Hearing about a band or artist's influences and inspirations are all well and good, but sometimes, you just want to get to the nitty-gritty in an interview - like, 'what's your favourite takeaway dish'?
Our new Q&A series sees us throwing rapidfire questions at musicians to get their most instinctive answers. There's no beating around the bush here - just honest, straightforward insights into their creative minds.
Dublin sisters Ornait and Siomha Hennessy (aka Sisterix) have just released their debut single 'Another Reason to Hate You'. In their own words, the song “gets to the core of that universal, but painful experience of growing up - the realisation that someone you may have idealised is actually deeply flawed and fallible”. If you're a fan of grungey pop tunes, it'll be right up your street.
To celebrate its release, we grabbed Ornait for a chat.
1.What’s the music that you listened to growing up that you still listen to today?
Our mam always sang Joni Mitchell songs and we sing them too. Discovering Fleetwood Mac and The Velvet Underground as a teen was a revelation. But folk musicians were a big part of our musical upbringing, too: titans such as Sandy Denny, Paul Brady, Andy Irvine and Anne Briggs we would still listen to still. Our dad would often be blaring the records of the Qawalli singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan too - much to Siomha’s mortification who was trying to impress her ‘normal’ friends. But she has come round now!
2. In three words describe the minute before you walk on stage.
Sheer Unbridled Chaos
3. How do you wind down after a gig?
Perhaps a quick post-mortem, but once it’s done, it's done! Time for a quadruple whiskey!
4. What’s the one song you wish you’d written first?
Wolf Alice – 'Don’t Delete the Kisses'
5. You can only have three albums on your phone at any one time- what three would you pick for today?
Given the anxiety of the week that’s in it, the new EP from Brighton based artist ‘Knightstown ‘ has been a gorgeous salve for the jagged nerves. Idles’ albums are great for giving voice to the alienation and disconnection one can feel in society and is good to blast in your headphones when needed. Doja Cat’s album ‘Hot Pink’ is one we return to a lot lately.
6. Name one record, one book and one film that everyone should hear/read/see.
Book: 'The Beauty Myth' by Naomi Wolf
Record: 'Carrie and Lowell ' by Sufjan Stevens
Film: 'For Sama'
7. Pick the directors and lead actors for a biopic about your life.
Greta Gerwig or maybe Ken Loach
Siomha – Eva Green
Ornait – Angelina Jolie because, like….duh!
8. Your ordering take-away, what do you get?
Well, Siomha will literally only eat Indian or Italian food and becomes very stroppy and petulant if anything else is suggested. Her tastebuds haven’t developed much since she was five.
9. Describe your perfect day off?
Well, last week, both of us would have probably described an ideal day off as being able to shut out the world, and pottering alone with our guitars, our laptops, books, films and food. But a week of social distancing and isolation has made us see that perhaps we need people more than we realised.
10. Why should we listen to your music?
If you like your songs sassy but also punctuated with chaotic energy and a few ill-timed jokes from Siomha, then come on down to bargaintown! We’re also hot AF and so talented it should be illegal (and probably will be in a few years, the way this government is going…)
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Sisterix's 'Another Reason to Hate You' is out now.
