Interview: Nervo

Olivia and Miriam Nervo are two rare and extraordinary people. Aside from being identical twins they possess a rather brilliant gift: they’re ace at writing epic pop tunes. ‘When Love Takes Over’ by Kelly Rowland, ‘Put Your Hands Up’ by Kylie Minogue, ‘Boots and Boys’ by Ke$ha – all written by these talented twins. And who says (former) models are just pretty faces? On top of writing material for other artists they like having the occasional crack at performing themselves (they’re currently supporting Britney Spears on tour) and are on the hunt for new talent to nurture. One wonders when they get to sleep among it all – perhaps they work in shifts? We thought we’d try and find out.

SSG: Were you always both musical or was one of you originally more into it than the other?

Nervo: Both us us have always been musical. Luckily, Mum and Dad had us playing piano from a very young age, so that helped us get a kick-start, but we always loved to sing and make up songs! We’ve been doing that for as long as I can remember. We’re just so thrilled to be doing this as a career. We still pinch ourselves at how lucky we are!

You first rose to fame through modeling. Do you ever feel tempted to go back to the fashion world?

Rose to fame?! Wow – that’s kind but not sure it’s true! We stumbled into modeling when we were 16 after a photographer submitted a family portrait to a modeling agency in Melbourne. We love fashion and yes, would love to get more involved. We’ve always styled our own photo shoots and we love shopping, so we’re looking forward to dressing up some more.

Did you ever expect ‘When Love Takes Over’ – your first global music breakthrough - to be the epic smash that it was?

We always hoped it would connect with people but never knew that it would go on to be so big – in both the club and pop worlds! The best thing is seeing people’s reaction when we play it at our gigs, as it seems to evoke a real sense of happiness  and love. We’ll never get sick of seeing that!

Tell us a bit about your Virgin/EMI deal that allows you to release new artist you discover and produce. Who should we keep our eyes peeled for in the coming months?

We have come from a writing and producing background and have always loved collaborating with other artists, so the imprint that EMI offered us was the perfect opportunity to keep doing that. We also signed a record deal ourselves (to Astralwerks), so have spent the last year developing our own artist project where, instead of getting other singers, we will be doing most of the vocals. It has been a really inspiring year and we think we’ve developed something that we’re ready to release – wahoo! We’re still looking for other artists to sign to our imprint but at this stage we’ve been mainly focusing on our own material. Actually, come to think of it, there are a few indie electronic things we are looking at bringing to NERVO Records, so we’ll let you know the second the deals are closed.

What do you think about the current Australian pop music scene?

Absolutely spellbinding! We especially love bands like Miami Horror and Bag Raiders! We played with them while we were home for Summerfield Dayze. There’s a lot of great DJs and producers in Oz too. The indie-electro bands coming out of Oz are phenomenal!

You’re known for writing and producing, any chance of solo material releases anytime soon?

Yes – we’re working on it right now. We think the label are happy with the first single so hopefully we’ll have something out by the end of European summer.

Can you see yourselves recording any other genres of music aside from dance and pop?

Yeah, sure! We’d love to collaborate with some more indie bands. The rawness of their music is awesome.

What was it like working with Kylie and Sophie Ellis-Bextor?

Kylie was an absolute sweetheart! She’s so personable and professional all at the same time. We’ve followed her career our whole lives so it was a definite ‘pinch yourself’ moment hearing her record our song. We love her! Sophie was also really lovely. We’re still in (sporadic) touch with her and just heard that she’s accepted another one of our songs for her current album for a bonus track. Happy days!

You’re an opening act for some of Britney Spears’ Femme Fatale tour – are you excited?

Super excited! It is definitely going to be a highlight of 2011. We’ve done tours that are more club-focused but we have never done an arena tour before. We love America too, so it’s always fun getting to discover these random towns that you wouldn’t normally go to.

Finally, as twins, has either of you deliberately impersonated the other or stolen an idea telekenetically?

Miriam: Ha ! We get asked this a lot!  Sorry to disappoint but nope, we’re yet to have a pure telepathic moment. We obviously know each other extremely well so can often tell if something is worrying one of us, and I guess we’re similar people so we do find that we often crave the same foods or want to see the same films, but I think you get that when you have a similar DNA make-up. Right?

Olivia: Oh, actually, there was this one time when we were 16 we tried to play a trick on our boyfriends but couldn’t go through with it because I didn’t want to kiss Mim’s guy!  The boyfriends were best friends, so it would have been weird for them too, I think !

‘Irresistable’ by Nervo feat. Ollie James is available to download. Nervo are currently supporting Britney Spears on US dates of the Femme Fatale tour.  For more information visit their website and follow the girls on Twitter.