Music / The Veronicas

I feel so untouched and I want you so much that I just can't resist you...

The Veronicas are Jessica and Lisa Origliasso, both born on December 25, 1984. Twins from Brisbane, Australia, both are self-taught guitarists and piano players known internationally for their catchy pop songs and sisterly antics.

Their first album, The Secret Life Of... was punky acoustic Power Pop, their second, Hook Me Up was dancey synthpop, and their third, The Veronicas is dark progressive pop with country, electronic and blues elements. Jess has described their music as like "if you melted a Barbie into some black nail polish and then sprinkled it with glitter and then maybe put some spit on it."

During the lack of album releases, Lisa started a side project called "Dead Cool Dropouts" with her close friend Tyler Bryant of Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown with Garageband, focusing on acoustic breakup songs; Bryant later contributed to their third album. Jess also had her own side project called Cakehole in 2007, which has a pleasant song called "Stab You."

After being stuck in Development Hell for over five years, they split from Sire Records and signed with Sony Music. Since then, they released their long-awaited third album, put out three singles from said album, and began writing their next. They have planned on filming a documentary, writing a book, and recording an EP as well as touring.

They briefly appeared as substitute coaches for The Madden Brothers of Good Charlotte on The Voice in 2016. They released a non-album single "In My Blood" while coaching, and it is intended to be a lead up to their fourth album.

They have worked with Clif Magness (who has written with Avril Lavigne), Billy Steinberg (Madonna, Cyndi Lauper), Max Martin (Britney Spears, Katy Perry), Eric Nova, Dead Mono, Vince Degiorgio, Toby Gad (Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys) and Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins.

Not to be confused with Betty and Veronica, but they did appear in a comic book◊ with Archie Comics due to a trademark dispute solved by cross-promotion.

Discography:

Albums

• The Secret Life Of... (2005)
• Hook Me Up (2007)
• The Veronicas (2014)
• Godzilla (2021)
• Human (2021)

DVD/CD Sets

• Exposed... The Secret Life of The Veronicas (2006)
• Revenge Is Sweeter Tour (2009)

EPs

• AOL Sessions Live (2006)
• Mtv.com Live (2006)
• Unplugged (2006)
• Untouched: Lost Tracks (2009)

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Tropes:

• Action Girl: In their "Lolita" video; well, they have guns anyway.
• An Aesop: "Everything I'm Not: has the message that you shouldn't change yourself to please a potential boyfriend or potential friend message.
• Album Title Drop: "Did You Miss Me?" features a "Life on Mars" title drop, when that was the name of the third album.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys:
  • "Dead Cool", "I Can't Stay Away".
  • Subverted with "I Could Get Used To This" and "Heart Like A Boat".
• Alone in a Crowd: Jess in the "You Ruin Me" video where she discovers the man she is sleeping with is in another relationship - she stands frozen amongst crowds of ballet dancers practicing.
• Always Identical Twins: They are actually fraternal twins.
• Arc Words / Verbal Tic / Author Vocabulary Calendar: They use the word "everything" a lot in the titling of their songs: "Everything I'm Not","Everything I Need", "Everything".
  • Messed Up, Screwed Up, F'd up was a theme all over the lyrics of Secret Life.
• Audience Participation Song: "4ever", "Everything", "Everything I'm Not", "This Love".
• Band of Relatives: Twins are twins.
• Best Served Cold: "REVENGE is Sweeter" and the "Everything I'm Not" video.
• Be Yourself: And be loved as yourself is the theme of Secret Life.
• Big Rock Ending: In Another Life
• Blonde Brunette Red Head: Often try out all these colours and black all the time.
• Boastful Rap: Popular, a parody on conceited musicians.
  • "Did You Miss Me?" is 1.5 minutes of brag.
• Bound and Gagged: The sisters do this to Jess' ballet instructor and lover at the end of the 'You Ruin Me' video.
• B-Side: "Hollywood", "Everything", "Did Ya Think", "How Long", "Don't Say Goodbye", "Insomnia", "Goodbye To You", "A Teardrop Hitting The Ground", "Cry".
• Break His Heart to Save Him: "In Another Life", "Worlds Apart", "All I Have", "Everything I Need", "Nobody Wins" all have this deep subtext.
• Break-Up Song: Where to start...
  • The most heartbreaking would be "In Another Life" and "Nobody Wins".
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: They are Perky Goths with emotional music but they are genuine, and listening to their interviews shows they have a clear intelligence of the music industry.
• Careful with That Axe: Jess does some fierce screams at the end of Mother Mother.
• Childhood Friend Romance: discussed in 'In Another Life,' but the narrator knows she needs to move on.
  • Psycho Bitch naturally has screams too. Lolita has screams too.
• Call-Back: "When we're together, You'll love me Forever" referring to their first single.
• Celebrity Endorsement: Their own clothes, Flirt! makeup and perfume!
• Concept Album:
  • Secret Life: They said themselves they had a Be Your Self complex while writing the album
  • Hook Me Up: Long distance relationships and fame side effects.
• Cover Version: Uprising, Skyscraper, Burnin Up, Mother Mother, Long Way To The Top, Baby One More Time, Grown Up Christmas List, Rock You Like A Hurricane, A Teardrop Hitting The Ground, Fallin' and more.
• Darker and Edgier: Their third album is definitely more mature than their first two, but there was a seven year gap between releases.
• Dead Pan Snarker: Sometimes in interviews they do it.
• Descent into Addiction: The video for On Your Side depicts this with the character of Ruby Rose, eventually culminating in a full-on overdose or suicide attempt, depending on your interpretation, when Jess' character leaves her because of her addiction. Made significantly more heart-breaking when you know that this is apparently roughly what happened between the two of them in real life when they dated eight years ago, and what caused their break-up. However, Ruby has since overcome her addiction, and the pair rekindled their relationship during the filming of the music video.
• Dirty Old Man: Discussed in "Lolita", due to being based upon the book.
• Dystopia: "Lolita" seems to be based in this world.
• Echoing Acoustics: Used in In Another Life and Mouth Shut as well as in the theatre scenes of 'You Ruin Me.'
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Most of the time.
• Fan Girls: Of Lady Gaga, they would not stop talking about how she opened the door for more eccentric popular music and ideas in a recent interview.
• Fun Size: Are aware of how they are often shorter than preteens, and will be the first to make jokes about it
• Femme Fatale: Take Me On The Floor, I Can't Stay Away, 4ever, Revolution, Lolita.
• Genki Girls: Never EVER have a break, ever. Found it hard to take a three month break before making the new record.

