Bands go through all kinds of things. But for Twin Sister the ride has been a little rougher one. I was introduced to this band quite some years back by a friend, and took instant liking to them after watching them live perform their song “Stop” in a Yours Truly session. They were treating harmonies right and creating a scrumptious sound with their fancy pedals. Basically they were everything I wanted a modern Indie band to sound like and then some more. Andrea Estelle’s crispy vocals perfectly combined with Eric Cardona’s soupy guitar playing all laid over some eccentric to intelligent lyrics.
Fast forward to 2015, they now go by the name Mr. Twin Sister and have literally risen from ashes. But they are all set to create a new identity and their new fresh sound puts a foot down in the right direction. Bands change names all the time but theirs has been a total facelift in my opinion.
Back in 2013 the band took quite a few blows on the professional and personal front and survived one crisis after another, including a split from their record label Domino, vocalist Andrea being diagnosed with MS, and even a traffic accident. For an Indie band just creating their presence and touring around the country extensively a road crash would mean hell, but in their case it was even worse when all of the members ended up injured. That kind of a thing can spell the death knell for many a band but instead Twin Sister went ahead and cut an entirely new album with a much more mature sound in just a year’s time.
The new album sounds so much more labyrinthine. It’s foamy and light with added dimensions like sampled synths and sax. They seem to have a better view of the direction they are headed. Sometime back I came across an interview where Eric Cardona said that the new lyrics weren’t really thought out to symbolize the new name, but the listeners were open to interpret them. In my opinion, they do seem like being two ends of a thought process and it only means the band is progressing in their journey. However, for me Twin Sister and Mr.Twin Sister are going to be one and the same – more like before and after a metamorphosis. And for a band with a grit as theirs I do think they have a very bright future.
