Chloe: Try anything.
It's okay to fail and make bad songs or bad beats.
I've made plenty bad beats.
Halle: That's always been a theme that our parents have drilled in us.
We are capable of doing so much and we can figure anything out with ourselves and with
our own minds.
I think that's kind of why we gravitated towards each other, because two brains is better than one.
Chloe: How my sister and I got into making beats.
I think it just kind of came secondary when we were just writing our original music and
our own songs.
It was very experimental for us.
We kind of just found our way by figuring it out.
Halle: Yeah, my sister has always been so savvy with technology and so smart, so this
type of stuff comes very easy to her.
And it's really fun, because it's just a creative process in our living room and we're just
... Whatever she plays I just kind of sing melodies and then we just kinda catch a vibe
from there.
Chloe: This is where we create all of our music, guys.
I’m just gonna show you, so like, got our monitor, keyboard, and then this is where
we record everything.
Chloe: So when we first started creating the song "Warrior," we started off with these
chords, with this synth.
Chloe: My favorite plug-in is Omnisphere.
That plug-in has the coolest sounding synths that are different and still like familiar
in a way.
Halle: We were throwing out melodies and the melody that came first was the "I could be a warrior."
Chloe: Yeah, it was literally like…
Halle: “I could be a warrior."
"Yes I am a warrior."
"There’s no need to worry love."
"Look around, it’s glorious."
"Close your eyes and taste the sun."
And when we first heard that we were like, “Hmm, that’s kinda cool.”
Chloe: So next I kind of just transposed that main synth sound, and just an octave lower
so it has a little bit of aggression to it.
Chloe: And then after that, I continued layering the synths.
Just an arpeggiated scale of what we were playing, but it was higher with that same
synth and it was like ...
Halle: This sound reminded me of a video game.
One of my favorite sounds that my sister used was definitely this choir sound.
Chloe: When we add our backgrounds and our harmonies with it, it kind of compliments
pretty nicely and well.
Chloe: And it made it feel like church, in a way.
Like a cathedral or something.
No matter how delicate or light the song is, we always add 808s.
Halle: Always 808s.
Chloe: Always.
No matter what.
Halle: They just make it feel better.
Chloe: Yeah.
I use 808 Warfare a lot.
I love the slide 808s because it's not just some simple "Boom, boom, boom," but it goes
like "Boom, BOOM, boom."
Halle: You know, it just adds that extra bang.
Chloe: Yeah, the heartbeat.
Halle: Yeah, it kinda gave us that, “Oh, what’s this?”
Chloe: Stank on it.
Like even though it’s a movie song you can add a little stank on it.
Halle: Yeah
Chloe: So that’s what the 808s help do.
The organ just played the same exact parts that the other synths played, but it just
added another layer.
Chloe: Classic, but old school.
Chloe: Time to get to the fun part.
The drums.
My favorite part.
With our drums, we love to layer.
If you just use like, one kick and one snare, that's great and all, but we like multidimensional.
Halle: She's really good at layering.
Chloe: So then the stomps came.
And then, because I love to layer my drums I like it to be very rhythmic.
Chloe: It feels tribal in a way, and I like that because the drums weren't just your typical
stomp, clap, stomp, clap.
Of course I had to add some hi-hats.
Chloe: There's this transition sound, this like reverse breath.
Chloe: And of course we had to add some percussive instruments in there, like the crashes and
this really cool "Hey!"
Chloe: Ms. Ava DuVernay, the director of the movie ‘A Wrinkle in Time,’ she reached
out to our team and she was like, "Hey girls, I'd love to have a song from you two for this movie."
"Do you have anything?"
Halle: Yeah, so we sent it off to her.
Chloe: The same night!
Halle: Yes.
The same night.
She loved the song and she wanted to hop on a call with us.
She said, "Maybe just add something in the verse to make it feel like cinematic earlier
in the song, since I'm going to be using a whole minute of it in the film.
So it can get to the point."
And so beautiful sister here thought, "Oh, cool.
I'll just add strings in the first verse, so that it feels more dynamic and that it
feels like it's building faster," and that's exactly what she did!
Chloe: It kind of took the song to another place, even when we already liked it.
That just comes to show you can always make things better.
Chloe: Whenever my sister and I write the song, we want the song to feel very personal.
We don’t want it to sound preachy at all, and sometimes inspirational songs can get
to that preachy stage.
Halle: Preachy.
Yeah.
Chloe: But in order to avoid that, you have to speak from your heart.
Halle: And speak to yourself, I feel like is what helps.
It's kind of like a gradual build up of you telling yourself like, "I can be a warrior.
Yes I am a warrior.
Okay, I can do this."
Chloe: "There's no need to worry love."
Halle: Yeah, and just building up that confidence within yourself.
I feel like many people can sit with that and relate to that in feeling like, "Okay, here I go."
Chloe: “Uh oh.”
Someone told us they use it as their workout song!
Halle: I know.
I was so surprised!
Chloe: I know!
I never thought of it as a workout song, but alright!
Do you!