Wednesday, 20 August 2008 12:42
Being modern pop music's most recognisable twin-set, is harder work than at first appears. Since the release of their debut album in 2005, THE VERONICAS have been snapped with celebrity after celebrity as they courted red carpet and night-club circuits. Undoubtedly, everything you read in tabloid magazines and on gossip blogs is true. So, go ahead and assume the worst about same-sex lip-locks and broken engagements. But Jess and Lisa Origliasso, have nothing to prove. The 300,000 of their debut sold in Australia alone, speak volumes of their faithful fanbase.
High school fails to end at eighteen. Girls are forever called out for anything less than squeaky-clean reputations, while boys can exploit the very same girls and are instead applauded for it. "Predominately, music was always a male based industry but females have really started taking over. The 'Riot Grrrl' revolution started and I think that was a big shock to a lot of people. It really paved the way for a lot of females to really show what they had as musicians and singers and being able to front bands and being just as strong and successful."
And yes it's true. The Veronicas really do finish off each other's sentences in picture-perfect fashion.
"We've had our bank account information posted all over the internet. Our privacy has been very invaded. It is very disheartening to see that."
COUP DE MAIN: It's your first trip to New Zealand, what took you so long?
THE VERONICAS- Jess: We're asking ourselves the same question. It's a crime that we're Brissie girls and we haven't been here sooner. But we're here now! And we're very excited to be here.
THE VERONICAS- Lisa: We're loving it. We love it here. Just stoked to be able to finally see our fans and get the word out about our music.
Jess: We just got here yesterday morning.
Lisa: So unfortunately no time to look around yet.
Jess: Last night we were working, so as soon as we could we were in bed. Then up early this morning for interviews. Hopefully going to do an Australia and New Zealand tour either at the end of this year or early next year.
CDM: Why did you decide to reinvent The Veronicas in between your debut album 'The Secret Life Of...' and your follow-up, 'Hook Me Up'?
Jess: It was just a natural progression for us, growing as artists. We wrote 'The Secret Life Of', over two years ago. So when it came time to do 'Hook Me Up', obviously we are influenced by different music than we were back then. We had new things we wanted to talk about within our music and our songwriting. It was just something that happened. It wasn't overly thought about. We were just really into electro-rock-pop and we're really proud of this record. Really happy it turned out exactly the way we wanted it. It's where we are right now. 'The Secret Life Of', was great for that time. But obviously we've moved on as people from then. The issues in 'Hook Me Up' are more current with us.
Lisa: Also with 'The Secret Life Of', it was our first record as The Veronicas. We were going through the process of songwriting and discovering our sound. With this record, because we'd already been through the process we knew exactly what road we wanted to go down.
CDM: What was it like working with John Feldmann?
Jess: John Feldmann is awesome. He's been someone that we've wanted to work with for a long time. We're big fans of Goldfinger and a huge fan of his work with The Used, Story of the Year, Good Charlotte and all of those other great bands that he's worked with. He's a really passionate person. He's really cool, down to earth and fun. We had the best time ever working with him.
CDM: In terms of breaking the market, what's the difference between America and Australia?
Jess: You've gotta be in America to break it. You've got to tour every month. You pretty much can't stop touring. You can't get out there enough. In Australia, you do one tour and you can't tour again for a year.
Lisa: They're both completely different markets.
Jess: In America you could tour four times a year and the same people would keep coming back again and you'd get more and more fans. It was hard for us because we didn't tour there for two years. We just did another tour there recently and we thought that we'd have to start again. But we actually have really dedicated fans over there. We had so many kids come out and support us. It was the biggest surprise, it was so cool.
CDM: Jess, you've had your personal Myspace account hacked multiple times... Do you think society treats celebrities like public property?
Jess: We've both had our Myspaces hacked a lot of times.
Lisa: Nine or ten times...
Jess: ...that we've changed our myspaces. Especially the younger generation that's grown up with the internet and feeling like its their right and privilege to be able to do what they want. You're a lot more accessible to them than twenty years ago.
Lisa: We learnt our lesson. Nothing is private on the internet as you learn. But it's all a learning process and we don't have personal myspaces anymore because of it. It sucks because we travel so much, it would be nice to be able to stay in touch with our friends and our family. We've even had our e-mail hacked. We've had our bank account information posted all over the internet. Our privacy has been very invaded. It is very disheartening to see that. But at the same time, we just gotta be a bit smarter about it and come to terms with the fact that these kids... they just have too much time. They just get so obsessed.
Jess: They've got nothing better to do it seems.
Lisa: I've read comments where they're like; we hacked it, but they put the personal photos up. Well yeah, but at the same time we would like to be able to keep in touch with our family and send them photos and updates on what we're doing. That should be our right to have that. But our rights have been taken away from us.
