Ters B-Boys BeWare by discopatrick

Interview by Mick Sinclair UK SOUNDS magazine 14 april 1984

talk about d estiny !

Just days after first coating my aural receptales with the choice tones of the Two Sisters album (put out by Importe /12 in the United States released by Streetwave here) I chanced to be on a plane to new york, just hapening to touch down a couple of days prior to the aforementioned duo’s first ever NyC appearance.

The event was a thrill packed soiree in the environs of the fabled Funhouse, the legendary jellybean operating ax from the booth while 3000 or so young (very young, from about age 12 upwards, astonishing when you consider a lot of them come from the poorest parts of town and the Funhouse door demands a cool 12 dollar entrance fee). New york breakdancers on the floor. By now they’re oblivious to the gaze of the urban anthropologists stalking the sidelines with notebooks.

‘Supporting’ the Two Sisters was a mysterious fire-eating semi-stripper, further warming the already hot patrons for on-stage activity.

The Funhouse boards are actually in the centre of the room and as Two Sisters time approaches, each side gets hemmed in by expectant mobs. A sign of their popularity and also the attention that such a place pays to its artists. No Camden Palace blase here! They perform to a taped backing although the occasion is made emotionally forceful by their presence. A captivating mix of gestures that point to showbiz brassiness are ridded of cliche by both the Sisters’ own aura of innocence and their simple lack of experience. Namely, the Two Sisters are Theresa Pesco and Tracey Houghton, from Greenwich Village and the Bronx respectively. Beyond that I’m ignorant but crazily curious. So i ventured backstage….

Tell me, what kind of people are you ?

tracey: “We’re very nice people, contrary to he album cover. Oh you haven’t seen it !” Streetwave’s version comes in a plain bag “Well, remeber us when you do. We’re pictured as TOUGH, really strong women.”The pair earlier done some singing together but the Two Sisters idea was hatched a year and a half or so back when we were introduced to producer Raul Rodrigez. t heresa: “We had never recorded anything on vinyl but Raul had just finished working on Man parish, that ‘Hip Hop Bebop’ thing, and he wanted to produce a female rap band. That’s when we did ‘High Noon” and it was released last April or may. Then we did the seven or eight cuts which are on the album. It’s not all street.” tracey: “ I would say not because ‘BBoys Beware’ is really a novelty record. Raul had the idea, having heavy rapping women doing that kind of thing - and, of course, the whole concept.

Both are quick to declare that Two Sisters are more than just a jokey affair ,limited to creating antimacho rap discs. Even if the most blatant example, ‘BBoys Beware’, was a big hit in Holland and Germany from where the Two have just returned following a stint of TV appearances. That success is a little surprising, perhaps?

Having Two Sisters who aren’t two sisters,” (next question nixed !) “but who get along very well and can get out there and do it,” t heresa : “ I think for the audiences in Europe it’s really something different and really new. It doesn’t originate there. In America it’s a little harder to get people going because it’s home. you have to be really on top here. Really sharp and creative or else, and people don’t want that because it’s just like looking at themselves or the guy next door. “ The concept for Two Sisters was like, y’know rapping men have been calling each other brother for years. So it was the same idea, two people of common background, common goals, common ideals.” t heresa: “How Envolved ? Fully and completely. I’m saturated totally all the time (not a person givin to subdued turns of phrase is Theresa ! She later apologises for ‘running on at the mouth’). I hate not to be involved. I co-wrote ‘Destiny”with Raul. I really want to take an active part in the writing of the material and saying what it is that we have to say. It’s kind of hard when you work with the number of people that we work with. It’s becomes inevitable that everyone’s climbing on top of each other and getting on each other’s nerves. “We spend hours in the studio just sitting there when things are being done. But it is important to be sitting there the whole time”. t heresa: They Love it. ‘B-Boys Beware’ did quite well too and i guess a lot of kids really liked “High Noon”. It’s hard to tell when you’re so involved with doing the business of the show.” t heresa: yeah ‘Destiny’ is really an uptempo dance tune. It’s really a much more appealing song. It reaches a wider and broader scope of people, if you listen tot he lyrics and hear the message of the song. “For instance ‘B-Boys Beware’ is directed directly at B-Boys and not everyone in the world is a B-Boy. There are just a small amount of men who are into that. ‘Destiny’ is a love song, it’s about broken hearts and destiny. That and fate affects everyone. There are more people out there with broken hearts then there are B-Boys i think. tracey: “Oh yeah, I don’t know if we’ll be doing that many more rap songs. That was very important in terms of having a different idea. It’s okay having a novelty but you have to develop and grow as well.” t heresa: “I’m like, er, going to get philosophical and metaphysical here,” (a space is eagerly cleared) “but the wagon’s gone by and basically it’s been male groups doing a grab it while you can thing. We’ve just shown that we can do it too. It’s not that hard. But it’s not a means to an end. It’s just a beginning, you know. “I think we’ll be doing more funk, more r’n’b, more pop. We’d like to develop and I think the whole movement now is developing. It was cult for a while but it isn’t anymore. you can’t stay in the same place and stagnate. “Raul and I are going to collaborate a lot more. A cut on the album is called ‘Right There’ and it’s a love song, the most r’n‘b of all our songs and I think it’s great. That’s really the line we might be pursuing in the future, there is only so much you can do with the other type of music. I wanna be ambitious ... I wanna ... “ t heresa: “I would really love to go to England. I want to very badly.” tracey: “But we’ ll wait till we’re invited.”

Some might still say that the group is a creation of Raul’s and you’re the performance puppets on the end of his production strings. How involved are you in the crative side ?

Most recently the pair have been soaking up the sun down in Florida (Ny was freeezing !). Where Destiny was a sizable success.

Destiny is a scorching sensurround love song, several steps removed from the rapping assertions of ‘B-Boys Beware”.

“So ‘Destiny’ is a good ‘indication of future Two Sisters output?

As she is prone. Theresa gets carried along on a tidal wave of emotional gushing. The relatively prosaic Tracey sits it through. As they point out, the ‘movement’ is moving on. Even the Funhouse itself seems more part of the past than part of the future. I ask Tracey if this is the place she’d come to for entertainment. “ Hell no,” she bellows, most shocked.

“This is the last place – all that thump thump thump, night after night, it can’t do your ears any good. I usually stay at home, reading and designing. “ Streetwave meanwhile, besides the LP, have made available a single of ‘Destiny’ backed with ‘B-Boys Beware’. A good starting point for intrigued record buyers. But will the Sisters be gracing our shores?

Theresa : “I think if we did, the show would be a little more developed than tonight. It was real loose and everybody was having fun which is important but. ..Maybe I’ll dye my hair red ...”

cOVER aRt

Shusei Nagaoka was a Japanese illustrator. He is best known for his music album cover art in the 1970s and 1980s. Artists for whom he illustrated covers include Electric Light Orchestra, Earth, Wind & Fire, Space, Maze, George Clinton, Kitaro, Rose Royce, Caldera and many more. He assisted in the designing of the 1970

Osaka Expo, and was selected as one of the most significant artists in 200 years of American Illustration. He received several awards, along with platinum and gold albums, in recognition of his work. Several books of his artwork have been published.