Brother and sister duo Twelve Ballet from Cairns, in far north Queensland are like two peas in a pod.
Ben and Sam Hope created their debut album during one of the hardest years of their lives, following the passing of their father. The pair say that creating the album hello, how are you? around that time was a cathartic experience. “It was definitely a coping mechanism, just to get all the feelings out in that way,” Sam says.
“It was a way to pick ourselves back up again,” Ben adds. “So even though it’s a sad subject, we tried to capture the essence of how we remembered our dad.”
The theme of asking the listener “Hello, how are you?” permeates throughout all the songs, but the album can really be split into two sides ,like a vinyl record. “The first side’s about ‘how are you?’, trying to explain this is how I’m feeling,” Sam explains. “Then side b is a self exploration of how to deal with that feeling.”
With this record, Twelve Ballet wanted to keep things simple with stripped back production to give the listener the feeling that they are there in the room with the band and the band is talking directly to them. “We wanted to make it feel like we’re asking the listeners how they’re doing and trying to relate with whatever’s going on in their lives as well,” Ben says.
The band also took their musical style in a new direction with this album, with Sam’s vocals opening up a lot more. She used to sing in a high-pitched folk-type vocal style, but one day when sitting down at the piano during a recording session, she started singing blues vocals. They both thought it sounded great and decided to go with it.
For Twelve Ballet, being in a band as siblings is a different experience because apart from just being best friends, they can relate to each other and understand how they both are feeling. “There is a chemistry where we don’t really have to explain where we want the song to go, because we both come across the same direction straight away,” Ben says.
“Especially with this album, since we were both feeling the exact same feelings with Dad passing away,” Sam continues. “We were going through the same things, Ben would play something and I would already know how he’s feeling and what to write about. It definitely makes it like we’re on the same page.”
Keeping their dad a part of the album release, the album art is a picture that he drew when he was in high school. They are releasing it on limited edition vinyl – coloured with a black and white splatter effect. “The actual idea for having vinyl is because we grew up on it because Dad always had a massive record collection. We were always listening to records and then it got to the point where Ben and I, we both have our own collections, and the dream was to have one of our own records on vinyl,” Sam says.
Their hometown launch later this month is expected to be a cosy night, led by the theme of having a one-on-one conversation with the audience. “Even though it’ll be a crowd full of people, each person should be able to take away their own message,” Sam says.
The goal for the band following the album release is to let the record sit there for a while, play more gigs around town, and tour with it if people like it. “We really just want to be able to connect with people and be able to get our own style out there and grow the audience for it. It would be awesome to be playing alongside some of our favourite bands too,” Ben says.
