Veronicas on global campaign
The Veronicas' tour van hurtles towards Phoenix, Arizona, the first stop on the Brisbane-raised pop duo's tour supporting white-hot Aussie boy band 5 Seconds of Summer.
"Rehearsals have been amazing and the guys have been unreal, very sweet and cool," Jessica Origliasso says, sitting in the van alongside twin sister Lisa.
A decade ago the Origliasso girls were the wonders from Down Under, invading the US armed with 4ever, a laser-guided hit devised by international super-producers Max Martin and Dr Luke.
The Veronicas' ARIA Award-winning 2005 debut album The Secret Life Of . . . sold quadruple platinum in Australia while the 2007 follow-up Hook Me Up sold half that but spawned the international Top 10 single Untouched.
With endorsements ranging from Calvin Klein and Target to marriage equality and the epic Revenge is Sweeter tour spanning 2008-09, the twins were ubiquitous for the best part of four years.
Then things went quiet. The pair worked on their third album without producing much for fans, besides 2012 single Lolita - a mere drop in a drought.
Word filtered out that the Veronicas had split from Warner Brothers, eventually signing with another major, Sony (but more on that later).
"We were in the studio every day, honestly, working on music," Jessica says. "That didn't stop."
In September, they returned with the ballad You Ruin Me, which raced to the top of the ARIA and Australian iTunes charts.
Despite their history of hits, Jessica insists she and her sister didn't expect such an instant and warm embrace from music lovers.
"It was overwhelming and really incredibly surprising in the best possible way. We set ourselves up with very low expectations, or no expectations," she says.
In addition to becoming only the Veronicas' second ARIA No. 1 single after 2007's Hook Me Up, You Ruin Me heralds their self-titled third album, released today.
Jessica says the themes of the album are "rebirth and empowerment", and the girls sound as feisty as ever on the cheeky Did You Miss Me (I'm a Veronica), which carries the refrain "Down Under, we don't take no prisoners".
Double negatives aside, the bombastic statement was co-written with US hit-makers Toby Gad and Josh Alexander, who were closely involved in the Veronicas' previous two albums. Did You Miss Me also stars Jessica's former boyfriend and Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, who plays guitar on the track. "He's an incredible man," she says.
The flipside to this ego-driven missive is the poignant You and Me, which closes the album. "Side by side on a motel floor/Waiting up for our daddy to call us/Doesn't matter where we are/Home's the two of us," the twins sing in tight harmony.
"That's a very special song," Jessica says. "When we wrote that we were going through a lot together. We were just writing our story, our life story and the fact that through every challenge - every up, every down - at the end of the day we have each other.
"It was really nice to be able to indulge our singer/songwriter side and tell a story without thinking about anything else."
The feisty Did You Miss Me and deeply personal You and Me showcase different responses to the career paralysis the Veronicas experienced while unravelling their "contractual bind" with Warner.
"We were unable to release music, so we just focused on creating: writing songs, recording songs and creating an album," Jessica says. "We did a lot of travelling, we did a lot of personal stuff during that time of just getting to know ourselves on a spiritual level. We learnt to look after ourselves, just grew as young women."
The fan of New Age thinking and concepts such as "divine timing" adds that the Veronicas had to wrest control of their music.
"It's just knowing your power," Jessica says. "Knowing that your power does not lie within a company making decisions whether you're capable of something or not . . .
"We felt at the mercy to some extent of a company that didn't have their s… together to structurally be able to release and support us, so we took our power back. That was a very long and challenging experience but I'm glad we went through it."
Now the Veronicas are poised, once again, to take on the world. The 5 Seconds of Summer support slot is merely an early step on another global campaign, with the girls this week announcing a national tour kicking off in Perth next February.
Before then there's an important milestone to celebrate: Jessica and Lisa turn 30 on Christmas Day. They don't have firm plans but expect to spend it with family in Australia.
"I'm so excited about turning 30," Jessica laughs. "I must be the only person so excited about turning 30. Everyone else that I talk to gets really freaked out."
She half-jokes that "world peace" would be her ideal gift. How about something a little more realistic?
"A number one album? That would be amazing, obviously, very, very cool, but world peace would be nice. I don't know if that's going to happen by Christmas. I'll just put it out there to the universe."
The Veronicas self-titled album is released today.
The Veronicas play the Perth Concert Hall on February 12. Tickets go on sale from Ticketek on November 27 with pre-sales starting Monday.
