New Faces Times Two - twins who front bands - Brief Article

Interview, Sept, 2000 by Julia Chaplin

DOUBLE THE FUN, DOUBLE THE NOISE, TWINS ARE THESE BANDS' SECRET WEAPON

If you overhear complaints that all young bands are starting to look the same these days, maybe it's because they are. In what might strain even the incredulity of The National Enquirer, four new acts fronted by identical twins are releasing new albums. There's Canada's teen tomboys Tegan and Sara; Vallejo, the Kid Rock-meets-Stevie Ray Vaughn sextet from Austin; Washington, D.C.'s punk-pop outfit Good Charlotte; and evan and jaron, the Orthodox Jewish duo from Atlanta whom Jimmy Buffet discovered.

Despite the obvious benefits of telepathic harmonizing, sharing guitar straps, and endless modeling offers, being a twin band isn't always double the fun. "There's always been this criticism that we use our identical looks as a gimmick," said the twenty-six-year-old evan, half of evan and jaron, whose soulful fourth album of catchy guitar pop includes guest spots by Mick Fleetwood, John Medeski (Medeski, Martin, and Wood), and Alanis Morissette's producer, Glen Ballard. "If anything, it's made us work harder to get people to concentrate on our music." They would never dream of sporting duplicate 'dos like the blond '80s-hair metal twins Nelson. "We don't do synchronized dance moves either."

Other pairs get a thrill out of exploiting their spitting images. Tegan and Sara, whose sassy debut This Business of Art is coming out on Neil Young's Vapor Records, play up the twin novelty. "Onstage we like to bicker and fight a lot because people seem fascinated by it," said Sara, nineteen, who is distinguishable from her sister by her bleached hair and lack of a huge chin piercing. "Being a twin is actually sort of boring. It's like we're an old married couple: We live together, travel together, and work together." Best of all, they rock together.

Julia chaplin is a frequent Interview contributor.