INTERVIEW: Twen talk new LP, van life, and New England roots

Editor’s note: Our writer Cassandra Paiva video chatted with Ian Jones and Jane Fitzsimmons of twen during their brief break of their 45 date tour. Read what they have to say about the music industry, their DIY attitude, extensive touring, creative process, and keeping it real by sometimes just letting fate decide. 

CP: You guys released your third LP, Fate Euphoric back in November. How was the writing and production of this one compared to One Stop Shop? Was there anything you learned after that one that you knew you wanted to apply to this new one? 

JF: I would say we had a little bit more resources on this one, because One Stop Shop was like coming out of COVID really like, “What’s going to happen. I don’t know?” A lot of risks were taken, a lot of credit card debt was racked up in order to fund the thing, and a lot of like, piecemeal tours. It was kind of like one piece at a time. We were playing some of the songs and then recording them at the same time as going out on tours. So it had like a little bit of a shakiness to it though, but we were really confident in the music. And then coming into this one after like a couple years of One Stop, it kind of took a while to.. it kind of snowballed and people are still discovering it, which is cool.  

IJ: You know that that middle album, One Stop Shop, it’s doing better now than when it came out the first year. It didn’t do this *gestures hands spiking up* and then drop, it’s been doing this *gestures steady hand* the whole time. 

JF: Which is like a music industry idea in our head because when we were with a label on our first album, they would talk about the album cycle, which was the rise of it, where it would be this hype where you may see some crazy numbers for like up and coming bands on their first album, like of streaming numbers or something, and then they would just plummet when it’s maybe a couple months after the release, and we just haven’t experienced that at all. I think that it’s just because of the music. 

IJ: But what it meant was that by the time that we came to Fate Euphoric it was time for it. We had, as you said, a much more solid foundation. We had a band that we had been playing with for a year at that point, you know, because we’ve had a lot of turnover in our band members before. So it just seems like we know what we’re doing now. I think that the albums are actually very similar. Although the drums are better on Fate Euphoric than on One Stop Shop. 

CP: You guys pride yourself on doing everything DIY and having complete control of your whole process. How has that impacted and affected your creative processes and decisions as a band? 

JF: Ooh. It affects everything so much, I feel like I can’t even see outside of it. Like it’s all-encompassing my vision and perspective. And that things could be so fast. Like when you’re beholden to someone, or someone has to release something for you, or you have to be in the schedule of the record label or anything like that. We just get to decide something and be like, “What’s the time it takes for us to make it?“ And then we get to release it and that feels much more.. *hand gesture* I feel like that’s something that artists talk about a lot, when they write something and then they have to wait so long to release it and then they’re kind of not into it anymore. And we’ve just never experienced that now. I’m not sick of One Stop Shop, even though it’s from 2022.  

You’re like catching ideas and what’s in the Zeitgeist anyway, so... Actually, like on this tour, I feel like everything that’s from Fate Euphoric is very right now. And I feel like, to have people in a room experiencing it in person right now is very important for this record and for anyone that connects with it. And if it was going to be delayed by anything, that would just be messing with the time scale. 

IJ: It’s nice not to ask permission from anyone and to be a complete and utter dictator of our own fate. Do you know what I mean?  

JF: Yeah, that’s what’s ironic about it, we’re like dictators in our own life, even though we don’t want it to be. 

CP: Sort of along that line, you’re living in a van, so you’re living the van life. How has that contributed to your songwriting and the way of doing things in general? 

IJ: I would say it’s a two prong answer. Firstly, it’s really good for us, or it appears to be good for us, spiritually because it’s like we never get settled into too deep of a groove. And when you’re constantly moving and traveling and you’re kind of making it up as you go, there’s an element of not planning anything, and we find that when you don’t plan anything, you end up in the right place at the right time. So it’s like that kind of keeps our brains very fresh and inspired most of the time because as soon as we get fed up with a place, we can just move on to the next place. And Jane and I kind of have a telepathy where we kind of know when it’s time to migrate.  

JF: Yeah, we’re usually in agreement. 

IJ: If we’re visiting family, you know, hanging out, bopping around New England or whatever, or like where we are now in St. Louis, we usually get the hankering to leave around the same time, you know, we feel it.  

CP: That definitely makes sense. I’m assuming you probably have a mobile studio set up inside of the van for any of those late night ideas. 

IJ: Yup.  

JF: We tried at the beginning of the van process, we thought like, “We’re going to record everything in here.” 

