March 7, 2024 / By: Josh Kitchen
Ian Jones and Jane Fitzsimmons of the indie-rock duo Twen are proof that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Self-described as a “Nomadic American Rock Band”, Twen live in a decked-out van on the road and are in charge of every part of production of their music, from recording, mixing, making the music-videos, and even pressing the records themselves. I spoke with Ian about what it means to be a Nomadic band touring America, and how the pandemic forced us all to grow the fuck up.
Tell me about Twen. How did you and Jane get together?
Ian
We met in Boston around 2012 when we were in school. We didn’t start the band until around 2016 when the bands we were both in broke up. After that we moved to Nashville and did about 18 months there until we started touring full time. From then we became sort of nomadic between tours, living full-time on the road, house-sitting, dog-sitting, and things like that. We got signed by French Kiss Records who put out our first record – Awestruck in 2019. From then, the pandemic hit, so we didn’t get to tour it too much. Post-pandemic, we started independently releasing our music. First and foremost – that was one-stop shop. We converted our van during lockdown, and we’ve lived out of it since then. We’re about to put out our third record. We have a rotating lineup of rhythm section touring members, and Jane and I write the songs, make the records, produce them, mix them, press them all by ourselves.
Can you talk to me more about being a "Nomadic American Rock Band?"
Ian
We identified pretty early on that if we wanted to do music exclusively, we’d have to cut our overhead and downsize our expenses. If you’re not paying rent or utilities, you need less money to survive. A lot of bands have to work in coffee shops or work on the side. Our main thing since the pandemic have been merch sales, selling our records, and royalties from them. This morning I woke up next to some 18-wheelers at a truck stop – we’re making it work and we live the lifestyle. Our life is the art. Our nomadic lifestyle is as much as part of the project as the music itself. This is the shit that is very real to us and it informs what we’re doing and how we view the world.
I have to imagine that makes your art better.
I know that it affects it, I don’t know if it makes it better, necessarily. The whole thing of being this in this van band is that we built it all from scratch. We did all the carpentry, the plumbing, the propane, the insolation of the vehicle, the solar paneling, we learned how to build all that shit from YouTube. Our entire band isn’t just about making music its about living this lifestyle and doing it ourselves – booking the tours, making the music videos, and because we cut our overhead, we are allowed to focus on those skills and that art. Our fingerprints are on everything. We try not to fuck around too much. To borrow a phrase, “what it says on the tin, you know?
You guys met and started in Boston. Are you from there?
I am, and Jane is from St. Louis. You asked about how we started, and it’s strange because what we were doing before the pandemic feels like a completely different project than the one we’re in now, except that we kept the name Twen. It almost feels disingenuous for me to tell you that we formed in 2016 in Boston and moved to Nashville because we didn’t know what the fuck we were doing then, and after the pandemic we really grew up and got our shit together and carved out a path for ourselves. In many ways, post-pandemic feels like the inception of the project.
I think a lot of people can relate to growing the fuck up during this time in history.
Ian
Hopefully this is a fair enough disclaimer that there's been kind of been two chapters to our band and one is pre-pandemic and one is post. We seem to have arrived in this chapter in a much better place than where we started.
You guys are extremely good at writing catchy, infections ear worms. A song like “Automation” is a classic. Talk to me about your writing process.
Ian
Jane is carrying the weight of the catchiness. Jane will sing in the shower, she writes hooks, she'll come up with lyrical concepts. Jane doesn't play any instruments, but she can tell me this is the bass line, this is a guitar line, and she’ll just sing it to me. Jane is so fucking plugged in – she can dictate to other musicians and has a great sense of time. My role is helping her bounce lyrics off, or suggesting alternate lyrics or double checking to make sure something is the best that it can be. Sometimes, I have entire chord structures and guitar riffs, and then she'll add right on top of it. We each start songs, and then the other will finish it. I play all the instruments.
A song like “Automation” – Jane was just singing the lyrics to me. I kind of traced her melody, and kind of fleshed it out. That’s how it happens most of the time.
Can you tell me a little bit about the next record?
We’ve relocated to Florida. Since we’ve been in the van, we come down here in the winter. A lot of the album is influenced by southern California early aughts stuff like Sugar Ray and Smash Mouth, that sort of fun in the sun, beachy Y2K aesthetic. Like “SeaStar”, our latest single, I think people will hear late 90’s and early aughts pop-rock influences. It’s more of that, but an eclectic thing with a lot of great hooks and just really good songs. I’d like to think that people would hear our melodies and hooks and think that they stand out in a musical culture that is pretty non-melodic and non-catchy - in a traditional sense.
Right, this sounds insane, but I feel like we’re at a point in pop music where a band like The Beatles are actually underrated when it comes to how pop songs are written.
Ian
A good way to think about it is if you take a song at its essence, strip it down to an acoustic guitar, a vocal or a piano, what needs to be there for me, is a melodic structure that is beautiful and contoured. It needs to take you to different places, and develop, unfold, and bloom. Likewise, you want harmony under that and a chord structure that surprises you. If you have those two things, you could play that song as bossa nova, a string quartet, as jazz or big band. I think if you go through and listen to our records, our songs hold up in that way. In addition to, that you need a fresh and interesting lyric and perspective.
What’s a concert or show you saw recently that impacted you?
The first one that pops in my head that we saw a month or two ago, was a band called Cardiel. I believe they're from Venezuela. They moved to Mexico City. And now they're in Orlando. We saw them at Kona Skate Park in Jacksonville and they’re so fucking heavy. They’ll go from heavy metal grind-core sort of shit to like ska and reggae beats, and then back again. They blew me the fuck away. Jane and I both looked at each other, like, holy shit, this one of the best bands we’ve seen in a long time.
When do you see the new album coming out?
Ian
This year, I’m thinking summer. We’ve got some songs written right now, the rest are written, and we just need to record them. We’re doing a full 40 date U.S and 20 date European tour later this year. We’ll be in LA in August.
Follow Twen on all platforms here: https://linktr.ee/twenband
Watch the video for SeaStar below:
nice!