Melbourne duo NERVO have worked on some of the biggest hits of the past decade with artists including Kelly Rowland, Pussycat Dolls and Kylie to name but three.
Now they are making waves as DJs in their own right. Identical twins Liv and Mim have a language all of their own. “Whenever we get to collaborate with other producers or artists they just can't believe it because a lot of the time we don't even talk, we'll just grunt at each other. It might mean 'hey Mim don't interrupt me' or 'hey Liv listen to this', but other people have no idea what we are saying! Without even knowing it we have formed our own little private twin communication when we're being creative,” explains Liv.
The sisters share a special bond which make them ideal musical partners. “Mim and I luckily have a good jam. We have similar tastes and we bounce [ideas] off each other well. It's unique; it's not like every brother and sister.”
The next big item on the NERVO calendar is Stereosonic. “We're so excited, we've never played Stereosonic before. It's great because we get to come home and hang with the family and friends, and we also get to play a mega festival. Stereo's been generating a lot of heat on the international DJ circuit, everyone's talking about it so it's great to finally be a part of it.”
For Liv and Mim, Stereosonic will be a chance to catch up with industry pals from across the globe. “That's the best thing about festivals: you get to hang out with all your buddies, a lot of the time your friends are on the same line-up; it's the best! Our friends the Showtek brothers are on the bill and also the W&W boys; we're buddies with them.”
The Nervo sisters are realising their dream of getting to know and work with DJs they have long idolised. “I still can't believe it, I'm constantly tripped out about it. Fedde le Grand is someone we've always looked up to and is now a friend of ours. And David Guetta as well. We really look up to him, and four or five years ago we started working with him and now we're friends and we see him every week in Ibiza.”
Growing up in Melbourne, the twins started out as models, but music has always been their calling. “We had a modelling agent in Melbourne when we were 15. There was an article in a local newspaper about up and coming models and they interviewed us and we mentioned that we really love music. That's how we got in touch with the producer because he contacted the agency to see if we wanted to work with him. So even when we were that young we were always trying to talk about getting into music.”
A long apprenticeship writing and producing for other artists gave the girls the tools they needed to make the transition to becoming artists themselves. “We learnt the mechanics and the politics of the business by being behind the scenes, which is really important. When you're an artist you've just got to take on so much more, and if you're not ready for it, it can break you. When we finally stepped out from behind the scenes, I think we needed all that support from artists in the business who really helped us to get to where we are.”One such artist was friend and collaborator David Guetta. “He knew we DJd, but we didn't have that confidence I guess, and he was the one who said, 'Hey what are you waiting for, why don't you just be DJs?' Even though we looked up to female DJs like Annie Mac, for some reason we didn't think of ourselves like that; we were just the writers. He said, 'Girls when you're ready I'll support you' and he stayed true to his promise. That was four years ago, and we went from DJing in our bedrooms to DJing at Pacha, Ibiza — it was crazy!”