IJ: You could hypothetically. 

JF: You can, because there’s plenty of electricity for it, and there is enough space. We even have these guitar hooks, where you have room to amp three guitars. The problem is amps. We don’t love only DI stuff, so we want to have actual amp recordings and things, and obviously live drums, but we usually do that remotely anyway. But we like a little bit of space, and the variety like Ian was talking about of the van in different places. Sometimes we’ll rent a place just to rehearse in or write in. Or sometimes it’ll be a house sit, where we’re just watching a dog for a month at a place that’s on a mountain and then we’re right there, so it’s kind of doing two things at once. And that kind of jogs the brain up too, if you’re in a place that has no context and you don’t have any memories there. I kind of like that. 

CP: You’re about to embark on the second leg of your Fate Euphoric Tour. Many of these shows have sold out or have had low ticket warnings. How did you pick where you wanted to play, since a lot of places you hadn’t played before. 

IJ: I’d say probably most of the places we’ve played before, but there’s a decent chunk. And it was really just our booker. We were like, we want to do extensive touring, we want to hit all of the spots. 

JF: We’ve had the cool thing that’s happening now, that now we kind of have legs that are outside of our own boots on the ground touring. Just like, through the Internet or algorithmic stuff, which I’m like, thank God that’s working now, because that didn’t always work in our favor. Sometimes promoters or people who are in random places, for example, this next leg, we end the leg in Frostburg, Maryland. Never played there before. Don’t know what it’s about. 

IJ: Never even heard, didn’t even know it existed. 

JF: I think there might be a college near there, I don’t really know. But the promoter reached out to us because they wanted us to come. 

IJ: I mean, that’s happened almost everywhere now. 

JF: So you know, if someone is passionate and wants us to come, who are we to say no? And if it works out, then you’re like, great. Luckily on the last leg, the couple shows that we had never been somewhere, like in Rochester, NY; we have never had the chance to play a show there, we were meaning to but never did, it sold out. We were like, cool! Weird things are happening for us in a good way, which we love. 

CP: I feel like there is an Alt radio station up there in Rochester somewhere. 

IJ: There is, WRUR, The Route. 

JF: Definitely they helped us out a lot. So that’s nice too, because you have the local radio and promoters, that’s usually who helps. 

IJ: And I remember you saying WEQX. 

CP: Yes, in Albany! 

IJ: They’ve been really hyping it. 

CP: Are there any places that you’ve been to that you’d like to make a music video or do an acoustic session? 

JF: I want to do something in Chicago, but we don’t have time. There have been a couple comments. We did a shout out for the Tumbleweed video, because we made it in New York, for  extras. And we got so many people. And then people were like, “Do this in Chicago!” And I was like, that would be awesome, because we do have a pretty healthy fan base there, just because it’s like, Chicago‘s got that indie music scene, we fit right in. And I think we would get a lot of people, so it would be fun, and I’m sure they’re all cool as hell. So it would be cool to do something, but I don’t know what they would be doing, I’d have to come up with a concept.  

CP: You could even just take over a park and play something. 

JF: A big picnic. 

IJ: Or take over somebody’s house... Let’s takeover Trump Tower. 

CP: That too, do a backyard show like All American Rejects. 

JF: That’s the city that comes to mind for me... Any one for you? 

IJ: Maybe something really off the beaten path like Paducah, Kentucky or something. Some small town that goes completely under people’s radar. 

JF: I wonder if they’d know us? 

IJ: They don’t. 

JF: But we pass through it all the time. It’s in between St. Louis and Nashville, so we always go through it. And we always stop by for like coffee or something, it’s really cute. 

IJ: We try. 

JF: We try. We used to exclusively, it felt like we were doing that more than the shows, in our early touring years, like we were basically, just like, fucking off. 

IJ: Well, when you’re doing those DIY shows when you‘re first starting out, like you don’t need to show up until an hour before you play anyway.  

JF: If even, you’re just showing up and playing. There was nothing to set up. 

 IJ: There was more time in those days. But now you‘ve got to get to the venue at you know 3/4:00 in the afternoon and you’re going to be there all day doing soundcheck and yadda, yadda, yadda so there’s less time to do fun shit.  

JF: We work it out on the off days but, this past one was like.. 

CP: Pretty tight packed.. 

JF: Oh so tight packed, on top of winter, so it was like, Jeeesus. We only got bowling in. 