Jess: People's attitudes towards it, saying that; well they're celebrities now they should be used to it, it's their job. Well we signed up for it. But when it comes down to it, celebrities aren't public property. We're still people. We just try to focus on music. Music is our passion and that's what we love to do. It'd be nice if people respected our privacy, but they don't. We just kinda have to deal with that. It's a shame but I don't think it's going to change because people are too interested in people's personal lives these days.
Lisa: It's a celebrity obsessed world we live in now.
Jess: Reality TV has made it that as well. A lot of factors come into it.
Lisa: It's going to be interesting to see where it stops. I think it's going to be very interesting in about ten years to see how far they take the reality of being a celebrity.
Jess: It's the media's job to sensationalize everything and you've got to keep that in mind. Being in this industry, you know what you're getting yourself into...
Lisa: If you sing certain lyrics in a song, people are obviously going to want to make a story out of something... At the end of the day, that's what sells. It's a great story and the truth behind it doesn't really matter anymore for the media. You just gotta have a good attitude about it.
CDM: Did you find yourself in a tall-poppy situation lately with the Australian press?
Jess: I think that with being a celebrity and becoming more successful, people are going to be more interested in your personal life and they're going to be more interested in selling stories because people want to read about you.
Lisa: The bigger the celebrity you become, the more money you're worth to them. The more stories that they can fabricate, make up, or exaggerate... you see them do it to big celebrities all the time in the States. I guess they're just following suit. We try and keep a good attitude about it. It's obviously upsetting at times, but we try to laugh it off as much as we can.
Jess: Obviously we're on the receiving end of a lot of it and it's not always great. But it's just people's different opinions. Some people think, all publicity is good publicity. Otherwise a lot of celebrities wouldn't leak videos or whatever they do, to get publicity at all. It could go either way.
Lisa: You use the media to promote stuff and the media uses you. It's just the industry. It's a given. I don't think it's going to change unfortunately.
Jess: You just gotta take it for what it is.
CDM: Like you said, you have very devoted fans. Is it ever over-whelming trying to cope with the expectations of fans?
Jess: We're really lucky. Our fans are really cool. We like to stay very in touch with fans. We like to use our official Myspace. We like to be able to talk to them, interact with them, do lots of Youtube videos. We try to give a lot back and I guess that makes them feel like they know us a bit more. There's a lot of celebrities that won't do that. I guess we hope that by us doing that, they'll show us a bit more respect.
CDM: Do you think the term 'pop star' has become an insult?
Lisa: I think in the past, it's been a bit of a dirty word due to females in pop and all the...
Jess: ...connotations attached to it. A lot of people think pop means manufactured and it doesn't at all. David Bowie used to be considered pop. A lot of artists were considered pop and everybody thought it was cool.
Lisa: Michael Jackson was the King of Pop.
Jess: I think when it comes down to it, we've always wanted to help change that negative connotation attached to the word 'pop' music, or girls in 'pop'. Hopefully, we help do that a little bit.
Lisa: We make a bit of fun of it on our record with a song called 'Popular'. That's talking about that whole pop cliche and the stigma attached to it. That song is taking the piss out of it.
CDM: We're now going to play a game. Ask each other a question you've always wanted to, but never have...
Jess: If you had to choose between mud crab and vegan nachos for the rest of your life, what would you pick?
Lisa: I think I would choose vegan nachos.
Jess: Really?! Over crab? Ohmygosh I wouldn't. I'd choose crab for sure.
Lisa: Right now I feel like vegan nachos, I think that's the problem. I don't really feel like mud crab right now. I'd normally say mud crab though, you can't really beat it. It's the best thing ever.
Jess: Okay, now ask me a question!
Lisa: I'll stay in the same realm... If you had to listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Jess: I think I would listen to 'Dirty Diana' by Michael Jackson. It'd still be Michael.
*Jess & Lisa wave Hi at Jess's Michael Jackson t-shirt that she is wearing*
Lisa: There's some songs that have been recorded by other artists like t.A.T.u., a couple of Australian Idols, a whole bunch of different artists from Asia...
Jess: from Germany...
Lisa: from all over the world really.
Jess: ...Sweden.
Lisa: We've been very fortunate with our songwriting aspect of it.
CDM: In your single 'Hook Me Up', there's the line "Girls can be so mean". Do you think the 'real world' is just an extension of high school?
Lisa: Yes! We used to grow up doing talent quests. We used to say that, life's just one big talent quest. At the end of the day, I guess it is. You gotta stay on top of your game cuz there's always someone waiting there to take your place and I guess that's why we're in this industry. We're in it because we're passionate about it and we love what we're doing. We're not just in it for the fame and the fortune. Once your in this industry, you realise that really isn't the case or the reality of the industry. You've really gotta be passionate about it and be willing to put in the hard work. We love it.
The Veronicas latest album 'Hook Me Up', featuring the singles 'Hook Me Up', 'Untouched', 'This Love' and 'Take Me On The Floor' is in-stores now.