Til Kingdom Come

Morrissey won’t be pleased. I’m flanked by twins Ellie and Louise in the Central Hotel’s Library Bar and they’re recounting tales of their ubiquity. They seem particularly excited when I mention a certain Royal Wedding. The reason? ‘Forget Me Knots’, the lead single from the girls’ new release, Kingdom, recently cropped up in the opening of a first anniversary television tribute to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s (Wills and K-Mid to me).

“It was hilarious. We were over in England the summer of the wedding,” Ellie begins, though their voices will intermingle frequently, with one finishing the other’s lines or occasionally arriving together on a word for emphasis. “We decided to go and ‘experience’ it, as in, stand along the side of the road and watch the cars go by! So, for one of our songs to be in the one-year anniversary programme as the lead song, was surreal. Television is a strange thing to be on. It’s always nice to hear your song on TV.”
A sentiment, I’m sure, that not a lot of us can relate to. But it’s a feeling that Heathers became acclimatised to from an early age. You will know the story by now. The pair started the band at 17 and wrote songs in between studying for their Leaving Cert. Their debut Here, Not There and, more specifically, the placement of ‘Remember When’ in a Fáilte Ireland ad put them on course for teenage stardom.
I asked them if they get tired of hacks constantly bringing up ‘the hit’. It is, of course, my ingeniously stealthy way of asking them about ‘the hit’. They glance sideways at each other and laugh in unison. “Well I don’t think we’re sick of the song,” notes Louise. “It’s been a great opportunity. It really put us out there and got our music out. A lot of people know us from ‘Remember When’ now.”
The extensive exposure brought album re-releases and gig offers, all during a period when the girls should have been nicking traffic cones on college nights out. They continued writing, continued studying, and their ‘what we did on our summer holidays’ stories heavily featured Europe and the US.
They’re eager to get back to America. This time they might even perform in some actual music venues.
“We stayed in a lot of strange houses,” grins Louise. “We played under bridges, someone’s kitchen, rooftops. A lot of grungey, grimey basements. We were actually going to play on a Native American Reservation, but that fell through. In the desert as well.” Did they get much of an audience for that one or was the crowd a little... sparse? “Ha, yeah, just the two of us standing there with a load of cactuses and scorpions!” Ellie interjects. “The gigs that we were playing were really underground, lots of DIY stuff. Every little town we were in, in the back-arse of nowhere, had tonnes of people coming to see the gig. Certain places – like the desert! – we won’t do again. Or that guy who had 20 cats in his house! That was in Las Vegas and was really strange...”
Back home, Ellie, a music technology student, graduated last year whilst her sister, itching to see where Heathers could go with full-time attention, has put her plans to qualify as a primary school teacher on ice. “I took a year out this year and I’m taking another now. I still have a year or two to go college-wise.
“From the start of Heathers we’ve either been in school and doing it at the same time, or been in college and doing it at the same time. So it’s really strange now to just be doing Heathers. It’s nice but it’s a lot more pressure than it was when you had something else to focus your energy on.”
Energy duly channeled into cooking up another set of songs, the twins naturally found their creative horizons broadened, their subject matter more seasoned than on the wide-eyed tunes that introduced them at 17. “We’re 22 now,” says Ellie. “So our songwriting has matured a little bit. We’ve been listening to new things. Our voices have matured as well so it probably doesn’t sound as... squeaky! “
Now a fully-fledged band, they bring two musicians on the road with them. “It’s still taking time to get used to because we don’t just have to focus on our vocals. But there’s so much more energy when the guys are playing with us. There’s a different atmosphere that comes with a full band sound.”
Musical progress is apparent in every bar of Kingdom, an album that takes their harmonising over a strident six string’ template and adds fresh layers. There are shifts in tone and tempo, intriguing textures. It all amounts to a clever side-stepping of the ‘difficult second album’ cliché. The twins clearly benefit from their trip to London last Christmas to work with German producer Max Dingel.
“We were really worried about it,” says Louise, “because it’s only ever really been us. So going over to work with a producer and other musicians was really huge. Thankfully, we got on well with everyone and it was so comfortable.” Ellie nods. “Plus, it wasn’t necessarily the type of thing where Max had complete control over everything and told us what to do,” she adds. “It was a collaborative thing between all of us. It was really nice to work in a professional studio. I mean, we recorded the debut in our friend’s bedroom in Kilcoole!”
The Dublin sisters documented the process with a series of vlogs. It was somewhat disappointing for fans of rock’n’roll mayhem that later installments failed to feature Gallagher-esque sibling fighting and crisis band-meetings. Family bands can often be recipes for disasters but Ellie and Louise seem particularly close. “Obviously there were times where it was difficult and we were tired,” admits Ellie. “But we always had each other there for support, which was great.” Her sister continues. “It was also our first time living away from home on our own. In a different country as well. But it worked really well.”
Sometimes a little too well. By ‘Week 3’, there was a worrying amount of Cher action, as Ellie mimed along to 1999 globe-conquering single ‘Believe’. In fairness, it did foreshadow the whole Auto-Tune craze. Heathers collapse in their chairs, either in hysterics or sheer embarrassment.
They’ve clearly a soft spot for ‘90s pop – apparently their Olympics highlight was The Spice Girls reunion!
Louise turns to her sister. “It’s so funny, when you were younger, if someone asked, ‘Ellie, what do you want to be when you grow up?’, you’d go, ‘I wanna be Geri Halliwell’!”
Did she ever dye her hair to match Ginger Spice? Ellie stands firm. “No, no, no!” Talk quickly turns to how much they enjoyed the Olympics in general. “We’ve even taken up boxing! I’m not joking! It’s great for getting out the tension.”
Who do they fight? “EACH OTHER!” Could come in handy for album number three.
Before that, they’ve other projects to work on. Superstar DJ David Guetta has enlisted their writing services for his new record. I quiz the pair about it. “That’s what we’ve been doing the past couple of weeks,” says Louise. “We’ve been writing, writing, writing. It doesn’t guarantee anything but it’s an amazing opportunity.” How did it all come about? “His people heard ‘Forget Me Knots’ and they really liked it, so they got in touch.” A case of his people contacting their people? Girls, you’ve changed. The pair share a look and roar with laughter. “Well, it wasn’t necesarily David Guetta himself!” But it’s true, they have changed. They’ve progressed. And they’re all the better for it.

Kingdom is out now.