IJ: You couldn’t do anything outside in 10 degrees. 

JF: The bowling alley apparently has been known. It’s in Western Mass in The Berkshires. 

IJ: Can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s what The Big Lebowski was based on. 

JF: So that was like, its claim to fame. It was very old school and fun. Even though, this is the first time I’ve ever seen this, we got burgers and stuff there, and the waiter, who also was cooking, had a tray full of probably like 7 things, and he dropped all of it on the floor in front of us. He just stood there and looked at it, and we‘re like, “It’s ok man, we’re in no rush!” And he‘s like, “This has never happened before.” And it was the most traumatizing thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life. 

IJ: The guy was down bad. It’s like in The Office when Kevin drops the chili. 

JF: At least he didn’t try to scoop it. We tried to help him and he’s like, “Don’t!”  

IJ: He was like a Deadhead too, super cool.  

JF: He was super nice. So that was our one off day.. So hopefully next time. 

CP: You guys have both been in different bands and different projects, how did you create your stage presence and persona for twen? 

JF: I don’t know. I’ve only been in one band before this.. 

IJ: Did you ever see her band? Frank Independent, in Boston. Same time as Grey Season. 

JF: We were all just BU kids, we were very much just having fun. Like how weird and stupid can it be? I think we had a song about mammary glands, it was just like, whatever. No skin in the game, just pure fun. 

IJ: I feel like I’ve been doing the same shit I’ve always been doing. Which is trying to be the guitar player in the shadows.  

JF: He’s steadfast in his image and his mannerisms. 

IJ: Everyone has to work with what they’re given, and *gestures to face* this is no accident, as they say in the 40 Year Old Virgin. 

JF: Whereas, I just change a million times within a month. I have turnover. 

IJ: Comfortability just comes from doing it a million times, so because we’ve been doing it for 10 years, we’re more comfortable on stage. And then people think, “You guys are so comfortable on stage, you have a nice stage presence,” but we don’t think about it. 

JF: I do get that a lot. I think it’s comfortability, where it’s like, nothing can shake me. 

IJ: Do we look shakable to you? 

JF: Actually in Portsmouth, that was one of the shakier ones. 

IJ: The show you were at. A lot of my family had come and friends of my parents. 

JF: And Ian broke four strings. So we’re prone to it, even though we’re up to like 600 shows now? Still, we can be rocked. I think if we were up a little more of a level where we had our own sound person or a guitar tech, I’m like, “What could go wrong?” but who knows, maybe I’ll come up with some excuse! But I think, just doing it so many times. And the music always does its own thing. It’s always before a tour where I’m like, “Will I remember how to do this again?” because sometimes even a couple weeks not playing, I’m like, “What’s a show? What’s going on?” And then we rehearse and I hear and sing the music and it just takes care of itself. 

IJ: It’s like muscle memory you know? But the first night of tour, I’m always like, “What the fuck’s happening?” and then two songs in, I’m like, “Oh, yeah, I know how to do this.” 

CP: Kind of going on that tech line, your music has a lot of layers and sounds, and obviously there’s the use of loop peddles and effects, but how do you translate that to a live setting? 

JF: It’s very important that Asher is there. Because we toured for a very long time as just a 4-piece, and Ian was the sole guitarist. And we were extremely limited, like so limited. 

IJ: Yeah, it’s really two guitar music. So once we got that fifth member in, he can do the additional layers. 

JF: And he’s a very peddle based guy. He enjoys that, whereas Ian uses it, it’s a necessary evil. 

IJ: I’m meat and potatoes, like I can make that stuff on the record, but when I play live, I just want to strum and play. 

JF: Well you have other things to do, like singing harmonies. We’re so lucky to have Asher in it, that he’s very well suited to translating what we have and those textures. Like a lot of those mellotron lines, he’s doing through guitar. So we don’t have to rely on any synth or anything. 

IJ: And bands that use tracks, that’s good, and we thought we were going to get into that one day. It’s very limited on the tracks. 

JF: It’s only in one song. It sucks too because then you can’t problem solve if say, Ian does break a string and you have to make a section last a little bit longer. Sometimes it happens... 

IJ: You can’t improvise if you’re tied to the track. 

