Sisters Lily and Madeleine Jurkewicz have a vocal blend that is so close that you could almost mistake it for the most precise and mechanical double-tracking of a singular singer. Even among other sibling groups, their tonal parity is jaw-dropping – and decadently rich and achingly beautiful.
As recording artists, they’ve been exceptionally prolific – releasing three full-length studio albums and an EP since their eponymous debut in 2013. Their latest release, Keep It Together, propels them beyond their sparse folk-pop origins into lusher soundscapes with synths, electronic bass, and percussion in the mix. Featured cuts like “Hotel Pool,” “Hourglass,” and “Westfield” have compelling ambiance, but never at the expense of the duo’s voices.
Born and raised in Indianapolis, Lily & Madeleine have also appeared on John Mellencamp’s 2013 album Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, Son Lux’s Lanterns, and were featured on a 2015 broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. After finishing a handful of dates in the Midwest this month, they’ll join singer-songwriter Joshua Radin on his European Tour.
This Thursday, they’ll play an intimate show for their Columbus fan base at Rumba Café in SoHud.
I’ve been listening to Keep It Together and contrasting it with your other records, and throughout I’ve just been floored by your harmony. I know you are both formally trained musicians, but when did you actually discover you could harmonize?
Madeleine: “Well, I think that Lily and I have always like harmony in general. Our mom is really musical, so we would sing with her when we were young. I feel like – and I hate to be like ‘you’re either born with it, or you’re not!’ – but I feel like you can either just figure out harmonies, or you can’t. It’s just something that Lily and I have always been able to do. We didn’t start singing together until we were teenagers – and then at that point, it still just came naturally but everyone else had such a strong reaction to it that we kind of re-evaluated this cool skill we have.”
Was there a particular artist or piece of music that served as a model for how you developed that skill?
Madeleine: “We’ve always liked folk music and the Beatles and other classic stuff that our dad would put on. I don’t think we were really trying to do anything…like when we made our first album especially, I think we were just doing what came naturally to us – simple songs with harmony-based melodies and all that stuff. I think we didn’t really try to make folk music – folk music just came naturally to us. And I think now with our next album, we’re trying to just do more of a departure from that.”
Certainly a lot of the press you’ve received over the years has, naturally, focused on your sameness. I’m wondering what makes you creatively different?
Madeleine: “Lily and I write separately, sometimes, and very differently. In general, Lily plays more by ear when she’s playing guitar and piano, and I prefer to have some sort of structure like sheet music or something like that. I don’t know…I don’t write to sheet music – I also kind of write by ear, but that’s more of Lily’s natural skill. So that’s more interesting, I think, in terms of how we just play differently. Our writing style is kind of different – I feel like Lily’s more poetic, and mine is more like a general rhyme scheme…a little more pop influenced, whereas Lily’s is a little more free flowing, you could say?”
Lily: “There are a lot of differences between us personally, but musically we’re just kind of getting started on developing our separate skills.”
You wrote much of this album’s material separately. What process did you employ when you finally came together to finish these songs you developed you created individually?
Lily: “That’s not much of a process, really. When Madeleine and I write separately, usually it’s not a full song – it’s a one-minute clip or like three-fourths of a song. And then before we get to the studio, we’ve always gotten together and played through every song and tweaked them together so that we don’t do that in the studio and we don’t waste our money and our studio time putting the songs together, you know? We just kind of sit down together and play through songs. But then we have to kind of think about what direction we go in with each song – like, if we want to do more of a rock song or more like a piano ballad. There are a lot of different kinds of songs on Keep it Together, which was really fun to do because we got to experiment with all these different sounds and subtle genre changes. So that requires a bit more effort and more conversation. But as far as the writing goes, the revising process at the end of each song is pretty easy.”
Keep It Together is a bit of a sonic leap from your two previous studio records. You worked closely with two other artists, Shannon Hayden and Kate Siefker, to arrange and orchestrate this set of songs. Since you were making a change and bringing other people into your creative space, were there aspects of your songs you were motivated to protect?
Lily: “I feel like, for me, I want the sentiment of the song to remain the same. So if there’s a song we have that’s on its way to becoming a pop ballad, I still want to keep it…I still want to keep the subject matter personal to me, and not erase all of its originality in the process of trying to make it more catchy – if you know what I mean? As far as instrumentation goes, I feel like I’m pretty open to anything in the studio.”
I was reading through your website, and your biography had a quote from you, Lily, that said you wanted “write about the experience of being a white woman in America and a college age kid in the 21st century.” What does that look like from your perspective as a writer?
Lily: “In that statement, I kind of just meant that I don’t want to speak for anybody other than myself. I don’t want to overshadow anybody else’s voice. Madeleine and I are both feminists, but I think a lot of feminism is focused on privileged white women. And so I just don’t want anyone to think I’m speaking for them – I definitely want to speak on behalf of everyone who can relate to me – I think that’s cool. But I don’t want to take anybody’s story away from them, if that makes any sense.”
Are there other messages or imperatives you believe are critical for you to communicate – or for your audience to hear – through your music?
Madeleine: “I think that feminism is the central, core value that Lily and I have as humans – and also as creative artists. I think that music is an awesome way to express a lot of political views. It cracks me up…it makes me angry, but I also have to laugh at all these people on Twitter and what not who are bashing celebrities for being so political. It’s like, ‘stay in your lane! Get back to music-making, which is what you’re good and and what you do! You’re not a politician! What are you saying?!’ We’re all humans and, literally, everything is political. Music is so political by nature, I think. It’s a tool to draw people together for a common goal with a common message. I’m not afraid to express our feelings and be even more political going forward. I just want people to feel like they belong. I want our music to make people feel like they have…I don’t know…I want to inspire people. I know that seems kind of silly – I don’t know who I inspire, but I hope we inspire with our music. I just want to give people a chance to feel like they belong.”
This question is not to detract from your originality as musicians, because I think that’s so evident in your material. But are there other artists that you look up to or that have perhaps shaped your point of view in the industry?
Madeleine: “Just in general, I really love female musicians because I’m a girl myself and I really look up to them. I’ve been listening so much to St. Vincent lately – Annie Clark – who is so cool. Her music is so beautiful but also really strange, and I feel like she’s not afraid to be weird, which is really cool. And another person who just stepped back into the spotlight, so to say…I don’t know, I feel like that’s kind of a stretch…but Lady Gaga when she performed at the Super Bowl halftime show. I feel like her subtle political message was super cool…but also she’s just such a badass, and I love that she’s not afraid to make all these career changes. Her image has changed so much in the past five or ten years – she’s just really good at what she does, and she doesn’t apologize for speaking her mind and also being kind of out there. She’s really inspiring and really talented.”
And now you’re on the road coming face-to-face with your audience that has really supported this new album – and your previous efforts. Are you learning anything new on this particular outing?
Madeleine: “One thing that’s kind of cool and interesting is that people keep asking us when there will be new music out and when we’ll go back into the studio. Because Lily and I have put out three records and an EP in the past three years, which is so much material. And we’ve finally taken a step back to focus on touring and writing. We have plans to get back into the studio at some point soon, but they’re not concrete at the moment. But everybody keeps asking, so it’s really cool that people want new music and they want us to change our sound up and evolve even more. So as we meet new people everywhere go, they’re like ‘I love your old stuff, but when is there new stuff coming out?’ So it’s really reassuring and it feels good.”
Lily & Madeleine will appear at Rumba Café, 2507 Summit Street in SoHud on Thursday, February 23 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $12.00 (under 21 attendees pay an additional $2.00 cover) and are general admission – available for purchase via TicketWeb.