• Genre Roulette: Two albums in and have done pop, pop-rock, pop electronic, dance pop, classical pop, 80's inspired pop, rap, trip hop, and R&B.
• Genre Shift: Hook Me Up embraced the THEN-upcoming obsession with electronic music instead of the chick rock they were initially known for.
• Harsh Vocals: Jess does these live.
• Horrible Hollywood: "Hollywood" is a description of this topic.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Usually they both have black hair, but if one of them is blonde, it's Jess.
• Intercourse with You: "Take Me on the Floor", "Untouched", "This Love", "4ever", "All I Have", "I Can't Stay Away, "Everything", "Lolita, "Dead Cool".
• The Insomniac: Jess has said a couple times that Lisa tends to stay up late at night/refuse to sleep, even if they are working in the morning, and also that song called "Insomnia" listing all the reasons they write songs.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: "When It All Falls Apart", "Insomnia" and "Hook Me Up"
• Love Is a Drug: "I Can't Stay Away"
• Leave Me Alone!: Has a song called this.
• Lighter and Softer: Not in the most obvious way but Hook Me Upwas relatively more fun and silly than their debut.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Jess is darker, fiercer, more direct, less offended and tends to wear darker clothes most of the time. Lisa is kinder, sweeter, more smiley, polite, takes criticism more harshly and wears lighter clothes most of the time.
  • Even applies to the instruments they play. Jess plays guitar, Lisa plays piano.
• Lonely at the Top: "Hollywood"
• Love at First Sight: "Fall So Hard".
• Melismatic Vocals: Lisa does do this a lot.
• Minimalistic Cover Art: Hook Me Up and Secret Life Of has some gradient, their names and the album titles.
• Mood Whiplash: Speechless then Heavily Broken on their debut.
• Motor Mouth: Untouched, Said in fast speed without a breath.
  I go ooh ooh, you go ah ah/lalalalalalalala/I can't lie lie lie lie lie lie
  I wanna wanna wanna get get get what I want/Don't stop/Give me give me give me what you got got
  Cause I can't wait wait wait any more more more more/Don't even talk about the consequence
  Cause right now you're the only thing that's making any sense to me/And I don't give a damn what they say, what they think think
  Cause you're the only one who's on my mind/I'll never ever let you leave me
  I'll try to stop time for ever, never wanna hear you say goodbye (bye bye bye)
  • "Did You Miss Me?" has three separate verses in the first minute and a half of it.
• New Sound Album: Every album so far
• Nice Girl: They're known for being very friendly and sweet-natured, especially with fans.
• Non-Appearing Title: "Secret", "Everything I Need"
• Obsession Song: Everything, I Can't Stay Away, Could've Been, Let Me Out, Lolita.
  You're my possession, I'm your obsession.
  Don't tell me never, you'll love me forever...
• One-Steve Limit: Jess has dated Steve Childs and Steve Coogan. Notable as she stayed with them for about four years and recorded songs with them.
• Perky Goth: Some of the most upbeat artist's in the world, but are definitely borderline gothic.
• Performance Video: Revolution
• Piss-Take Rap: Popular besides also being a parody of Boastful Rap's.
• Power Ballad: In Another Life is at least one example of this.
• Precision F-Strike: "This Is How It Feels", "Did You Miss Me?" and "Cold"
  • Subverted on "When It All Falls Apart" which they called cool to be uncool.
• Punk in the Trunk: used in the 'You Ruin Me' video to the ballet instructor.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: utilized often in the self-titled era.
• Re Arrange The Song: Besides the standard acoustic versions of all their singles, and some non-singles which hit their heart (Heavily Broken).
  • Revenge Is Sweeter was sped up in their live album "Revenge Is Sweeter", to the songs benefit.
• Real Soon Now: Their Life On Mars album, which was in limbo for approximately four years. Released in 2014 as a Self-Titled Album.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: This Is How It Feels, Everything I Need, Revenge Is Sweeter (Than You Ever Were), Cold, When It All Falls Apart
• Record Producer: Toby Gad did most of their second album.
• Rock-Star Song: "Popular" and "Hollywood" feature elements of this trope.
  • "Lolita" is about this hypothetically Nothing is secret in Hollywood and Word of God.
  • "Did You Miss Me?" Also plays with this.
