‘The girls speak as one and finish each others sentences so this interview is spoken by both’.
“We were born in Lismore and moved around a lot with our parents because they liked to renovate houses. We have lived in almost every Northern Rivers town. We would always end up back in Lismore which felt like home. We’ve been here now a good few years. Now we’re back for good and happy to be here. We notice how much we love Lismore when we go away. We come back with a sigh of relief. We love travelling but there is this calmness that comes over you when you come back, that sense of home. People here are so open and there is a definite heart in this community. It feels like there is a centre. Many other places we’ve been to overseas feel so spread out and endless. There’s so many creative people everywhere you turn here. All of our music videos have been shot locally and the locals have supported us in every way. Whether it be props, locations or just helping out. The Conservatorium for ‘God Bless the Internet’ for example. There is always a bunch of hands to help in Lismore as there is such a great sense of community. We feel totally supported in Lismore.
We felt lonely in High School. People assume because you are a twin that you wouldn’t be lonely because you have someone. It’s more like you are one person and you still need others. When we were younger we didn’t really experience feeling alone. We were very much in our own world. We had our own little language. We would talk so quickly other people didn’t understand us, but between us we could talk so fast, we didn’t have to finish sentences or say full words. Our mum had to teach us how to slow down and articulate. Eventually as teenages we began slowing down and pacing our speech. We’ve always had a great connection. Sometimes we can communicate without actually speaking and we love to just sit in the presence of each other in comfortable silence. Sometimes with other people we feel anxious or nervous, like we need to fill the gaps. With each other there is calmness and serenity.
We were very happy children, we had heaps of fun together and don’t think we ever experienced boredom! But in our high school years the isolation was extreme. We experienced passive bullying and when it’s not overt there’s no real recognition or discipline for it. Others may not see it. This form of bullying isn’t recognised enough but it’s important that people know it happens. Because it’s underlying and passive it can make you question whether your perception is correct or whether you’re going mad. Toward the end of high school we felt increasingly ostracised and alienated. We felt like we weren’t good enough to be a ‘part of’. Sometimes we reflect back on the type of people we were back then which was very people pleasing and reserved. We didn’t stand up for ourselves like we do today. We are proud of how far we’ve come. We are strong, independent and confident so there’s been a lot of growth.
Growing up, music was a fundamental part of our household and our parents always had their band over for jamming and rehearsals. We would crawl around and try join in by shaking maracas or singing which was probably just screaming at that age. They also played worship music at church. We don’t really have a style or genre that people can often pinpoint or box. I think that’s from growing up around gospel music. The whole purpose behind singing in church is not about performing. It’s about free expression, connecting with the emotion of the music. It’s all about the music, nothing else. Also, with gospel music there is a lot of improvisation. That’s something we like, not sticking to structure but going on your own tangent musically.
We are thankful to our school, despite struggling with feeling invisible, because it encouraged our creative side. There was no uniform which inspired us to experiment with our look for the first time and it was an undeniable creative artistic place. The evolution of our image came from the feeling of invisibility. We dressed up daily and it became more extreme every day because we wanted to rebel in a way that was positive and constructive. We wanted to claim our visibility and voice through fashion.
We named ourselves No Frills Twins because we feel it represents who we are and what we’re about: stepping out of the box, creating our own identity instead of following the crowd or having someone else create us whether that be a company or society in general. We’re also No Frills with our fashion because we enjoy styling ourselves affordably through op shop and second hand finds. We believe it’s not all about the big brands. We love the carboot market and we have the best op shops in Lismore. We also love local designers, especially one off designs. We love supporting local designers by collaborating and promoting. The shoes we are wearing today were a gift from a fan that owns a cool company in Korea. The company is called ‘Refuse to be Usual’. We’ve bought our favourite platform boots from there for years so it’s really exciting that she recently gifted us these custom made No Frills Twins candy boots. We were involved in the design process, colour swatches and what jewellery we wanted in the heels. We love these. They are really loud and they rattle when you walk.
We’ve been really busy with trips to Sydney, LA and London, writing and recording new music. We have about 40 new songs that we’ve written and recorded in the last 18 months and we are excited. We have been signed by a major record label and under them we’ve just produced and recorded a single and music video which will be released early next year. Again with a lot of help from locals including Denise who runs this page who lent us her beautiful, fluffy, marshmallow dog called Clover, who you will see in the video. Thank you for doing the HOL page and for always supporting us and keeping updated with where we are at. We are really excited and honoured to be featured on your page again.
We also want to give a special thanks to our mum for being an integral part in our development, our self esteem and musical growth. She has always believed in us and never told us to go get normal jobs. She’s worked hard to help us on our way, so thank you little sweetie. Being young and starting out it’s easy to doubt yourself but it’s really helped us having mum by our side. She makes us feel amazing and encourages us. We love supporting other young people who send us videos asking for feedback. We also love that we can inspire peoples art, music or fashion. It feels nice to be someones role model.”