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Part 2

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

Mina: Usually I’ll wake up and make coffee and oatmeal and write a few pages in my journal to unscramble and settle my brain and then read a little before checking my phone. Then I’ll usually call Kelley and make a plan for what we need to tackle in the day. We live a 10 minute walk from each other so some days we will go to one of our apartments and just go through the list.

Kelley: Same for me except I normally start the day going on a walk with my partner to get coffee. And then I’ll call Mina. (laughs) Our schedules change a lot too depending on if we’re in writing mode, performing mode, or releasing music mode (or all of them at once like right now!). Sometimes we have songwriting days where we just open up our notebooks and try to find seeds of songs together.

When we’re on tour, the routines kind of go out the window and we basically spend every day driving and then performing and then driving again. (laughs) We also have days that are totally dedicated to music video or art planning and creation.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

Mina: One of our favorite projects has been our Soft Songs EP.

We wrote it together over FaceTime in March and April of 2020. We were separated because of quarantine and so we decided to start writing songs every day over the phone. I would make these guitar tracks in my room and send them to Kelley and we would write lyrics and melodies with the tracks.

I recorded my vocals in my room and Kelley recorded her vocal stems on her iPhone and sent them to me. Then I made a rough mix of all the songs and sent them to our friend, Jake Cheriff, and he mixed and mastered the EP. (laughs)

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

Mina: This is something very important to us as we are a very collaborative project. A big question is always, how can we make a song personal and vulnerable and truthful when two or more people are writing it?

I think this is always a fun puzzle to figure out because it is possible. Kelley and I really trust each other and sometimes one of us will write a whole song and be like, sorry I just need this song to be this, and then the other will be like, cool, how can I contribute to your vision of this song, and then we make it.

Other times, one of us will have a seed of an idea that we came up with in a solitary moment or want to write about and we will brainstorm together.

Kelley: I agree and I also feel like songs will often let you know if they’re meant to be written privately or with someone else as you start writing them.

Some songs will literally never be heard by anyone else because they’re just for me. And in the other direction there’s something so beautiful about letting a vulnerable piece of writing go and grow and change in the hands of others.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

Mina: I think we can only really write from where we’re at so I think our work reflects the world as we know and understand it over time.

Music has many roles in society. I think it is something that brings people together. It is a language that can be understood when words aren’t the best form of communication.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

Kelley: I think music is so powerful in those moments. The way it contributes changes depending on if I’m in a creative or curious or processing space around the question, or if I need some clarity or peace or a feeling of community. I will often turn to listening to music just by default, and I think that sneakily helps me process my feelings, or make sense of whatever is going on.

Writing music can also help me understand myself in these moments, especially if I feel like I’m overrun with thoughts. Sometimes just singing out loud can untangle some of that.

There seems to be increasing interest in a functional, “rational” and scientific approach to music. How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?

Mina: Honestly we don’t really approach music in that way. I think we have a pretty intuitive and playful approach to music. Everything technical usually comes second to meaning and feeling. But also I love science and am interested in this. Send links pls.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Mina: I have a hard time doing a lot of mundane tasks. Like doing laundry or drinking a glass of water that is right next to me seems so much more impossible than writing a song sometimes.

Kelley: I think it’s a lot about what the task means to you. I definitely think that someone could express love or care and skill by making a really great cup of coffee and sometimes that is probably similar to writing a song.

I make medium to bad coffee unfortunately, but I feel like I can express myself through singing and performing. There is maybe something inherently different but the similarities are intriguing to me.

Mina: Sometimes songwriting is excruciating.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it is able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

Kelley: Music is definitely a uniquely special and beautiful way to communicate. I think the power comes from the fact that by pairing certain lyrics with certain melodies and instruments, you’re able to convey a complex, visceral feeling to the listener in a way that really fuels connection and lets you know that you’re not alone in that feeling.

Sometimes words get us all stuck in our heads, and music can help to express something that can only be felt. It’s something that gets right to the core of you immediately.


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