It's almost eerie the way Tami and Tessanne Chin finish each other's sentences. "We were in Little People together. we did everything together," both girls said as they recounted some childhood memories.

"We used to sing in the fan. that's probably why we both have bad sinuses," says older sister Tami, adding that, they always wanted to be performers. The sisters - a year and three months apart - say they cannot remember what life was like without the other and that sometimes they feel like twins.

The Chin sisters, who are both recording artistes, stopped by the Observer last Saturday to chat briefly about life, love and being siblings who must share the limelight. Their meanderings, punctuated with quirky jokes, outbursts of laughter and a dash of sarcasm, made for a heady mix of great conversation and 'off-beat' life lessons.

"This one here is a clothes thief," Tami said, pointing to her sister. "An' hair products thief, an' make-up thief. she's a very terrible thief," Tami added, with both girls erupting in laughter. The laughter continued when 'Tessie' described her sister as "a foodie".
"She get vex if she nuh eat weh she want," she added. Tami, according to her sister, is also the family joker who always has her on the floor rolling.

"Tessie has been saying that she wants to be a singer since she was like five years old," said Tami, before Tessanne interjected that her sister is a trained ballerina and an "awesome dancer".
"She still a try teach me, but me an' ballet nuh gree. gi me some Dutty Wine," said Tessanne, even as she and her sister continued to laugh.

Jokes aside, Tami admitted that though there was some sibling hatred during their early teens (when the family migrated to England) Tessanne has now become "the only friend I'll ever have for the rest of my life".
"We're close to each other not just because of the music but I can tell her anything that I go through in the business and she understands," said Tessanne.

Both she and Tami claim to be very protective of each other. Tessanne even admitted that back in prep school, she "beat up a girl" for her sister. They even share the creative processes of their music.
"We write together, we work on Tami's stuff an' she'll help me with my stuff," says Tessanne, adding that, Tami's dancehall-pop material helps her to express another side of her creativity.

"I'm not necessarily singing it, but I can write music that's fun and sexy. I like being deep but sometimes me jus' waan bruck out," Tessanne said. They said too, that the hook for Tami's popular Hyperventilating track came about while they were laughing.
"We were laughing like ha-ha-ha. and we were like that sounds like we were hyperventilating. ha-ha-ha-hype, hey we got something," Tami said, turning to her sister as both of them laughed at the fond memory.

Their parents, Richard and Christine Chin used to sing in a band called the Carnations, so it is little surprise that they and all their siblings have an affinity for music. Growing up, the girls remember hearing music from Gloria Estefan, Whitney Houston, The Carpenters and The Cranberries play in their house.
With the childhood recollections complete, Tessanne started to talk about how her sister inspires her.
"She pushes me to do better in a lot of aspects, not just music but life," she said.

"It's hard because we face terrible stereotypes and people try to put us against each other. we have to be strong before the world tries to break us," Tami interjected. She added that, many critics judge them on what they look like or sing about.

"It's not our problem, we don't have a problem with who we are. we are all unrepeatable miracles of God," Tessanne said.
Tami believes her sister's career has taken off and "we're going to see the effects of that really soon". While she is not surprised at her sister's newfound success, Tami added that she cannot lose because "Tessie is my sister".
"We both have our own paths. there's space for everybody, you don't have to fight somebody for that space, create your own," Tessanne said.

Tami's path over the last year has led her to a name change of sorts; she now prefers to spell her last name 'Chynn'.
"I just wanted my name to represent how I'm feeling, dynamic and different," she said adding that she thought her last name was like that ".boring Chin weh everybody have pon dem face".

She said too that, people now accuse her of trying to run away from her Asian features. This, she said is absurd since, 'chynn' is pronounced the same way. Tessanne agreed and said that, in the future she might also opt for her sister's preferred spelling.
Ever the jokers, the girls mentioned that when they were younger they thought their dad was famous "because everybody called him Mr Chin". Back then, they didn't know that most Jamaicans referred to Chinese people as Mr Chin.

Though both sisters are singers, they say a collaboration between them is highly unlikely since their musical flavour is like "chalk and cheese". With Tami set to start an XM Satellite Radio tour of the United States this month and Tessanne's new video release, both girls will continue to follow their respective dreams.
"Nothing is gonna come between us, not even our greatest passion," Tami said.

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