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The twins. / Photo by Kevin Tomanka

05/25/2015

Acoustic Minds’ Jenni Price Q&A + Other notable twins (It’s Gemini time!)

BY ANA AMMANN // 

On Friday we ran Ana Ammann’s story on the Shook Twins, kicking off OMN’s salute to twins. Today we salute Jenni and Amanda Price of Acoustic Minds with an extra helping of other notable musical twins. This originally appeared in OMN the Magazine.

BY ANA AMMANN // Portland natives, Jenni and Amanda Price of AM have been singing for people their entire lives.  In fact, in a 2011 interview with OMN, Jenni divulged that their mother says that the identical twins came into the world singing and harmonizing their crying in the crib.

For the past three years, Jenni and Amanda, along with bandmates Aaron Altemose and Josh Lorenzen, have been transitioning from the former trademark harmonies of Acoustic Minds to changing the game and their name – AM – with their live Electronic Dance Music.  The four-piece is on their way to releasing their second album (collectively AM’s 7th album).

The band has been busy inking a PR and radio licensing deal, appearing at SXSW, releasing a video for their single “Kitty Kat”, driving a GoFundMe campaign, filming a new video “Quicksand”, and being featured in the season opening episode of PDX Spotlight on Comcast.

Q&A with Amanda Price

What festivals are on your list to attend this summer?

Oregon Country Fair, Blues Festival (one of our faves), Bumbershoot, Music festNW

 What is your preferred mode of accommodation?

We love glam, love to camp, some would say our camping is like a hotel, but we can’t deny the goodness of a nice warm shower and soft comfy bed in a primo hotel.

How alike are you as far as twins go?

Very and not at all, we are the yin and the yang.  Super alike, yet completely different.

Do you hang out with each other during downtime?

Mostly together, we own a home and so most downtime we try to do things that are fun or just completely do nothing at all.

Jen says, “Sisters being sisters, and sister time are cherished moments to me. Although we spend most of our time together singing, it is really nice to have downtime and just hang with my twin outside of the stage and music.”

Do you listen to the same music?

YES!

What is on your playlist these days?

Phaeleh, The Flavr Blue, ODESZA, Banks, Beyoncé

If you weren’t musicians, what would you be?

Jenni: a detective, I’ve always been into solving mysteries.

Amanda: a writer or a teacher or a mom, maybe all of the above.

What do you like most about being twins?

The connection, having your best friend there through thick and thin, someone who knows you, someone who will be bluntly honest with you at all times.

What do you like least?

All of the above!  Not having your own entity. Always being seen as a duo and not an individual. Everyone presumes we have the same thoughts, when in fact we think completely differently on most things.

See AM perform at these Oregon festivals!

May 29 – June 6 – Portland Rose Festival in Portland, OR
June 14 – Pride Block Party in Portland, OR
June 19 – 21 – Conscious Culture Festival in Tonasket, WA
July 10 – 12 – Oregon Country Fair in Veneta, OR
July 17 – 19 – North Umpqua Music Festival in Roseburg, OR
July 24 – 27 – Human Nature Festival in Marcola, OR
August 1 – Whitaeker Block Party, Eugene, OR
August 7 – 9 – Bite of Oregon in Portland, OR

Musical twins beyond Portland…

Tegan and Sara

Canadian-born twins, Tegan and Sara Quin, began playing guitar and writing songs at the age of 15. While they don’t believe in parents dressing their twin children identically, they admit having a similar aesthetic in hair and fashion.  Neither shares any “twin-telepathy”, yet they feel they do have “twin-tuition” because they have spent so much time with each other, calling their relationship in many ways like a platonic marriage. This past month Rolling Stone posted to YouTube a short documentary about the relationship they have with their fans, and on June 6th, the duo will be performing in Edmonton during the Opening Ceremonies of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada. According to their bio, “The sisters enjoy reading, hair, ships, vampires, hot dogs, talking and relating to elderly people, self-soothing, rearranging furniture, and giving excellent advice.”

Nervo

Electronic dance music’s first sisters – Mim and Liv Nervo – are ranked among the all-time elite DJs in the world according to a poll DJ Magazine.  Their career took off in 2009 when they co-wrote the global hit “When Love Takes Over” for David Guetta and Kelly Rowland, but they had been making a name for themselves in the festivals and clubs of their native Australia, London, Ibiza and Las Vegas leading up to that.  Having cemented their songwriting prowess with a global No. 1 (plus several other songs for artists like Ke$ha, Kylie Minogue and Armin Van Buuren), NERVO set out to pursue their own career as artists, quite literally writing their own songs under their own name.  In a world dominated by bros, they are one hell of a sister act.

Ibeyi

Naomi and Lisa-Kaindé Díaz are the 19 year-old twin daughters of the late Cuban percussionist Anga Diaz.  The Paris-based, French-Cuban duo who sing in a mixture of Yoruba (the Nigerian language spoken in West Africa) and English while playing percussive instruments and piano, merge elements of their heritage with their natural love of modern music as teenagers growing up in Paris.  The Yoruba people have the highest twinning rate in the world and twins occupy and important position within the Yoruba culture. Ibeyi is pronounced “ee-bey-ee” and translates to “Twins”.

Other Notable Musical Twins

• Bee Gees brothers Robin and Maurice Gibb were fraternal twins.
• Breeders lead guitarist and bass guitarist Kelley and Kim Deal are identical twins.
• Good Charlotte founding members Benji and Joel Madden are twins, they formed The Madden Brothers in 2014 and Benji recently married Cameron Diaz.
• Twin sons of Ricky Nelson, Gunnar and Matthew Nelson, who recorded the 1990 No. 1 hit “(Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection” with their band Nelson, are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as part of the only family to reach number one record state in three successive generations, beginning with Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.

Facts About Twins

The birthrate of twins in the United States is on the rise in large part due to the prevalence of fertility drugs and assisted reproductive technology, which increases the likelihood of multiple gestations.  As a result, as many as one in 30 babies born in the U.S. is a twin.  Here are some interesting facts about twins:

• Identical twins do not have identical fingerprints.
• To tell twins apart, look at their belly buttons!
• Some twins are mirror images of each other.
• Twins interact with each other in the womb.
• Some conjoined twins can feel and taste what the other one does.
• Forty percent of twins invent their own languages.
• Identical twins can be raised separately, but still end up with very similar personality and interests.

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