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Meet Lisa, twin sister of Jessica -- together they're the Veronicas, and they're about to go on tour with Ryan Cabrera and the Click Five -- yes, your math is correct, that's six hot boys and just two hot Veronicas. Must be nice!

How did you two get started?
Our mom and dad put us in like a theatre company when were 5, it was like an after school fun thing. We did that for 9 years. And then at the age of 14 we started doing gigs and singing lessons... we did that for years, and then when we were 18 Jess got a guitar for her birthday, and we wrote these songs on the guitar which were really basic chord structures and all that sort of stuff. So we made some demos and sent them to a guy in Brisbane and he signed us to a publishing deal from that. It was kinda cool, we got signed as songwriters first.

How has your sound changed between that first demo and your new album?
Well I mean those songs Jess and I wrote together... most of the album is co-written with us and other people, so the sound has evolved. When we signed our record deal with Engine Room, we went on a big songwriting trip for a year that they funded...

Wait, what's a songwriting trip? That sounds like fun!
Yeah, basically we traveled to Sweden, London, America, Canada... all around the world and they hooked us up to write songs with all these different people. And at the end of the day we had something like 50 songs.

Whoa. Were you just working that whole time or did you have time to explore?
No... (laughs) unfortunately we pretty much were working the whole time. I mean there were a few days where we weren't needed that much in the recording studio, but it was a very long process -- going in and meeting these people on day one, writing a song, and then on day two we'd usually be recording it. So it was pretty full-on for a while, I guess that's why we came back with 50 songs.

Have you always concentrated on those vocal harmonies you guys do so well?
Yeah, I mean it's something that's kind of come naturally to us. Our voices are completely different but they seem to blend well and then sound similar. People are always like "your voices are so similar" and then they hear us sing individually and they're like "oh, no they're not!" But we grew up singing Roy Orbison and Elvis and all these sort of old classics that were all about melodies and harmonies. So that's what we've naturally decided to add in our own music.

Does "the Veronicas" come from Archie comics' "Betty and Veronica"?
Yeah! We were trying to come up with a name that was cool and not too tacky, 'cause we're twins and we didn't want anything too obvious. We decided we wanted a girl's name, but we didn't want to use either of ours because we'd get jealous. But we grew up reading Archie comics, and every Christmas that's what we'd ask for. And we figured Veronica was the dark-haired one who loves to shop and she always got her own way. And she always got the guys, too, which was cool.

Can I ask one annoying twinny question?
Of course!

Have you ever had a crush on the same guy, and how did you resolve it?
Well, I mean we do tend to have crushes on the same guys, but when it comes to actually getting serious and thinking "Am I gonna date this guy?" we tend to go for different guys. So we'll both agree that a guy's hot, but when it comes to dating we do kinda have different tastes.

What are the primary differences in your personalities?
I'm more indecisive; I'm very easily swayed either way. Jess is very blunt, down the line, "I love it" or "I hate it". I sit back and observe whereas Jess is right in there, in the mix. And I guess growing up I was more of the girly girl and Jess was more of the tomboy, but as we've grown older we've grown more similar.

Do either of you prefer handling different aspects of your career?
Creatively, like with songwriting, we're both hands on, 50/50. Jess plays guitar so she might come up with chords. I'm good at throwing out a lot of ideas, Jess is good at sorting through them and then we both piece them together.

If you weren't making music with your sister, who would you work with?
Oh, I wouldn't be doing it to tell you the truth. Growing up it's always been wanting to do it with each other. I would never be a solo artist, it would terrify me to ever set foot on stage by myself. It doesn't interest me to be doing it with anyone else, which is so cool.



"4ever" Video





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Favorite bands & influences:

Michael Jackson, AC/DC, INXS, The Used, My Chemical Romance, Jimmy Eat World, Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani, No Doubt, Gorillaz