Bleached, like sisterhood, is forever for the Clavins
Sisters and former Mika Miko members Jennifer and Jessie Clavin get their feet wet as pop songwriters with Bleached, Tuesday’s headliners at the Earl.
- Courtesy Life or Death P.R.
- Jessie (left) and Jennifer Clavin
Siblings who are close as children often drift apart, or, at the very least, spend less time together once they grow up and pursue their ambitions. That’s not the case for musicians Jennifer and Jessie Clavin, sisters who came of age together in seminal post-punk outfit Mika Miko and are now cutting their pop songwriting teeth in Bleached. So far, their current band’s brief run has churned out three 7-inches, including one on influential indie imprint Suicide Squeeze, and an LP, the recently released Ride Your Heart , on Dead Oceans. Shortly before their ongoing tour, which includes a Tuesday, April 16 stop at the Earl, I caught up with the Clavins, chatting about the origin of Bleached, songwriting, and what it’s like to tour and record with your own sister.
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How did you guys come up with the name Bleached?
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Jennifer: Jessie and I grew up being into so many punk bands which all have really good band names. I tried to think on that level but also on things we relate to, and we both used to always bleach our hair and bleach our jean jackets. Also, bleach is forever and sisters are forever, so it made sense to call it Bleached.
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So it’s not a Nirvana reference?
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Jennifer: Actually, at first we were going to call it Bleach, but decided that was too much like Nirvana.