Sisters Moira and Claire MacMullin of Antigonish, Nova Scotia aren’t your average teenagers. They might be the only people we know to have had the chance to record at Joel Plaskett’s New Scotland Yard before they finished high school. With their first promising single now under their belts, ‘Your Voice’ might be the kick-off point to some musical careers.
Full of ukulele and glockenspiel (and a healthy dose of clapping for good measure) ‘Your Voice’ is reminiscent of First Aid Kit meets The Submarines. Bright and cheery, it’s the simple sort of song to kick up your heels for an early summer anthem.
It’s just the tip of the iceberg for Moira and Claire though. Moira has an album’s worth of songs in various stages of completion but had refused to write any more until something got recorded. There’s something to be said for the ability to stay focused.
They chose New Scotland Yard based on the strength of their past efforts (it is home base to Nova Scotia’s Rock-In-Chief Joel Plaskett after all), but primarily for Mo Kenney’s version of ‘Telephones‘.
Moira and Claire went into the studio with a handful of songs, but at the suggestion of engineer Thomas Stajcer they spent their time honing just a couple to completion. This meant taking songs they had worked on at home and polishing them up with harmonies and further instrumentation. What they ended up with was ‘Your Voice’ – one of the songs they had been begun singing together a couple of years ago and then completed the tune for it just before going into the studio.
Moira has just completed grade 12 and Claire grade 10 at Dr. J.H. Gillis Regional High School. Moira plans to attend the St. F.X. Bachelor of Arts and Science program in the fall. Both say that when it comes to music it’s still a bit of a wait-and-see situation, but the two have already been scheduled to perform at an Antigonish Art Fair.