Q&A: The Veronicas

Australian identical twin sisters Lisa and Jessica Origliasso have released their first new music in five years after switching to a new label. They play Manchester Academy on 8 March.

What happened with your previous label?

They went through a huge internal shift, which resulted in a change of staff through the entire company. We couldn’t get any stability or release date approvals. It was so frustrating!

Have you managed to maintain your DIY ethos since signing with Sony?

When you’re young, you think creative freedom comes in the form of creating your music and all the other business decisions are for the people around you who “know better”. But as you get older, you realise that strategy, marketing and management are also an important part of your brand. So yes, we’ve maintained control. We won’t work with companies and individuals we don’t respect or trust.

What progression can we see on your current record?

We dug as deep as we could and channelled our experiences into each song on this record. We wanted to write songs that were close to our hearts. Music is like therapy in our lives.

Is your music political?

Our music is honest. There is so much injustice in the world, and injustice should always be met with a call for change. We grow up in a system that prioritises money, status and the material value over love, equality, health and compassion. We are taught to compete, judge, condemn those we don’t understand and live in fear. So I guess you could say we’re political. Or you could say we’re awake, and unwilling to let the immense injustices in this world go on without using the voice we were given to speak up.

Has the fact you are twins been challenging in terms of being taken seriously?

We live in a world where people are constantly trying to validate their own feelings of inadequacy. People look for figures in the public eye to measure themselves against. You know – “They only got where they are because they’re twins, or because they pretend to be lesbians together.” Blah blah blah. That’s ridiculous and boring.

Antonia Charlesworth