The Veronicas Are Huge Down Under

Look out, Tegan and Sara! Here come the Veronicas — the spunky, electro-poppy Australian quintet led by 23-year-old identical twin sisters Jessica and Lisa Origliasso. Down Under, they're superstars who regularly sell out arenas, win awards and have their own clothing line at Target. Here they're still trying to break through. We caught up with the super-friendly Jessica over the phone a couple of hours before their performance in Baltimore.

Westword: What are the hours leading up to a show like for you? Are you nervous?

Jessica Origliasso: A little! A lot of stuff happens. We usually spend an hour doing makeup and picking an outfit. And then we all, like, do a chant.

You do a chant?

We'll do a really stupid chant before we go on. Just, like, we put all our hands in and go, "Veronicas, Veronicas...," and then we'll come up with something to say that day. Like, I dunno, one time it was "Ride that bull, bitch, yeah!" We had seen this mechanical bull that day, so it was "Ride that bull, bitch!" It could be anything that day that anyone's come up with.

Awesome. So who was the first musician you saw when you were young — either live or on TV — where you were like, "I want to do that."

Oh, Michael Jackson, for sure! When we saw him in '96, we fell in love with him. We had a Michael Jackson shrine, with flags and posters and T-shirts and stuff. And every year on his birthday, we'd have a birthday cake and spend the day learning his dances and watching his videos.

Is it still cool to hear your songs when they come on the radio?

Yeah, I love it! I have a funny story. My boyfriend that I'm with now, he's in kind of this indie band in Australia. Anyway, so the first night we went out on a date, he took me out on this boat ride, and then we took a cab back, and my song came on the radio. And I was like, "Yes. Awesome. I look so cool right now." So we get out and he was like, "Yeah, so...you like Pink, I guess?" And I was like, "What?" He's like, "Obviously you like Pink — you were just listening to the radio and singing along," and I was like, "That's not Pink, that was me!" He had no idea. He was like, "Oh, my gosh, I'm sorry. I don't listen to the radio."