lisa adds. “You name it, we’ve done it. We used to do morning melodies for old people, we used to do hospitals, Twin Towns (on the Gold Coast), festivals, talent quests… Then we started writing our own songs and performing at pubs.”

It was once they discovered their own voice as songwriters that things started to take off.

“We got really serious and found our style when we were about 18 and actually signed a publishing deal – which was as songwriters – before signing any recording deal,” Jess says.

Photo: Retna PicturesWhen they did receive their first record deal advance, their level-headed business minds kicked in. They didn’t spend the money on fast cars or diamond-encrusted toothpicks, they used it to feed their music.

“We decided to use it to go on a big songwriting trip around the world,” they chime together. “We set up sessions with songwriters in Sweden, London and America and we just started co-writing with people. We’d never done co-writing except with each other before and we really learnt a lot. By popping over to different countries and working with different people we got inspired by different things.”

They returned from the tour armed with 60 songs and ready to take on the music world.

“When we got to the US, our indie record company was like ‘This is really, really good, but we’re not a big enough company to be able to do what you girls need’. So they shopped us around to the American companies and that’s when we signed with Warner Bros in the US, which then became Warner Bros Worldwide. We were very, very lucky because I think we were one of the last acts to be signed to that kind of a deal.”

Photo: Getty ImagesThe result was their 2005 debut pop-punk album The Secret Life Of…, which went on to sell over 300,000 copies in Oz alone, win the Best Pop Release category at the 2006 ARIA awards night and top charts in Australia, New Zealand, the US and Europe.

Their second album, Hook Me Up, was recorded and produced mainly in Los Angeles and released in Australia in August 2007. Says Jess: “We worked on it with just one producer [for the most part] which definitely made it creatively and physically easier on us because we weren’t travelling so much.”

Lisa describes their songwriting process as “each song, creatively, can be different. It can be a song idea that Jess and I come up with and bring it to another songwriter.

Or it could be that the producer has an idea musically and we write the top line and the lyrics. Or it could be just a few chords that Jess has strummed on a guitar, or even a song title. Or it could be just a situation that we want to write about.”

Photo: David Anderson PhotographyAdds Jess: “We tend to write the songs all at once but that’s because we have to hit out albums quite quickly. We had six months to do our second record and we weren’t putting too much pressure on ourselves because if the material and the vibe weren’t there we weren’t going to release it if it was crap.

“The second record, especially, is so defining in your career. If it’s crap, you’re not going anywhere,” says Jess. “So we really wanted to get it right. Luckily for us, it has gone better than we could’ve thought.”

This could be the understatement of the year. The first two singles to be released are the catchy “Hook Me Up ”, which went straight to number one on the charts and is now headed for double-platinum sales, and “Untouched”, which opened at number two on the charts. A third single from the new album is due out soon before they head to the States to start promoting their new album and then start song writing and recording all over again.

Meanwhile, the momentum for their songwriting skills continues to snowball internationally, with their work also landing in the hands of other artists, such as Russian duo Tatu. One of The Veronicas’ songs has been recorded in 38 different languages. They describe that pinch-me-moment as “a trip”.

With a second album on an intergalactic trajectory, the story of The Veronicas has a long way to unfold and it’s hard not to ponder what will happen next.

The Veronicas On Travel

Jess:

At this point, being young and getting to travel – we love it. It feels normal. What feels weird to me is staying in one place for too long without getting really restless. I just want to get up and go.

Lisa:

We usually get to see more of the city if we’re recording and songwriting because we’re there for longer than just an overnight stay.

The Veronicas give us their top picks for a getaway:

•Melbourne for shopping
•Sydney for partying
•Melany (north of Brisbane) for chilling out
•And we love Singapore!
•We’d love to go to Japan.

Hugh Baldwin says:

The Veronicas co-hosted the Nickelodeon’s Australian Kids’ Choice Awards last year with teen heart-throb Zac Efron. The coolest bit was when the V’s closed the show singing one of their singles with Zac; all three were covered in thick, green slime.