by Jessica Nguyen
On October 11th catch the sister act of Danielle and Jennifer at The Legendary Dobbs on South Street. The Harleysville, PA duo have been acting in theatre and television since they were tiny little girls, and now are focusing more on their music.
When asked about the good side of performing together as singers, Danielle responds “I think the most positive experience working with Jennifer is that we both have the same interests and music style, so it’s a great experience writing with her because it makes us closer as sisters, but also helps us better each other as songwriters and performers.”
Jennifer also had a response, “The most positive experience I have had working with my sister is every time we perform together, everything comes together so naturally. When we are together harmonizing and playing music it feels like we are just having fun as sisters. Any worry or bit of stress we have disappears because our strong sister bond adds extra energy to our performance and lets each other know that no matter what happens we will always have each other. Knowing that makes our performance much more meaningful and entertaining.”
Jennifer took over speaking about any negative experiences. Her answer was just what you would expect to hear from sister as close as these two. “ We don’t really have any negative experiences working together. The only thing that we would say was negative is that we hate letting each other down if a show doesn’t go as planned or when there are frustrating moments.”
Danielle has experience working in theatre, including Les Miserables. “I enjoyed every moment of the time I had on Les Miserables but if I had to choose one [memorable experience] I would say my favorite would be the time I performed as young Cosette. I remember looking out into the audience right before I sang my first note of “Castle on a Cloud” and thinking how amazing it was that all of these people had their eyes on me in that moment. No one else on stage just me front and center. It was probably the most memorable moment of my life and amazing feeling knowing I was living out my dream at only seven years old.”
Jennifer has many television credits to her name, including one on the soap opera All My Children. “My character, Leora Devane Hayward, was a reoccurring role. I filmed six episodes and played a spirit who returned to my father David Hayward in visions after my characters death as an infant. The entire experience overall was something I will never forget. As a child, one experience I really enjoyed was filming on the set and playing the role of a ghost. I was able to see how they used the special effects to make me appear and disappear as a ghost figure.”
I asked the girls if they performing acting over playing music…or if it’s the other way around. Jennifer responds, “That’s a hard choice because they are both so different. We like them both in different ways- we love to sing and perform our music because it expresses who we are. But we love acting because it’s fun developing a character and bringing them to life while you are being someone you’re not for a little while.” Danielle responds, “I would say acting might be a little easier since you don’t have to lug all your equipment around or write all your own material!”
Tomorrow will not be the first time the girls have played in the Philadelphia area. They performed their song “ Radical Love” on the NBC 10 Show stage. Also, the music video for the song was filmed at the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville Pa . However, The Legendary Dobbs show will be their first full live performance in Philly. You’ll definitely be hearing “Radical Love” as part of their set-list.
“The song is about the guy you date who you think is wonderful, but all your friends make fun of because he is different,” Danielle explains, “Jennifer and I have had the situation happen to us and wanted to bring it to attention because I’m sure it has happened to other people as well. The song has an anti-bullying theme as well which Jennifer and I are very big on. We like to bring it to attention whenever we can. We want people to know that its okay if your friends think your boyfriend or girlfriend is a little different. What matters is that you love them for who they are and your friends should learn to accept it.”
The girls also like to put their own spin on a lot of really popular songs. Jennifer and Danielle plan on covering some more songs from artists such as The Beatles, My Chemical Romance and Sara Bareillies. Danielle says, “We are a very diverse band ourselves. We like a lot of different music, so we like to show that through the music we cover.” The girls are still in the process of recording their first album- they are a quarter of a way done putting together a full-length release, but hope to release an EP in the next few months.
The show starts at 8pm tomorrow at Dobbs. They’ll be at The Grape Room next month, followed by a performance at the Bitter End in NYC.
