Twin sisters from P.E.I. continuing family's musical legacy
Haywire keyboardist and Islander David Rashed's musical career helped give birth to a musical duo — literally.
His twin daughters, Ava and Lily, are only in junior high, but the 13-year-old girls are already performing songs and writing their own material.
During a recent fundraiser at The Guild in Charlottetown, the duo performed Taylor Swift's All Too Well and then their own song, OK With That.
Ava plays piano and guitar, while Lily plays fiddle and guitar. They both sing.
Great-grandfather was Charlie Chamberlain
Lily told CBC's Island Morning they grew up with music. Not only is Rashed their father, their great grandfather was Charlie Chamberlain, a featured entertainer on Don Messer's Jubilee and a member of the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.
"So it's always been a big part of our lives," she said.
Ava said their grandmother recorded a few videos of them singing together at age 2, and they started performing at 10.
Coping with junior high
OK With That is about mixed messages, Lily said.
"For us, being in junior high we're experiencing a lot of that," Lily said. "So it's about this boy who sends you all these mixed messages and songwriting is how we kind of cope with it."
The duo wrote OK With That in their bedroom in the summer and performed at it at The Guild at the urging of their mother, Sue.
Ava said she was reticent to perform the song because it was so personal, but came around to the idea.
Their father helps them with instrumentation and stage presentation.
Both parents are very supportive, they said.
'It helps to have a twin sister so close'
The twin's next goal is putting out an album, and they're both happy to have someone they can count on to see it through: each other.
Sometimes they split up ideas between chorus and verse, other times they jam over a guitar.
"During the songwriting process it helps to have a twin sister so close who has similar experiences that we can put into our songs," Lily said.
"I'm glad to have a twin sister that loves music as much as I do," Ava said.
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