Hometown: Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong

Homebase: London, UK

What's the story behind your name?

Our name has many stories and some of them are true. Today I will tell you that Xylaroo is inspired by a puppet made by the great animator and artist Maddi Duncan.

If you were to creatively describe your sound, how would you?

If I were to describe our sound creatively I would say it sounds like a drop of sugar in the bitter ocean, it's like sweet and sour chicken or sugar and spice. We like to use sweet sounding melodies and harmonies to contradict our darker lyrics. We also have a simple sound, especially when we do our stripped down acoustic sets.

Where do you draw inspiration from?

We take inspiration from a blend of genres and styles and from our experiences in our day to day lives, in our upbringing and our travels and in the relationships we hold dear. Some of the bands and musicians which have been big inspirations to us musically and lyrically are Rilo Kiley, Elliot Smith, Fleetwood Mac, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone.

What's your song-writing process like?

Some of our songs come from a direct experience. One called “Langstrasse (Long Street),” is about a car crash I witnessed. Well, I didn’t see the crash, but I witnessed the aftermath which bears some resemblance to what happened in London the other day. A man had been drinking and drove his car into a bar in the busy red-light district of Zurich Switzerland. He hit four people, one died on impact and I think the driver died too. I held one of the victims hands as he bled onto the sidewalk in the snow. I ended up walking home with blood all over me. I eventually wrote a song about it, which came quite naturally as it was about something real that has always stuck with me.

We also write stories that are half imagination, half truth and always cathartic, for us at least and hopefully the listener. Usually we have a few beers and write about whatever we're interested in at the time, which for me personally is usually some conspiracy theory, something i’ve read about or something that has happened in the news.

What have been some of your most memorable moments in the recent past since your album came out?

Major memorable moments has to be playing in arenas supporting Mika on his European tour last summer. We have never played such big crowds and we may never again. It was good while it lasted though haha. Having our songs played on the radio was pretty spectacular too and generally since it came out finding out that people actually want to listen to it and like it.

How would you describe each other personality-wise?

Coco would say that I’m kooky and she says that’s putting it nicely. I’m not sure I agree. I think Coco is outspoken and should think before she speaks. She’s not sure she agrees. Generally we’re both pretty chilled out and because we’re sisters we have lot in common, and I guess we’re stuck with each other. We’re beach, beer and barbecue kinds of people.

The two of you have lived across the globe in many locales. What locations would you most like your music to take you? 

I think America is where we’d want our music to take us because we grew up on American music. We like American music as the Violent Femme song goes… not so much the politics. I’d also love our music to take off in Hong Kong cause we grew up there or Japan, just 'cause. A place that makes me curious and filled with wonder is Papua New Guinea, where our mother is from, because there is still so much of it that I haven’t seen, so much of the place left to explore. For Coco, a place that attracts her curiosity is South America because it looks like it's full of beautiful places and musically there would be so much to learn.

What's it like being a musician living in London right now?

Being a musician in London is great, but living in London is hard. Worrying about money is a London pastime. We both work waiting tables and pouring drinks on the side, and we're not quitting our day/night job anytime soon. Yet, musically theres so much going on, so much opportunity and cool bands and artists around, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I think our government could do more to help those with low incomes in this country though, as they continue to pander to the rich at the expense of the rest of us. There’s always hope though, and the times they are a changing.

You recently had a song featured on Gap Year. What's the experience and reaction been like? Has their been any vital music/artists you've discovered from a sync?

Yeah, having the song featured is awesome. We’ve had some people who already know us mention that they heard us on TV, which was pretty cool, and I think someone even shazaam-ed us and bought the album straight away. I have discovered so many artists and songs from sync. I used to watch a show called Cold Case, which was about reviving old and dying police cases. Each episode featured music from the year it was set in. Great soundtrack I used to check out all the music on that show still do that with TV shows today. We just watched 13 Reasons Why and really fell in love with the soundtrack, which features “Thirteen” by Elliot Smith. Will definitely be buying that soundtrack.

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