Recent Island Records signees The Two Lips create a sort of sugar-sweet pop music that borrows heavily from the realms of indie rock—just listen to the breathy verses over gentle instrumental backing on “Clue,” which nearly align it with the contemporary alt-folk scene, while the psych-pop production of “Happy for Me” brings Jonathan Rado to mind. At the same time, Andrea and Jewlz aren’t shy about the lineage of pop superstars they hope to someday fall into, with the songs on their recent debut EP Girl, C’mon! being immediately catchy despite their individual subtleties.
Having released the EP last month, the duo opted to go into a little more detail on their influences with a playlist that serves as the blueprint for these songs. In addition to 21st century indie icons Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the pair cites Demi Lovato’s pop-rock feel, Madonna’s trip-hop textures, Lily Allen’s engaging storytelling, the Spice Girls’ inherent nostalgia, and Imogen Heap’s unique melodies and harmonies as inspiration for their own music, as well as The Marías’ ability to integrate the sounds of their Latin heritage into their recordings.
Check out The Two Lips’ Girl, C’mon! EP here, and find their full set of inspirations on the project below.
Spice Girls, “Say You’ll Be There”
The Spice Girls are iconic and we were introduced to them by our older relatives when we were young. We love how they created such fun, tongue-in-cheek songs and the nostalgia that comes when listening to their music.
Demi Lovato, “Get Back”
Demi is just iconic and we love the pop-rock feel she has on this album [2008’s Don’t Foreget]. We always wanted to make a song like this that we could just rock out to in the car and on-stage!
Madonna, “What It Feels Like for a Girl”
This song inspired our song “Enemy.” We love trip-pop, and Madonna wrote such a relatable song on such a groovy beat. Also…it’s Madonna. Like, she is the queen of pop!
Frou Frou, “Only Got One”
We love Imogen’s unique melodies and harmonies, and we take a lot of inspiration from her when creating our own background vocals in our songs.
Lily Allen, “The Fear”
We both grew up listening to Lily Allen and take the most inspiration from her. She’s such a great storyteller and makes her songs so easy to understand with the cutest lyrics and melodies. She’s just iconic, and we’ll always have a place in our 2lip heart for her.
The Marías, “Lejos de Ti”
This song is just dramatic in the best ways. We love how they make such powerful songs with soft and mellow melodies and vocals.
Rebecca Sugar, “Love Like You”
Rebecca Sugar inspired a lot of our music and it was such an honor working with her on our song “Happy for Me.” Her songwriting and melodies are just so distinctive, and this song is so beautifully sad. We like to think we write relatively sad songs but mask it with cute instruments like the omnichord or bells
The Cardigans, “Carnival”
The Cardigans have inspired a lot of the 2lip sound and are always on our reference playlists! They’re so good at imagery and cute melodies. This song is just so fun, and we never get tired of it!
Malcolm Todd, “4me4me”
We recently opened for Malcolm this past summer and had so much fun! This song became our tour van’s favorite song, and we always had to listen to it at every show. It’s such a groovy, fun song, and is so catchy! It always reminds us of our time on tour.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Soft Shock”
Another roadtrip song from tour! We love the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and their songwriting. Karen O has such a distinctive voice that sets her apart from so many other artists!
