MAEVE & QUINN – “I AM HER”
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE MUSIC PREMIERE
Maeve & Quinn is the duo of Alaskan twin sister songwriters and instrumentalists Maris and Bryce O’Tierney. maeve & quinn’s sound is imaginative and skillfully rendered across the many instruments they play (guitar, violin, piano, voice) and distinctive in its genre-bending fusion of alt rock, folk, and pop that’s accentuated by blood harmonies and dynamic interplay. The open, majestic landscape of an Alaskan upbringing can be felt in maeve & quinn’s music and performances. Their lifelong friendship as twin sisters makes for a unique collaboration and songs that are an intimate conversation, multi-layered in perspective and fluid between past and present.
Maeve & Quinn formed in 2016. The duo’s rigorous training and performance in classical music set their foundation, launching a decorated trajectory that began in Anchorage, Alaska, and continued through their earning of performance degrees at Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music, outside Chicago. Avid musical improvisers, the duo in their early days were influenced by the genre cross-pollination of Chicago’s music scene. They also had a formative songwriting period together in Dublin, Ireland, where Bryce was a poetry master’s student at Trinity College and both sisters were immersed in the storytelling culture of the local Irish community.
Maeve & Quinn’s catalog includes the EPs Something Overhead, Something Overhead (2018), and Star-Crossed (2021), the latter a Bandcamp New & Notable release. The duo’s forthcoming release, Another Door, is their first LP.
Maeve & Quinn are interdisciplinary artists who place their original songwriting, poetry in recitation, and instrumental music in conversation with other art forms. The sisters’ unique collaboration connects with audiences in various settings. In Chicago, they have created performance programs with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Poetry Foundation, and Steppenwolf Theatre, engaging themes of family lineage, climate change, mental health, and womanhood. The duo has premiered their symphonic works with the Chicago Composers Orchestra and Anchorage Symphony Orchestra. Music video collaborations include with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
“I Am Her” is the second single from Maeve & Quinn’s LP Another Door. The lyrics speak with a vulnerable directness, supported by the Alaskan twin sisters’ steadfast piano and rhythm-guitar accompaniment. “I Am Her” charts a search for oneself in the mirror when depression distorts the view: “what did you say your name was?/ you look a lot like someone I used to know…you look a lot like me.” As the experience continues, Maeve & Quinn’s cleverly-written lyrics accentuate the cognitive dissonance inherent to this moment of self-doubt by switching the perspective. The authentic vocal performance and the brilliantly mixed instrumental layers build alongside each other and work in tandem to synchronously mirror the track’s powerful mental and musical journey. Propelled by driving drums and bass, the track grooves toward a self-affirming closure – to recognize and ultimately embrace oneself, across the highs and lows.
Maeve & Quinn’s first full-length album, Another Door, is an affirmation of possibilities, especially when the future feels unclear. Anchored in the blood harmonies, lyrical melodies, and dynamic interplay of multi-instrumentalists Maris and Bryce O’Tierney (classically trained on guitar, voice, violin, piano), the album is an intimate conversation between lifelong friends – something these Alaskan twin sisters know well. Written and recorded in Chicago during the height of the pandemic, Another Door is an imaginative and genre-bending collection of alt rock-pop-folk songs that occupies its own singular sound.
The album has a cumulative effect – each song builds its own landscape, and the throughline is a feeling of openness evocative of the sisters’ upbringing in the mountainous environment of Alaska. The free, live quality of improvisation also makes its way into maeve & quinn’s songwriting, an extension of the duo’s relationship as twin sisters – their songs are fluid in memory between past and present, layered in perspective. Chicago stand-outs Matt Ulery (bass) and Quin Kirchner (drums) provide a dynamic rhythm section that elevates the arc of the album, which was recorded and mixed by Nick Broste, and mastered by Justin Perkins.
There’s a sense of inquiry, revealing, and ultimately self-embrace throughout the album. The more you listen to the LP, the more layers you’ll hear. Another Door bridges the closest distance to the farthest, as the sisters, very much in sync, move between inner and outer emotional spaces. maeve & quinn are confidently carving their own path – knowing something new is needed, and reaching forward.
Maeve & Quinn
[Single]
(Independent)
Release Date: June 23, 2023
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