Artist: Twin Kennedy
Hometown: Powell River, British Columbia, Canada
Latest Album: Homebound
Personal nicknames: Carli guitar-ly, Julie fidd-ooly
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
Looking through old family videos, we have footage of us singing together as young as 3! We put on living room concerts for our mom and dad and their friends, so we knew from a young age that performing was something we loved to do. We started playing as a family band with our dad and our younger sister, Katelyn, when we were 7 years old, and we were really excited and serious about rehearsing and preparing for shows even at that age. We have always been passionate about music — from creating and writing to arranging and harmonizing. We feel so lucky that we were introduced to all of this in our early days with our family because it’s what made us fall in love with performing, and we knew that we wanted to make music our career!
What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?
Live performance has always been our true love as musicians. We fell in love with being on stage when we were kids, and we have spent many years building practice routines and rehearsal rituals together. As twin sisters, we do have that stereotypical connection of “reading each other’s minds.” We call it “twin-tuition” — we can sense how each other is feeling — and so we make it a priority to focus on creating positive energy before every show. When all of our tour dates were cancelled due to the pandemic, we missed live music so much, and we spent a lot of time talking about what we wanted touring and performing to look like when we could return to that part of our career. For our Homebound Tour dates, our pre-show ritual includes a moment of gratitude. We hug each other and wish each other a great show like we’ve always done, but then we take time to give thanks that we are able to walk on stage again and share music, feel that connection with the audience, and do what we love to do.
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
We love every step of the creative process of building a new musical project — and that comes with many different art forms, from video creation to styling to graphic design to merchandise design. We are so inspired by the artists that we get to work with, from our incredible co-writers, to the photographers and directors! We love when music can be reflected in the artwork on the page, say of an album cover, or in a grand sense, like a music video on a mountaintop. When we’re writing a song, we always love it when we can envision the music video or the single artwork as the song is being written.
If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?
We wrote our mission statement as Twin Kennedy in the first year that we started touring full time, and although it has evolved over the years, the foundation has always remained the same: To spread joy through music. We aim to create genuine connection through songs and performance, and create a legacy of love and positivity both on and off the stage.
How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?
With this new album, we have been the most open we have ever been as songwriters and artists, and all of the songs come from a “me” perspective. All of the co-writers on Homebound are people that we have worked with for years — friends who we have built a trust and connection with that allows us to open up in the writing room. For us, this kind of “safe space” creates our best music. We are really proud of the diversity of emotion and messages that we share on Homebound, and they all come from a personal place. We hope that people can relate to our lyrics and hear their own stories in our songs!
Photo Credit: Suzanne Sagmeister Photography
