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From Access All Areas

BIOGRAPHY

 

In a word, WOW....that's The Veronicas.

20 year-old identical twins from Brisbane Australia, Jess and Lisa Origliasso blend natural born singing and songwriting talent, looks to kill and a lifetime of performing experience to create an off the hook, irresistibly appealing debut album. If it all sounds too good to be true, The Secret Life Of The Veronicas, their dynamic Sire Records debut album kicks the “Wow Factor” up a notch or two. Simply put, The Veronicas bear no resemblance to your standard prepackaged teen dream. Tough and edgy with hooks and harmonies to spare, the Veronica's deliver a sound and lyrics that rock with the sheer joy of free spirits on the prowl, ready to take over the planet.

It gets better. Born on Christmas Day, for real, with a bond so strong they regularly finish each other's sentences, Jess and Lisa possess a wealth of show business skills, honed over fifteen years of live performing. Do the math, these girls began entertaining at the age of five, serving an apprenticeship which quickly made the stage their second home. It's that seemingly effortless ability to connect with an audience that's become a Veronica's trademark.

By their mid-teens, Jess and Lisa, drawing from influences as wide ranging as Roy Orbison and AC/DC, formed The Veronicas and began experimenting with everything from rock to hip hop to R&B, before hitting on a distinctive musical hybrid anchored by a unique harmonic blend found only in familial greats like the Everly Brothers and Oasis. It must be in the genes!

Signed to an exclusive production deal with Engine Room on the strength of their very first demo, Jess and Lisa spent the next year creating an impressive catalog of over fifty songs, many of which were written in collaboration with a Who's Who of world-class composers. Such was the buzz surrounding the pair that they were invited to work with proven hit makers the likes of Billy Steinberg (Madonna), Clif Magness (Avril Lavigne) and Rick Nowels (Dido). With songwriting jaunts to London, Los Angeles, NYC and Vancouver, Stockholm and points between, The Veronicas compiled an impressive collection of songs.

With a reputation for cutting edge music, Sire Records flipped for The Veronicas and the girls returned the kudos by signing on board. Work immediately began in Los Angeles on their major label debut, utilizing a team of top-flight producers that included, among others, Max Martin (Britney Spears), Don Gilmore (Linkin Park), Dr. Luke (Kelly Clarkson) and Toby Gad (Enrique Iglesias). “We were given a one-in-a-billion shot,” Jess remarks. “…And we were determined to deliver,” Lisa finishes.
That determination has resulted in The Secret Life Of The Veronicas, one of the most dazzling debut albums in recent musical memory, highlighting twelve tracks written and produced by, with and for The Veronicas. The Secret Life Of The Veronicas spotlights such standout cuts as “Revolution,” “Mouth Shut," "When It All Falls Apart" and “Everything I’m Not” along with their scorching new single “4ever.”

Can you say "Wow?"

 

 

INTERVIEW

 

Access All Areas.net.au: Firstly tell us what is it like being twin sisters and the adventure of you both about to embark on a world-wide music career?
Jess – The Veronica’s: It is pretty cool – I mean it’s one of those things that’s taken forever to get here but now it’s all happening so quickly… it’s the coolest and best thing ever to do this with Lisa and I wouldn’t want to do it without her.

Access All Areas.net.au: How does songwriting happen for you? Do you write on personal experiences and in a case like that how does the other sister become involved?
Jess – The Veronica’s: You know what there was stage where we wrote about a different guy in every song [laughs]. It was really funny where we would sit down and name each guy that a song was about. Each song is about either a personal experience or something we’re inspired by and always something that we relate to and that’s how we write. If Lisa came to me about writing a song about someone who pissed her off then yeah we’ll start doing it. We’re very close… I can always relate as well.

Access All Areas.net.au: Having heard of you guys quite some time ago, how long have you spent on developing your music?
Jess – The Veronica’s: You know what, we did a year of touring around co-writing in different places, we went to London, Sweden, Canada and America and through that time we experimented with styles and stuff so probably about a year. We tried R&B, dance, pop and when we turned 18 we knew we wanted to do rock/pop because I got a guitar for my 18th birthday. We wanted to infuse different styles in to that.

Access All Areas.net.au: You’ve signed a production deal with Engine Room (Holly Valance), how did this opportunity arise?
Jess – The Veronica’s: We signed a publishing deal with a company in Brisbane. We sent a demo into this guy, he called us in and we performed acoustically for him and then he took us down to Sydney to shop around to a few record labels and we ended up signing to Engine Room.

Access All Areas.net.au: For your album, you wrote over 50 songs and clocked up a lot of frequent flyer points traveling to London, Los Angeles, NYC, Vancouver and Jess – The Veronica’s: Stockholm, how long did this process take?
We did [laughs]. It took us a full year, there was a point where I think we wrote a song a day there for a while and it got intense. But it took us a year to get to where we wanted to.

Access All Areas.net.au: At that time you were probably more accustomed to writing your own songs as a duo, how was it to be able to co-write with some of the world’s best writers?
Jess – The Veronica’s: It was great! We saw it as a great opportunity and it’s funny, when we write with each other we’re brutally honest. If I think a song sucks I’ll say it and it’s the same with Lisa, if she thinks something sucks she’ll say it but with co-writers, if you bag out an idea you’ve go to comeback with a spectacular idea or go to be ready for them to have a go at you but we wrote with incredible people. None really impressed themselves upon us and they were all very well into what we wanted to say.

Access All Areas.net.au: Can you describe your music to us?
Jess – The Veronica’s: I would say rock pop sort of stuff. I guess just got some really up tempo party tracks, rocked out sort of stuff and then we’ve got some moody stuff that you’d play in your bedroom. It’s kind of what we were feeling over the past year and a half and that’s what we kind of wrote about. We’re into pop melody’s though so we like a good melody but not over pop – like Britney Spears.

Access All Areas.net.au: Your first single ‘4ever’, can you tell us a bit about that song?
Jess – The Veronica’s: That song… it’s a really fun song, basically talking about living each day as it comes and not taking life so seriously, going for it and having fun and we recorded that in Sweden with a guy called Max Martin. He is a really really cool guy and working with him was great because he is such a pop pop guy and there was another guy who was rock and it was great working with them.

Access All Areas.net.au: How long did it take to get your first single ‘4ever’ and what struck you to make this single the first over your other 50 songs?
Jess – The Veronica’s: Oh you know what – this song came in last. We signed a deal with Warner at the end of last year. We like had most of the album but one guy we didn’t work with was Max Martin and the label came to us and asked if we wanted to go to Sweden for two weeks to do some writing with him. He wrote “Baby one more time” [Britney Spears] which we loved and we were like hell yeah so we went over there, rocked it out, and I don’t know it was a great first song. Its not too predictable I don’t think and it showcases our personalities well so we wanted that to be song to show us to world.

Access All Areas.net.au: So what are the plans from here for the Veronicas?
Jess – The Veronica’s: We’re here for two and a half weeks – going to Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and doing instores, tv shows, radio and stuff then we head back to LA and New York doing a few shows there. Then doing a few shows with Jesse McCartney and a few gigs like that. We’ve got a trip to Japan as well so basically just promoting the single and album really.

 

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