Interview with Jayesslee
By YudaAhead of their sold-out shows at TAB in July, the twins of Jayesslee, guitarist Sonia and vocalist Janice, tell Denise Cheong how they became overnight pop sensations – and how they’re dealing with their sudden fame
What is it like being YouTube stars? Were you
surprised by the extent to which your videos became
viral?
We are still getting used to being called YouTube stars. We are
two very ordinary 24-year-olds who are lucky enough to do what we
love doing. We still get surprised when we are stopped in the
middle of a shopping mall for photos and autographs.
However, this has made us more conscious of the way we treat each
other and the way we act in public, as we realise that people do
recognise us. The morning after we uploaded our cover of
[Tamia’s] ‘Officially Missing You’, we were shocked to see that
it had gone viral. Even to this day after 7 million hits, we
can’t believe that people are watching our videos
worldwide.
What are your day jobs?
As of 2010 our full-time vocation has been recording, touring and
performing. Prior to this, we’ve had part-time jobs where Sonia
worked at a juice bar and Janice was scooping ice cream. It got
to a point where we didn’t have time or flexibility to commit to
everything, so we decided to make music our lives.
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