The last time I saw the Watson Twins, they were playing on Letterman with former Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis promoting their album, Rabbit Fur Coat. Identical twins Chandra and Leigh Watson were dressed in matching floor-length gowns that wouldn’t have been out of place on the Lawrence Welk Show. Though they are both nearly six feet tall, the girls faded into each other—and the background—as the petite chanteuse Lewis crooned “Run Devil Run.”
Their days of fading into the background are numbered, however. The Twins have released a full-length album of their own, Fire Songs, and are touring with Ben Kweller later this month. When I spoke with Chandra by phone, she and her sister, along with the rest of her band, had just arrived in Tuscon, Arizona, where they kicked off a headlining tour on Friday the 13th.
“We’re hoping it isn’t a bad sign,” Chandra said, laughing.
With a folksy, down-home flavor, the Watson Twins have more in common with Dolly Parton than the Postal Service—yet their association with Lewis has helped them win over more indie obsessives than traditional country music fans. This situation has made defining their music a rather tricky endeavor.
“We get placed in a lot of different categories,” Chandra said. “If we were playing this type of music 10 years ago, we would have been Americana or country, but indie is such a broad category. I think it’s really more about a cultural movement. We’re a country band with a bigger indie following.”
The twins’ raspy voices and slow acoustic strums give their music a southern tinge—hardly surprising for two girls who hail from the “Bluegrass State” of Kentucky, where the Watson girls got their start singing in a choir. After studying theater at the University of Evansville, Chandra, Leigh, and a few of their friends moved to California in 1997.
“It was like, hey, our roommate’s moving out next month, if you guys want to move in. I already had about 30 friends out there,” Chandra explained.
Her spontaneity paid off. While in California, the twins began writing and performing their own music and became backup singers for local band Slydell.
Chandra is quick to point out that it hasn’t been a cakewalk; day jobs were always a part of the deal. According to Chandra, part of the Watson Twin’s success was having “really great bosses who said, ‘You know, go do it, this your dream. Your job will be here when you get back.’”
Their sacrifice started to pay dividends in 2006, which saw the release of both Southern Manners, the group’s debut EP, and Rabbit Fur Coat, their collaboration with Jenny Lewis. Their most recent album is being promoted in a multi-city tour alongside Ben Kweller—“a perfect match,” according to Chandra.
Now that the tour is underway, the Twins face an even bigger task: fighting the boredom induced by cross-country road trips. As always, spontaneity is key.
“We’re the kind of band that will pull off the road and have an adventure,” Chandra said. “Yesterday, we were driving from LA. It’s an 8-hour drive, and there’s this place that makes these really great date shakes, and we’re like, hey, let’s go!”
Catch the Watson Twins as they open for Ben Kweller tonight at the 9:30 Club.
