Evelyn Evelyn | On Their Self-Titled Debut Album and Its Oddness

Evelyn Evelyn is a duo consisting of conjoined twins Evelyn and Evelyn Neville. Through their self-titled debut album the two tell the story of their live as orphans and oddities, and then as the misfits freaks of the Dillard and Fullerton’s Traveling Circus. Their musical style is playful and dark, most numbers a duet the likes of which has been heard since The Andrew Sisters era. The album plays out like a Timothy Burton film, with spoken word interludes giving the history of the strange pair. Every track off of their album is a playful retelling of events in the lives of the sisters. Nothing too special there, but when put into context very funny and very odd. The tales range from the events surrounding their birth to being raised as chickens until the age of six on a poultry farm. The minds behind this fictional duo are Amada Palmer and Jason Webley who also provide the vocals for this high concept band. You can’t say this album will be getting much air play on the radio but you have to appreciate the execution of this project. If you take a look at the band’s website you should take a look at the fans drawings of the sisters then you will know how this quirky concept has captured the attention and imagination of some.

A Theory About Evelyn Evelyn’s Formation: The artists involved in the conceptualization of the twins are great fans of old timey music and circus freaks. But are far removed from the like, so they created this alter ego – would it be egos since they are conjoined twins but at the same time they have one big body … I don’t know. They do this in order to satisfy this unhealthy urge to be a character from one of Timothy Burton’s films. Or they just have an obsession with the twins from the shining and wondered one night if they would have been scarier if they were living conjoined twins rather than just regular, yet dead, twins. Perhaps, or maybe explaining the motivations for making such personas are better left to those who created them and the imaginations of the fans who follow them.