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Artist Interviews
Q&A: Evelyn Evelyn
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 22 April 2010
Born on a small farm on the Kansas/Colorado border in 1985, conjoined twins Evelyn and Evelyn Neville grew up performing in Dillard & Fullerton’s Illusive Traveling Show.
In 2007, some of their original compositions made it into the hands of Dresden Dolls frontwoman Amanda Palmer and accordion player Jason Webley, who set about working on recordings with the sisters. The first results of these sessions came in the shape of their ‘Elephant Elephant’ EP, which was followed last month by their eponymous debut album.
Despite the cloud of volcanic ash that’s been floating around generally causing chaos, the twins will still play their three night residency at Bush Hall in London from Friday to Sunday as planned. However, their show at Koko tonight will now be an Amanda Palmer solo show, as neither Jason Webley or the Evelyns will be able to get to Camden. But to make up for it, she will be joined by Melissa Auf Der Maur, Robots In Disguise and Bitter Ruin.
Meanwhile, some people have suggested that the Evelyn Evelyn act is just Palmer and Webley in an elaborate costume, but if that’s true, how did we manage to get Evelyn and Evelyn to answer these questions, eh?
Q1 How did you start out making music?
Evelyn: Mr Dillard gave us the ukulele and made us play. So, we learned and started making songs. He actually maybe didn’t give it to us but when we left the circus we took it. Don’t tell him.
Evelyn: Mr Dillard gave us the ukulele and made us play. So, we learned and started making songs. He actually maybe didn’t give it to us but when we left the circus we took it. Don’t tell him.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Evelyn: Our life and our friends. And each other mostly.
Evelyn: Our life and our friends.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Evelyn: Always we are scared at first, because what if we play it wrong? Then it will be wrong forever. And sometimes we fight about the words or how the song goes. And then we like it.
Evelyn: Always we are scared at first, because what if we play it wrong? Then it will be wrong forever. And sometimes we fight about the words or how the song goes. And then we like it.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Evelyn: We don’t really know what you mean by that, but we like all sorts of music including albums by Tegan and Sara and also Joy Division and musicals.
Evelyn: Jesus Christ Superstar and the Andrews Sisters. Have you heard them? We like all music, but those were first, so we love them more and sometimes we try to sound like them.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Evelyn: Thank you.
Evelyn: Oh, thank you.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Evelyn: We want to make some money so we can maybe move to another city. Walla Walla is really nice, but we are young still and want to try living somewhere else. Maybe. We like the sound of Baden Baden or Bora Bora.
Evelyn: We hope people like our record and also we hope that Amanda and Jason are happy because they hope our record does well and people like it. For the future, we would like to make music and make people happy.
MORE>> www.evelynevelyn.com
