If you haven’t yet heard of the emerging electronica band Zuster, this certainly won’t be your last time. Sisters Andie, 19, and Maggie Owens, 18, combine their engaging harmony, talent for producing music, and unique take on covers to trademark their band, Zuster. I got to sit down with this Memphis based duo to talk about their plans for the future, and the work put into starting up their own band.

Check out Zuster's modern interpretation of Johnny Cash:

Andie: The word means "sister" in Dutch, and people always ask if we’re Dutch. It was hard to find a name that implied sister without having the word sister in it. I was just doing research and I loved it. We are kind of more electronic now, so it goes well.

Maggie: As the “Owens Sisters” we were more country. That’s in the past.

Andie: This is like a new chapter. It’s weird when you hear that we used to sing country music.

Tell me a little bit about how you got started. What made you discover that you wanted to pursue music together?

Maggie: Well, we did choir for a very long time.

Andie: Pretty much we just grew up around music. We never really put ourselves in the spotlight ever.

Maggie: We were always in a huge group of people, performing in choirs or groups.

Andie: When we started performing together is when things started to become more public, and that actually became an option. We got out of some comfort zones. We click together when we sing.

Maggie: Yeah. We’re good at writing songs together. Me and Andie are the perfect team. I am the more creative... I have to be reined in. And that’s where she [Andie] comes in. She’s like the rock.

Did one of you push a little bit harder than the other when you were deciding that you wanted to start making your own music?

Andie: I did, at first.

Maggie: She was the pusher because she is the older one and the older one always gets more pressure to be the leader.

Andie: But now we are both equal.

What is the biggest thing so far that you’ve done to pursue music?

Andie: For Zuster, we’ve been working with a producer named Matt White. He’s awesome. We’re working on a few songs right now to probably release next year. Right now we are mainly focusing on putting some content out and getting a set together so that next summer we can hopefully go on a small tour.

Maggie: Pretty much our goal is to finish the songs that we have started writing, get them produced as well as we can as fast as we can, and learn so that when we perform next year we will know exactly what we are doing. We want to get our whole look together.

Andie: We want to pretty much just polish everything and then just go for it.

Maggie: We really want to have an awesome set that is really unique. Normally, people don’t think about that. You see a lot of people performing with their guitar or piano and it’s just an empty space surrounding them.

Andie: You can do a lot with the stage that you’re on.

Maggie: It helps us feel like we are in our own little bubble of happiness if we have cool stuff around us.

Would you say that you are in the “before” stage right now? Are you working towards everything at this point?

Andie: Yeah. The biggest thing we’ve done so far is finish our first single, which is “Do You Want Me.” Our next performance is in New Orleans, September 3^rd with Royal Tours in the French Quarter.

What would you say for the two of you is your biggest inspiration at this point?

Maggie: My biggest inspiration probably would be the fact that I know that the universe is always going to bring me back to making music. It’s ridiculous how apparent it is that I’m supposed to be a musician and that she’s supposed to be a musician. So this is the time that I’m just accepting it and I’m really going to push for it.

Andie: It sounds weird putting it like this, but we know that this is what we are supposed to be doing and what we are going to do. It’s motivation in and of itself to do something about it. If you don’t, then you’re just putting it off. It’s going to take five years to get a career going when it could take two or three, it just takes the work. It’s in our face. It’s what we’ve decided to do.

Listening to the two of your voices together, you are obviously unique and different. How did you develop your sound?

Maggie: I grew up listening to The Beatles and Johnny Cash and I’ve taken my favorite things from a bunch of artists. I’ll be listening to a song and I’ll say, “Oh, I really like what he did with his voice there.” We’ve put a lot of those sounds, mixed them all together and made them our own.

Andie: I feel like it’s been very unintentional.

Maggie: We just feed off of each other. We’ll be singing a song for the first time and we’ll feel where our voices are going, and it just happens. It’s all about the vibe.

