‘Nobody Likes Me’: An Interview with TWINKIDS

Photo Credit: Nina Raj at Yellow House Sessions

LA-based, queer pop duo TWINKIDS features Tokyo-born singer-songwriter Jin Fukui and Floridian pianist-producer Matthew Young. The duo enters a new chapter in their musical journey with their latest album release Nobody Likes Me - described as an ode to coming to terms with the worst version of yourself. Listening to the album for the first time, it made me both happy and sad - honestly, I wasn’t sure if it was going to make me cry or dance, luckily that is exactly what they were going for. The beautiful instrumental arrangements set in the background accompanied by brutally honest lyrics will make you feel everything all at once. One of their friends described their music as songs you listen to when you leave the club after a long night of partying but didn’t end up finding someone - still in a partying mood but also really sad. The two explore authentic and vulnerable messaging, as they experiment with the POV of the heartbreaker instead of being heartbroken.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Is there a backstory behind how you two met and formed TWINKIDS?

[TWINKIDS]: We met in school at Oberlin College in Ohio and we actually were singing in the same acapella group - for a while, we didn't like to share that detail but now I think it’s really funny! We met in that group, and then we just started hanging out and realized we were both writing our own music on the side. I [Matt] was doing a piano program and Jin was doing a science program and then we just started workshopping together. Eventually, we started producing those songs together, and it just grew from there.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Can you tell us a bit about how you balance each other’s ideas through the songwriting process and what that can look like?

[TWINKIDS]: Most of the songwriting is from Jin, and actually in our shows, we both sing but most of the recordings is mainly his voice. We started out sharing everything equally when we first started making music but it worked out that I was ge1tting more into production and that’s where I was more passionate. Jin was feeling more passionate about the songwriting, so now we kind of have this really easy flow of him just emailing me his ideas and then I’ll just make it a demo. He does all the vocal production and then I’ll work on just fleshing it out.

[UNPUBLISHED]: That’s awesome, sounds like a pretty good balance then.

[TWINKIDS]: Yeah, I wouldn’t say it’s easy now but it’s very smooth. I feel like the work we’ve done over the past many years has really led us to this process now which is really nice that we have that.

[UNPUBLISHED]: I read that your sound is heavily influenced by 80s J-Pop style - how does that influence play a role in your creative process?

[TWINKIDS]: Yeah! Jin introduced me to that music pretty early on. I think it’s this era in Japan, and in the US, where the synth, and drum machines were really coming into prominence. It’s so intricate and balanced, trying to make the music so perfect. It was kind of that 80s drum machine synth sound meeting this neurotic, almost classical perfection. All the musicians are so virtuosic, like the vocalists are so amazing and the arrangements are really complex, so it’s all just bittersweet. I feel like that feeling is what we’re going for in our music as well. I’m really interested in working with layers with many voices, coming from Bach’s music, how it all fits together - which I don’t hear as much in Western music but I hear a lot in that J-Pop era.

[UNPUBLISHED]: How would you describe your music to somebody who has never listened to you before?

[TWINKIDS]: One of our friends described it to us as the music you are listening to after you leave the club, and you tried to find a boo but haven’t found anyone. You’re still partying while you’re going home but you’re also really sad. Very much like sappy, gay retro vibes but we defintely want to make people move a little bit and have it be in that pop dance world.

[UNPUBLISHED]: The overall theme surrounding your upcoming album Nobody Likes Me holds a very authentic and vulnerable messaging in themes of self-esteem and self-loathing - why did you feel as though this was an important approach in your writing process?

[TWINKIDS]: I think we were both really going through it when we were writing this. It was kind of the first time in my life I was really struggling with depression and all those intrusive thoughts - and the same for Jin too. But, there’s also some irony and humor to it - when you realize ‘woe is me’, so it was kind of that dichotomy. We wanted to make it a bit lighter but also like, here’s a song that has exactly the voice you’re hearing in your head but you’re not the only one hearing it.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Do you find your music therapeutic in a way?

[TWINKIDS]: There is one song, the second to last track called “I’m Not Confused” - that was a path out of all the darkness. I literally wrote that song because I was like, nobody’s going to say the things to me that I need to hear right now. I needed to make a song that I needed to hear to make me feel better. When I listen to the whole album, I can feel some sort of pain but there’s light at the end of the tunnel with that song.

[UNPUBLISHED]: You described Nobody Likes Me as an ode to being the worst version of yourself, which I feel like is rarely talked about and actually brought into discussion through music - what’s one thing you hope listeners take away from this album?

[TWINKIDS]: I think if you really listen to the album that idea really comes through. I also think it’s the humor of being that sad. I’m not trying to take it lightly, but if you just approach it with a little lightness, it will become much easier.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Has the pandemic inspired your creative process at all?

[TWINKIDS]: We had most of these songs written by the time the pandemic hit in March, so it was really just working on the production and finalizing the vocals. In terms of the production, which was the bulk of what we were working on last year, I was exclusively listening to ambient music. I took a lot of those textures from ambient music and I think they came through in the album - just really lush, sustained synth sounds. I was leaving things floating which is something I wouldn’t do in the past.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Is there a specific song off of the up-coming album that you are most excited for the world to hear?

[TWINKIDS]: I really like the track “I’m Not Confused”. Speaking of the ambient texture, you can really hear the sustained synths and unchanging drumbeat. I think the songwriting is really powerful in that song. It’s one of the more experimental songs we’ve done in terms of form as well as the one of the more vulnerable songs.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Some of your songs have the POV of the heartbreaker instead of the one who was heartbroken - can you expand more on this creative take?

[TWINKIDS]: This is something that Jin was really interested in when writing. We talked about how we hope that people who do bad things in relationships, friendships, or partners, that they aren’t really rotten in their core - it’s just the reaction from whatever that person was experiencing. The duality of watching yourself fuck up all these relationships while having the realization that you’re the one who’s doing something wrong.

[UNPUBLISHED]: You speak a lot about love in your music, whether it be falling in or falling out of love - why do you feel it’s important to have your identity openly transpire in your music?

[TWINKIDS]: I feel like when we were growing up there weren’t really any queer people singing about their day-to-day romantic experiences. I found that by the time I was in middle school and high school, the only queer voices were in experimental forms and there wasn’t any “Top 40’s” style of music featuring someone singing about loving another of the same gender. Now I think we have an increasing number of artists who are speaking candidly. It’s just so important, just as you have a straight person singing - like a straight man singing about a woman, why can’t I be a queer man singing to a man and not have to explain it.

[UNPUBLISHED:] What can we expect next for TWINKIDS after Nobody Likes Me is released?

[TWINKIDS]: We did one tour in 2018, and haven’t been on tour since - so that’d be really exciting to do again! Definitely hoping to play in-person, whether it be a small gig or in a proper venue. I think that’s what people can expect from us, just playing live again.

You can check out TWINKIDS’ Nobody Likes Me here!