Bands typically start to blow up only after having released one or maybe two semi-successful albums. However, brother-sister duo Xylo became an internet sensation before releasing one complete album — they still only have four singles out.
All four songs have been released on SoundCloud, two of which have over one million views. Each song was posted separately and each became an instant hit.
The siblings, Chase and Paige Duddy, had never been really into creating music together as kids, partly because of their 10-year age difference. Even once they started to work together in 2014, they didn’t fully realize their potential as a team.
Their first project together was a PacSun campaign that Chase Duddy had been writing a song for. He needed a female voice to layer over the instrumentals he wrote, so he turned to his sister for help. They became extremely popular after this and wrote another song for PacSun called “America.” After its immediate success, they wrote more songs. However, they decided not to release them immediately. Ultimately, that was the smarter move, as they gained popularity through the slow releases of subsequent songs. They now have a manager who found them through their PacSun campaign.
The duo’s songs can be described as slow pop. Singer Paige Duddy has a natural and light voice that lends a hazy tone to their songs. The instrumentals are also very light, but they have an element of electronics to them. This fun mixture of indie pop and alternative styles have undoubtedly contributed to their online success, but they will likely become even more widespread.