“We’re introverts who like to perform, so a lot of this is very performative but in the most unique sense possible; the most authentic sense possible,” Folayan says. “We just balance it out with sleeping a lot or taking naps…”
“Or avoiding socializing,” LaNea adds.
“It’s a weird thing to be an introvert in this industry, but we have each other which is really nice — we give each other grace to just say no sometimes,” Folayan says.
Considering the duo has been performing together for the past four years , their balanced approach seems to be working.
At this point, you might expect me to make a casual mention of the girls’ ages; a throw-in stat used as an adjective to further illustrate just how wow-worthy their sudden rise to the top has been. While LaNea and Folayan undoubtedly have the baby faces of someone you’d expect to still be in school, if not just graduated, the pair is adamant about keeping their ages to themselves. Prior to our chat, their team made it clear that they weren’t looking to discuss their age, and it’s a veil they’ve consistently upheld throughout other interviews and online. The duo has posted a number of videos skirting followers’ questions regarding their age and comments about how young they look.
Their reluctance to share their age serves a greater purpose than adding a layer of mystery and intrigue to their careers in music, though; it levels the playing field. So often, women are approached with surface-level questions that men are rarely, if ever, asked — questions that place the focus on age and aesthetics as opposed to the art. It’s a tactic meant to discredit talent and plant seeds of doubt surrounding a person or group’s intelligence. By placing their ages in the vault, LaNea and Folayan are keeping all eyes front and center on their music.
Next, the duo hopes to run through Paris (LaNea’s dream destination for “You Wish”) and Tokyo (Folayan’s), but they don’t plan to run forever. “We want to up the ante — not that we’re like ‘Oh, we’re never gonna run again,’ but we want to up the short-form content,” LaNea says.
In terms of more singles or an album, the duo had one response: “There’s always going to be more music.”
