Heartcore Hunks

Sometimes things are just meant to be. Formed a couple of years back in an Adelaide share house, Peak Twins are comprised of two friends – Liam Kenny (guitar/vocals) and Joel Carey (vocals/percussion) – who one night indulged in a late-night, drunken jam (as friends are wont to do). But when they studied the results of these sessions in the cold light of day they realised that they were onto something – there was something intangible about the ad hoc recordings which made them worth pursuing.

In due course they put a band together, moved to Melbourne (without that band) and have since become an important player in the thriving Melbourne (and Australian) indie scene, already putting out a split-12” with the vaunted Scott & Charlene's Wedding, as well as recording a handful of other material which is available online. This week Peak Twins hit Brisbane for the first time as part of the Open Frame Festival's Bachelor Kisses extravaganza, which is pretty exciting for locals given that they don't even manage to play that many shows down south.

“Peak Twins started in Keswick, Adelaide a couple of years ago,” Kenny offers. “At the outset it was just me and Joel, but now we have a band so we can perform the songs live (although when we record it's still just the Twins). We don't really [play live] very often. Our band lives in Adelaide and we live in Melbourne so it's not easy financially and not easy to be bothered. When we play a show it's a special occasion which is a good thing. We're not very 'hard working' or whatever but that's okay.”

The sparse, blissed-out music of Twin Peaks (which they themselves have branded 'hunk rock') uses the barest of instrumentation and relatively simple vocal interplay, but has already been making some big waves on the local and international stage. They cover the usual tropes of indie singer-songwriters (“the only topic is sadness”, according to Kenny) but their inspiration comes from some slightly unusual locales.

“I wouldn't use the word sparse to describe our material,” he muses. “I suppose it could be sparse accidentally. That's okay. I can't speak for Joel but I'm inspired by anyone who puts melodrama and self-pity at the front of the song – I'm thinking of people such as Roy Orbison, Yoko Ono, Matt Kennedy, Roberta Stewart, even Joel himself.”

Peak Twins are surrounded by friends and cohorts from bands such as Twerps, Dick Diver, Bitch Prefect, Boomgates and Pageants (to literally name but a few), yet they're unsure of whether this constitutes “being part of a scene” as such.

“I guess so,” Kenny reflects. “I mean the personnel in these bands is in some cases our closest friends, in some cases acquaintances. You don't want to overlook individuality but the short answer is 'yes', I guess we're in a scene.”

In the short term Peak Twins are looking forward to their first Brisbane visit, but after that they're looking forward to laying down some more music.

“Yes, absolutely – it is going to be a pleasure,” Kenny enthuses of the impending trip north. “We have good friends in Brisbane and are very much looking forward to playing with Rule Of Thirds, who we're fans of. Following that I guess we'll record soon with our housemate and friend Jack Farley, who's a very good sound engineer and producer. These next recordings will be our best so far. I guess we'll record the three or four songs we have in our heads and hopefully think of some others too and release them. It would also be nice to play in Sydney over the summer, that's something we as Peak Twins have not yet done.”