It isn’t obvious now, but acoustic duo Last Name Basis used to hate each other. I look at them and try to imagine such a reality, but at the moment one would be forgiven to think that Bells and Tor hatched from the same egg.
Born out of necessity, the band was formed in high school, when the two singer-songwriters were forced together in their music org. Tor, the older one, played the Regina George to Bell’s Cady Heron.
“I was like, this lower batch girl” Tor recalls with faux disdain, remembering the tension that predicated their relationship. Petty as it may sound, it carried on for quite some time until the two went on a school retreat. Needless to say, the metanoia was real.
Such is their fortified friendship that Last Name’s set at AMP’s Rites of Passage seems to bring everyone closer together. Maybe it’s the acoustic set-up and its ability to foster intimacy in the most dispersed of audiences. Maybe it’s just their sheer talent: armed with nothing but their voices and Tor’s guitar, the two make for a compelling act, despite the obvious limitations of being so stripped-down. They open with a clever mash-up of Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) and Adele’s Rumor Has It. Bells starts with minimal accompaniment and innocent vocals, before Tor jumps in with soulful conviction. They meet one another at the chorus, harmonizing effortlessly. I compliment them for their vocalization two weeks later. They gush with delight.
“Dude, it took so long.” Bells tells me, “[Harmonizing] gave us such a hard time [at first].”
Evidently, practice paid off. They perform another mash-up, this time of Emily King’s Down and Distance. John Legend’s P.D.A. (We Just Don’t Care) is given an acoustic treatment, after which they perform Woman, by favorite music duo HONNE. They introduce their original song, Crushie, as a joint manifesto recalling their entry into college and all the cute boys that made that transition so memorable. Their set feels personal, because it is. Bels and Tor only write about real experiences, translating life into art.
“I like how, being a duo, [we] get to [have] a personal language with the audience,” Tor says.
Bells nods. “Even when we [cover] songs, we always have to have something to latch on to.”
It’s this individualized edge that allows for the room they perform in to shrink exponentially. It’s as if Last Name Basis’ friendship—the happy crushes, the frustrations, every experience—has been recorded in their music, and now they’re inviting you to be a part of it.