Life & Work with Twin Citizen of Minneapolis

Today we’d like to introduce you to Twin Citizen.

Hello Twin Citizen, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
(Joe Hartley, singer/lyricist/guitarist):

In late September of 2020, I found a post on a “Musicians of Minnesota” page looking for sober musicians to start a band with. At the time, I was around 8 months into my recovery, and the influences listed in the post were right up my alley, and that’s how I ended up going over to Adam’s and jamming with him, our wonderful bassist Paul, and a drum machine. We didn’t have any particular direction at first, but Adam’s compositions always got stuck in my head where I could come up with complementary parts. I spent some time writing melodies and lyrics, and before long, we had fleshed out the framework for a few songs.

We had several drummers audition for us, and to keep a long story short, we had a good friend playing with us for quite some time who was unfortunately in a continuous battle with his addiction and mental health. We had to decide to separate and allow him to fight his battles. The band did not need to be a priority for him at that point. Will had joined us on synths, we had finalized several difficult and intricate songs, and we were ready to play shows. We just needed a drummer.

Paul’s friend Joe Díaz had previously come to jam with us during our very early days, and Paul asked him to come to fill in for a bit. Fortunately, he was impressed with our progress and decided to stay. As a former professional session drummer, he learned our songs very quickly and sorted out many of the difficulties we had with our songs. We finally had our sound, and now we feel like we have something special that’s just getting started. It just felt right.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not. As I said before, it took a long time for us to finalize our lineup and get out to play our music for people. We’ve also been very intentional about every single note we play, which involves a lot of hard work. I’m proud of what we’ve crafted; it’s one of the most precious parts of my life.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m very proud of how hard we’ve worked on our music. The response we’ve gotten at our shows so far has been terrific. I think we have a unique but accessible sound. We each have unique influences and specialties to bring to the table, and everyone is adept at making room for each other musically. This is the finest group of musicians I’ve enjoyed playing with. They bring something out of me as a songwriter I haven’t personally accessed before.

Is something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
4/5 of us are in long-term recovery, and it took us over a year before we even played a show. We may play a few covers down the road, but we are focused on writing new, unique, meaningful music.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @twincitizenmnmusic
• Website: www.twincitizenmnmusic.com.
• Facebook: @twincitizenmnmusic
• Twitter: @twincitizenband

Image Credits
Arielle Lifto Valerie Goerlitz