The idea of ‘singing twins’ oozes of a contrived marketing gimmick, however the buzz surrounding identical twin singing group Aaries has not dissipated since their subtle emergence in 1999. You might remember hearing fellow Philadelphian artist Musiq speaking highly of Ayana and Ayinke whenever he found the opportunity. Aaries’ vocals can be heard all over Musiq’s albums Aijuswanaseing, Juslisen, and Soulstar, and Ayana is the young lady featured in Musiq’s “Girl Next Door” video.
Famous affiliations aside, Aaries has yet to release any music – it would seem that they are relegated to the shadows of background vocals and feature spots. Please do not get it twisted, the young ladies are still grinding, and they still have music on the way that they can’t wait to share with the world.
The delightful duo took time recently to tell AllHipHop.com a little about the delays and new directions they are taking with their music.
AHHA: What happen to your album Always Remember? I heard about it more than a year ago?
Ayana: We basically finished that project, but as the music business goes everything isn’t written in stone.
AHHA: Has it been frustrating to sit on piece of work you feel so strongly about?
Ayinke: Yes, it has been frustrating, but there is a lesson to learn in this experience – we have learned to be patient. Our time will come and when it does we will be ready.
Ayana: Yeah, what doesn’t kill you will definitely make you stronger. It sounds like a cliché, but it’s true. I feel like good music is timeless, so there will always be place for our music.
AHHA: Have you recorded another album’s worth of material since then?
Ayana: Yes, that and more. We are still hungry and our camp is eager to see us succeed, therefore the creativity never stops.
Ayinke: We are always recording. We are so hard on ourselves; we only accept the best from ourselves. The songs are awesome and I am excited about the new material.
AHHA: Is the album still scheduled to be released on Atlantic? If not, why the change?
Ayinke: No, the album is not scheduled to be on Atlantic. I don’t know what it is with Atlantic and female artists – look at Lil Kim, Brandy, and Sunshine Anderson. It seems as if they don’t know what to do with female artists. We decided to leave Atlantic; we felt they did not have a clear directive. Atlantic is an awesome company, it just wasn’t for us.
Ayana: Change is never a bad thing.
AHHA: When can we expect to hear the first single?
Ayana: We don’t have a set date, but we are constantly doing side gigs with other artists.
Ayinke: Hopefully you can hear something in the summer 2005. We are weighing our options and staying patient.
AHHA: Are their any songs that you sing individually on the upcoming album?
Ayana: Yes, we do have some separate songs as well. It gives us a chance to express our individual style. For example, my sister and I always buy the same exact thing when we go shopping, but we’ll rock the same shirt in two different ways. The same goes with our music, we rock it differently, so it gives us a chance to showcase our individual approach.
AHHA: What do you say to people who may look at the singing sister thing as merely a gimmick?
Ayinke: Nothing! If it was a gimmick why would we work so hard?
Ayana: I tell them to talk to my mom and tell her that having twins was a gimmick. Nah, I really haven’t heard that before. I think it’s silly if people say that because we were created together, we were raised doing everything together, along with signing. It was something that just came naturally.