JF: And luckily our band is so tight and good that they can do stuff like that. I guess it’s for those big projects where you’re like switching out people or, “There’s no rehearsal, we’re starting tomorrow,“ and they’re flying in, stuff like that. That’s why you’d rely on that. And it tells you what you’re doing, like, “And the chorus comes in 1, 2, 3, 4.“ 

IJ: Yeah, did you know that?  Like country stars when they put bands together, they’ll have a voice in the track in their in-ears that tells them. It’ll count in the verse, “And now to G,” and tell them what to do. It’s so crazy. 

CP: Are there any songs that you won’t touch live? 

IJ: A lot of our first record we’re sick of because we played it for so long. And now we have more songs. Somebody always goes home disappointed, and that’s a very nice thing for us because everyone seems to have a favorite song that’s different. 

JF: *mocking* We love to disappoint people. There’s too many songs. We can’t literally play the two albums worth, we’ve tried before, over two hours and nobody wants that.  

IJ: That’s not really true, but... 

JF: Like they think they do, but they don’t. We used to play a couple songs from Awestruck, but now we like doing the other ones more. I think just as a songwriter, I don’t regret those, but they were born under the circumstance where we were a democracy of a 4-piece. Which was not really working, and things could’ve been developed and polished more, but that was not even on the radar at the time because of this dynamic. And then once we switched to just us, we’re like, oh, now we know what to do. 

IJ: I mean, the first album is just not as good, I don’t think, the songs just aren’t as developed. So therefore we just don’t play it. Even when the people want to hear it, we say, “Fuck you!“ *laughing* 

CP: On the other hand of that, what are your favorites to play live? 

IJ: I like “HaHaHome.“ 

JF: I do always love “HaHaHome.” I’m not sick of it and I don’t know if I ever will be. 

IJ: And I like “Tapdance in Limbo.” 

JF: I was going to say that one too. It’s a lot of energy to me. 

IJ: Yeah, that one’s fun. 

JF: I like “Tumbleweed” too. I like any of the up-tempo ones. I think with this record, we were trying to think of it in a live context too, when we were writing. Like what would be the energy for the live space, rather than just the introspective, “What am I feeling in a quiet room?” We tried to envision the live scenario. I think a decent number of the tracks fulfill that. But I always want more, so we’re probably going to try that on the next record. Even more that are really up-tempo and rocking. “Prelude to Waterloo,” “Tumbleweed,” “Tapdance,” those all feel really good to me. 

CP: “Stunts” is fun. But you don’t do that super often, but it’s fun because it’s cutesy and high energy. 

JF: We’ve gotten a couple requests for it, and I think we have to start putting it back. That’s come up a couple times. 

CP: You guys have been a band for about a decade. What would you tell your younger selves now? 

IJ: I’m surprised by this question, how hard it’s stumping me, because I know this question. 

JF: I would say something like, just move with certainty.  

IJ: Yeah, yeah, be steadfast in your convictions. Above all, do not wobble. 

JF: Because I don’t regret even like, the fuck ups, or when we were doing things that maybe weren’t the most efficient or whatever. I don’t regret any of those things because they give you a shit ton of confidence. When you’re doing it for so long, you’re like, I can’t be shaken by any bad show or if something didn’t meet my expectations, I’m like, “Yeah, sure, been here before. Who cares?” I don’t regret any of our trajectory, but I think if I had in those early moments, just a bit more, “Just fucking do it, don’t try to look at it from every side, just go.” I think the same result maybe would’ve happened, but there would’ve been less mental.. 

IJ: Suffering. 

JF: Turmoil. 

IJ: Mine would be stop settling for musicians and band members that you know deep down shouldn’t be in the project.  

JF: Throwing shade over here... 

IJ: When you’re band leaders, to a degree, you have to take what you can get. And musicians who want to be in your band... 

JF: Who you’re around or who you happen to know... It’s kind of just trial and error and you don’t know until you do know, and you’re like, “Whoa!” 

IJ: I think we tried to appease former bandmates and give them what they needed, not knowing that it would never be enough. Ripping off the Band-Aid. 

CP: I think coming from Berklee could either be a blessing or a curse with that, because you have a wealth of people that you know, but they might not be that right fit, and you’re like, “Well you’re my friend, but..” 

IJ: Right. That’s a good way to put it. 

JF: And also, we have a different dynamic because it’s a 5-piece band and we love to view everyone as equal on the road, but we’re writing the music. 

IJ: It’s our project... 