The two of you now have this really special bond over music, have you always been close or has this been something that has brought you together?

Maggie: It’s definitely brought us together a lot.

Andie: We didn’t used to like each other at all, honestly. When I moved back to Memphis from Knoxville we became best friends immediately, and we’ve been best friends for the past year.

Maggie: Yeah, it just happened.

Andie: I’m just really glad that I get to share this type of a journey with her. It probably makes our bond that much stronger.

I know that you have been working on covers, have you been working on original music as well?

Maggie: Yeah, we are trying to write new music and we have so many songs that we have put together and a lot that are in the works. We are working on a lot of covers too.

Andie: Right now we really don’t have a ton of stuff out there, so right now we are really trying to amp it up and let that be our focus. You have to decide with your originals which ones you want to save. We have a few that we are saving to be really produced well. By next summer we will have the new music out.

Maggie: It’s hard when you are trying to get everything packaged and perfect before you shove yourself out into the world. It takes a while. The people in Memphis and in the music scene are so giving and so willing to help us for free. People are so kind.

Are you planning on staying based in Memphis?

Andie: I mean, until we have to leave. With this career choice you’re going to have to leave. You can’t stay in Memphis forever.

Maggie: Memphis is really tight knit. If you perform places, people will know you. Right now we are trying to stay a little more organic as opposed to people telling us what we should be.

Ten years from now where do you see yourselves? Is it “name in lights” and world tour? Or more, low-key like an indie style band?

Andie: I would say name in lights.

Maggie: I feel like I wouldn’t want to lose our organic vibe. We are definitely trying to move forward so we can repay and give back everyone who has helped us.

Andie: I’m not in this for the fame or the money. It’s not about that.

Maggie: To be able to do what you love and make a living off of it is a blessing.

Have you ever considered doing The Voice or America’s Got Talent?

Andie: We did America’s Got Talent one time. They emailed us and said they would pay for our flight to New York and paid for everything.

Maggie: To be honest, it was more for the experience. We pretty much only practiced the night before. This was before I knew how to hone my nervous energy to be something amazing. Everything happens for a reason.

What would you say has been the most challenging thing about the whole startup journey thus far?

Andie: I would say transitioning from not being very disciplined. It’s pretty much us two and our brains.

Maggie: Just figuring out how to make it work and actually doing it. Sometimes you feel like “I can’t really do this,” so you don’t really try. That’s the worst thing… to say you aren’t going to be able to do something, and just not try. That is what makes you a failure.

What about the most rewarding thing?

Andie: Seeing so many people come together and believe. We’ve always believed. God’s always let us know that this is what we are supposed to do. It makes it a lot different when you see other people doing stuff to help you for free. Having so many people do things to help you puts a lot of pressure on you. You don’t want to let them down.

What is the next step for you? What can we expect to see next?

Andie: Some shows.

Maggie: Definitely, I want to perform.

Andie: We want to get used to playing live before we go on a small tour. We want to figure out who we want to be on stage.

Maggie: We want to figure out our look and how we want to make the audience feel. When you’re on stage the audience is taking in your vibe, It’s an opportunity.

Andie: It’s like, “What can I do for these people?” We want to make people happy.

If you could say one final thing that you would want the general public to know about Zuster, what would that be?

Maggie: Just keep your eyes open. We might pop us somewhere near you.

Andie: If I could talk to people who are listening to our music, I would just want to say that we honestly aim to better the world. That sounds stupid, but we aim to be of service to people. We don’t so this for us, we do this for people.

Maggie: We want to see people smiling. Maybe if they are at a seven on the happy level, maybe they would be at a ten after seeing us perform.

Andie: We really try to have good content in the songs that we are singing to be things that are happy or helpful.

Maggie: The vibe is the whole thing. You can tell that we have good intentions and that we are loving. We like to share the love through our music.

For more covers, original music, event dates and everything Zuster follow them on Instagram and Facebook.