Interview: Twin

Somewhere between dreams and the uncanniest corners of the waking world lives Twin, whose debut EP Hverir comes out this month. A voice adrift, buffeted by gales of FX-drenched guitar, she’s the creation of Christelle Atenstaedt, also known as Bambi Rox.  

“Someone extremely close to me passed away several years back and it changed my life completely,” Christelle says. “Life took on a completely different tone and while it was a very dark time it was also when I believe I experienced things that are not of this physical reality. I also experience much lucid dreaming.  Twin happened as a way of connecting with that which lies outside of the physical. I hope it may do that for those who listen to it too.”

Warning: video contains flashing images.

Christelle grew up in a small town in Hertfordshire. “I was or at least felt very different to most people around there,” she says, “so I preoccupied myself with playing music as well as reading loads. As soon as I could I started going out in London to rock clubs, gigs, drag nights, psytrance and hardcore techno warehouse parties. I moved here to Bristol a number of years back with a friend after drifting around Europe for a while and a lengthy stay in Berlin.”

All that wandering seems to have informed her musical palette, which includes shades of shoegaze, ambient, North African music and gothic pop. The vocal arrangements owe a little to electronic dance music, as melodic phrases are doubled, phased and reversed to dazzling effect. This is at its most powerful on Traum, whose sumptuous polyphony is built from overlapping parts sung in different registers.

Christelle has been a familiar face in Bristol for a few years as the frontwoman of Vena Cava, one of the city’s finest guitar bands. She also made a pair of lovely, lo-fi EPs under the name Bambikill: “I’ve been recording song ideas since I was about thirteen – my mum still has hundreds of tapes in her attic. Vena Cava came about when I met Mardt [VC bass player Mardt Clancy], and it’s come together way more in the last few years. In my head Twin and VC are very separate though – musically and aesthetically they’re different animals.”

Hverir has its ‘rock’ moments, but on the whole it’s much more reflective than the music of Vena Cava. The one constant in Christelle’s various projects is the majestic guitar work: the way she uses FX to create a dynamic landscape of melody, texture and noise. “In the past I’ve always recorded myself playing live in my bedroom on a little Zoom recorder, which I’ve then put through Audacity and Bob’s your uncle,” she explains.

“I decided to step it up a bit for Hverir, and my friend Deej Dhariwal offered to record me, which turned out to be an amazing and eventful experience. I recorded everything one layer at a time.” In live performance Christelle loops the guitar and synth parts on the fly but other musicians are increasingly part of the picture: “I’m pretty into having people join me for the live show now, so I can make it a bit more of a performance and relax a teensy bit.”

Travel, dreams, horror, ecstasy: Hverir is a heady listen and no mistake. Was there a strategy for it from the start? “There was no plan,” Christelle insists. “It developed spontaneously while jamming alone in my bedroom. However, I’ve long been aware of certain ways I which I want to come across – I would never want to be viewed or stereotyped in either a sexualised or super-delicate light, but rather as the complex and frequently contradictory individual that I am.”

There are specific themes, though: “It’s also about breaking free of perceived cultural notions of femininity and masculinity, and not to be afraid of self-expression in whatever form it takes. I think it’s ok to show vulnerability as there’s a real strength in that, but I also like to focus on themes of empowerment and transcendence.” In short, Christelle explains, “Twin is about ultimate personal freedom, which I’ve come to believe more and more is the most important feeling in life one can have.”

Hverir is released May 25 on ZamZam Records. Pre-order it here. The launch show is at PRSC, May 26.  

Top image: still from Messiah video, directed by Sam Wisternoff.