JF: and providing “here’s what you play.” And we love if there’s a little bit of improv or doing something that feels better on how you play it, but it is like, the song is the song. Some people wouldn’t find that fulfilling, but some people don’t want to write and they just want to rock out on stage. So you have to find that person, and that person may not know that they’re that type of person until they’re in it. We’ve had a very mixed bag of beautiful people we’re still friends with, and people that we do not talk to anymore, in our line up. It’s been every iteration. And now I think we really know the gift of discernment with people and how to have those boundaries and roles really laid out, because bands are the weirdest dynamic of all time.  

IJ: Does any of this relate to you and your life? Can you map it onto yours at all? You get older and your radar gets more refined. 

CP: Yeah, you choose people that fit in with your lifestyle. Even like, early 20s, the people that you were friends with in high school, and you always reached out to them, and they never bothered, you’re like, I’m not giving any more energy to this. So kind of. You find people that you fit with and you click with and you want to hang with and dedicate your time to. 

IJ: Yup! Say it louder for the folks in the back. 

CP: So what does the future hold? 

JF: Well, I think we’re going to get into our writing gears as soon as our April leg finishes. We’re finishing at a festival that hasn’t been announced yet in California. I don’t know where.  

IJ: Ohh, yeah, yeah, we’re doing it at UC Davis. We’re also coming back to New England in July to do a festival and some other stuff. 

JF: But we’re going to be hanging out in California for a little bit in like May and June. I think we’re just traumatized by the winter this season. We’re like getting the fuck away, I need the beach or something. So we’re going to be there for like a month and figure out some sort of house sitter rental situation and get to the gears again, which I’m like already so pumped for. And I love touring, but it’s always the thing where when I’m on tour, I want to be writing and when I’m writing I want to be on tour, so I‘ve got to figure that out.  

CP: I think probably the winter did not help you in that case. You’ve got to tell your promoter, “Hey, can we do it the other way around?” and save New England for April. 

IJ: And we knew that going into it. We had said to him before we’re never touring winter again, but with the way that the album release came out and when we could tour, we didn’t have a choice this year, but in the future we never will ever again.  

JF: I’m hoping it all makes sense later. And luckily because of this past little leg, it did sell out 10 out of, you know, 15 or something. So like the actual shows and the environment of the shows were so sick that I’m like, did that have to do with the winter? Could it only have been now? Like, I don’t know. So I’m trying to view it in a positive light. 

CP: At least you missed the blizzard by a week. 

IJ + JF: Yeah. 

CP: One kind of last fun question. What are you guys currently listening to? 

JF: Ooh, damn. I would say... Why I’m so interested in your radio thing... (*refer to the tangent on RadioX and other streamed stations*) I have been delegating to the DJs recently. NTS is the app, Nuts to Soup is what it stands for, it’s by the same people who started Boiler Room in the UK. They have DJs all over the world, and you can listen to archive things and have two live stations going. And I love Flo Dill, her breakfast show on NTS, and I listen to that religiously on tour and when I’m off tour. So I’m kind of just like, “Jesus take the wheel.” I can’t decide, and I trust her with my life. So I really connect with the DJ, I’m really in my DJ era, where I want to find the DJs I can trust, and they can kind of facilitate. And it does feel like a good reaction to letting the algorithm decide, or letting the Spotify Next, or... 

IJ: Well it brings the human element back.  

JF: I’m trying to focus on that, finding the DJs. So I’ve got one, Flo Dill. 

CP: I miss it so much. I miss when it was actually live and local, and not syndicated. And then they made it all corporate.  

IJ: Can you imagine a world where that was every radio station, in every city, all across the country? It was all DJs. All you had was DJs. That would’ve been so amazing. 

JF: I know. It would really facilitate scenes. There’s hope, maybe.. 

IJ: We had a great radio station here in St. Louis, that just got bought out this year, called KDHX, and it’s just like you’re describing WEQX. And it’s gone now and it fucking sucks. It was such a special thing. Every time I got in the car, I’d put on KDHX and hear some crazy music and great DJs 

JF: There would be like a Lithuanian Folk hour, something that just wasn’t top anything at any time. And that is so sad to lose something like that. Or to have it, and if you took it for granted, be like, it’s not here anymore. You feel the absence. 

CP: I feel like college radio kind of fills that pocket a little bit. 

IJ: It does. 

JF: Yeah. I feel like they struggle with actually broadcasting on a wavelength, so I can only hope that they can actually get on the air.  

CP: So true. Well, cool, thank you! 

IJ: Yes, thank you, this was very sweet! 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity