Veronicas discuss their next album

The Veronica's excellent single 4Ever is finally released in the UK today. It's a bargain 59p on iTunes and Amazon, but if you need an added incentive, Lisa has promised on her Twitter feed that anyone who buys £10-worth of the song will be entered into a prize draw to win "a necklace made out of Hickeys, from jessica, lisa and all 3 members of the band! Thats right... a NECKLACE OF HICKEYS!"

If that doesn't send the record to number one, I don't know what will.

Anyway, I caught up with the Origliasso twins last week to talk about this record, their upcoming album, and the one after that, too. Here's what they had to say.

Your last single, Untouched, was two years old. 4Ever is four years old. Are you going back in time?

Jessica: We are absolutely going back in time, you are absolutely correct.

It's the song that the record company picked for the next single, so we’re excited about that. It shows the longevity of the music, I guess.

Tell me about the album.

Jessica: Hook Me Up is out October 12th. It's got electro undertones with a pop rock influence.

Lisa: It is a more personal record to us, lyrically. We write about life, our life experiences, our feelings and thoughts and situations we’ve been in and out of.

It sounds so much like other electro-pop records that have come out in the last 12 months - Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, for example. But when you recorded it three years ago, that wasn't the dominant sound...

Lisa: It wasn’t. That’s the thing. It was so new that people were freaking out. Record label people. We were being told that radio was too scared to play it but we were thinking: "Good! That's the whole point. We don’t want to sound like anyone else."

What other artists were you listening to at the time?

Lisa: The Sounds, Under The Influence of Giants, Shiny Toy Guns, CSS, Sneaky Sound System - bands that were kind of big but not on the mian charts.

They're all quite cool, tastemaker bands. Would you like to be seen as a more credible act?

Jessica: Absolutely. Our third record, which we’re writing this year, is going to show even more of that side of us. It's going to be a lot more grown up and we’re going to take time to really experiment and discover a more specific sound.

You hinted that you've clashed with the record label in the past. Will that be a problem if you change direction again?

Jessica: We're going to be able to obtain even more creative control this time. It's just one of those things about being signed to a major record label – you start off having to compromise a fair amount of control.

Lisa: And there’s a big learning process. As songwriters, as artists. You become smarter businesswomen, and how the industry works and marketing. We’re only becoming aware of how much people judge you on your image before they even hear your music. So you become very – you wise up pretty quickly to the way it works.

Speaking of image, you're constantly putting up pictures of yourselves on Twitter. Most girls of your age hate looking at themselves - so how come you're so confident?

Lisa: On Twitter, we have nearly 100,000 followers who are primarily fans. So they’re our biggest supporters and they’re people we want to keep in the know about what’s going on with us. In the past, we haven’t always been in control of what’s being put out there. Now that we have the opportunity, it is nice to be able to put out things that we are proud of – and things that are fun.

Unlike a lot of people, you’re clearly writing those posts yourself and you’re being honest. Sometimes too honest.

Jessica: Yeah. Sometimes gets us in trouble a little bit. We’re not going to change.

The Veronicas - 4Ever


The Veronicas - 4Ever (Radio One Live Lounge)


4Ever is out now. Hook Me Up follows on 12th October. The other bits of our interview (aka 'the good bits') will appear on the BBC News website at some point in the next couple of weeks...

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