• Sanity Slippage Song: Hook Me Up, When It All Falls Apart, Heavily Broken, Hollywood, Insomnia, How Long
  • The video for 'You Ruin Me' takes this to another level.
• Self-Backing Vocalist: They do all the vocals on all their albums
• Self-Titled Album: Their third album, The Veronicas.
• Shout-Out:
  • Literature/Lolita, just like Lana Del Rey, who influenced them on their new album.
  • Also allude to Little Red Riding Hood in: "I'm lost in the woods, you're baring your teeth".
  • Did You Miss Me? shouts out to Heathers, Snow White, Bang Bang Bang, some common phrases in rap songs and the whistles in 2012/2011 pop songs.
  • Lolita's music video alludes to Snow White & the Huntsman and Revenna's milk baths.
  • You Ruin Me's video is based closely on Black Swan
  • The cover for In My Blood was reportedly inspired by Mystique.
• Sibling Team: Twins!
• Significant Birth Date: They were born on Christmas Day which nicely fits their upbeat, sweet-natured personalities.
• Silly Love Songs: This Love, Speechless, I Could Get Used To This, Heart Like A Boat.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss / Belligerent Sexual Tension: "Mad Love", "Revolution".
• Sleeping with the Boss: Jess is hinted to have been in a sexual relationship with the teacher or director of the ballet company in the video for 'You Ruin Me.'
• Small Girl, Big Gun: in the Lolita video.
• Studio Chatter: Before "Mother Mother" on their debut album.
  • Before "Insomnia" Jess is asleep
  • At the end of "Change The World" We wanna change your bad attitude! (laughter)
  • At the end of "Luv" ''Shut up Lisa!"
  • At the end of "I Don't Wanna Wait" there is a laughing mess-up of the lyrics.
• Scare Chord: Most of Lolita is plain singing, but they edited the You'll love me Forevah part that ends the chorus into an "AH!!!!" which finishes off the instrumental break downs and scares the listener.
• Self-Deprecation: Did a song called "Double Trouble (Samey Samey)" which exists purely for this purpose. They know how crazy the whole twins thing makes people.
• Soprano and Gravel: Jess does the screams live and Lisa handles the softer singing parts.
• Spoken Word in Music: Untouched, Cold, Insomnia
  • "Did You Miss Me?" uses part of the famous "I'm Not A Heather I'm A Veronica" bit off Heathers the movie.
• Stalker with a Crush: One of their exes is implied to turn into one of these right after their relationship ends in This Is how It Feels
  You got nothing to say, gettin' in the way
  Show up at my house
  You're gettin' so obsessive
  • The guy on the receiving end of Secret also plays this role.
• Subdued Section:
  • "This Is How It Feels" verse three
  • "This Love", Chorus 3, takes everything away except for the electronic piano.
  • "Revenge Is Sweeter" last part of third verse, first part of chorus after that.
  • "In Another Life" first part of the last chorus
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Have a big take no crap image, will go after people who hurt them and write snarky songs, but are sensitive to issues in their home country and use their platform to promote animal welfare, civil rights, gay rights, women's rights and equality.
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: "Speechless" off their debut.
• Take That!:
  • In the lyrics
  You're On The Way Down...I can't wait to see you burn.
  • Aimed at Ryan Cabrera, who had a song called that bolded part. The song with these lyrics is Revenge is Sweeter (Than You Ever Were)
  • "Did You Miss Me (I'm a Veronica)" is one against Sire Records.
• This Is a Song: "Did You Miss Me?"
• Trash the Set: The In My Blood video.
• Twin Cest: A part of their very early videos until they grew out of it.
• Unplugged Version: Sessions@AOL, Mtv.com Live EP and always a section of their live show.
• Vocal Tag Team: Twins often change vocals during song.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: The story line behind the "When It All Falls Apart" music video and the second verse of the actual song.
• With Friends Like These...: Outright stated in When It All Falls Apart:
  Don't know who my real friends are (anymore)/I put my faith in you
  What a stupid thing to do (when it rains it pours)
• Woman Scorned: Revenge Is Sweeter (Than You ever were), Everything I'm Not, Did Ya Think, This Is How It Feels
• Yandere "Lolita", "I Can't Stay Away", "Everything", "Mad Love".

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I'd never let you down, down