Foreign Tongue

In Hindi the word Kyu means ‘why’; achieving the correct pronunciation is much, much harder than you think.

The two young girls from Sydney who have been collaborating under this same name, Kyu, thought long and hard about how to best title their vocal/ synth-driven project.

 â€œFreya speaks Hindi and that’s a word she really likes,” Alyx says. “The pronunciation is so different to how it is spelt. When Freya says it it’s really nice, it’s got nasalisation at the end of it.

It’s a really beautiful word and we wanted something that had no connotations as a word, and was very percussive and punchy.”

Writing and performing together for just over a year, Alyx and Freya’s songs are built on the foundations of classical and world music. With an onstage set-up consisting of two keyboards, samplers, two glockenspiels and a whole lot of percussion instruments, there’s no chance of trying to squeeze Kyu into any one genre.  

“I don’t particularly think it’s experimental, or particularly tribal, I just think we do what we do and people have been trying to catagorise it. I think essentially it’s pop music, we just haven’t had the same influences as other pop musicians.”

Their debut self-titled album, released earlier this year, established Kyu’s unique approach to creating soundscapes, coloured with ambiance and harmonised vocal textures.

“From the very beginning we weren’t going to use lyrics. We were just going to make sounds or sing without lyrics. But here and there we’d grab some lines from out of our diaries and put them in. It has turned out to be a fairly lyrical project.

“I know the words are probably cheesy or corny or whatever. But they’re stemmed in such a real place; personal, vulnerable and real. We didn’t meditate on them at all because we didn’t think they’d be a feature and that’s given them a nice authenticity.”

Before venturing off to record their second album in Europe next year, Kyu are set to play a string of festivals in Oz this summer.

“Last year was the creative period, all up until December when we recorded the album. This year’s been all about playing and touring. I’m looking forward to returning to the canvas mid next year.”

Kyu perform at the 2high Festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse November 12-13.