By Aleksandra Bliszczyk
WALLAN music duo Flaxxon released their debut album Silver Spoon last week, with a message of speaking out against harassment and bullying.
Twin sisters Yasmin and Yolanda Absolom, 23, dealt with bullying at school such as physical attacks, being spat on, name-calling and vandalisation.
“Kids would go into our lockers, throw water, lollies, everything all over our books so they were all ruined. And then it started getting physical,” Yasmin said.
“After that, I just said to myself, this can’t keep happening, we have to stand up and say something. And we did we became a lot stronger, but we never really got to say what we wanted to say until the album.
“We’ve been able to write the entire album based on our experiences, and we’re able to now say, through song and through lyrics, what we wish we could have said at school.”
The pair had always been passionate about music, performing covers in their spare time and both achieving perfect 50 study scores in music industry skills in VCE, but they never thought they’d have the time or space to write an entire album together – until the pandemic.
While studying criminal justice at university, they wrote all 14 pop tracks during lockdown, the ideas for which they said came effortlessly.
Their first two singles, Barbie Doll and Serve It, were released in late 2020, when Silver Spoon was primed for release, but they decided to push it back to March in order to throw a launch party and plan a statewide tour post-lockdowns.
“We had so many people that were just bystanders, and they could see how much we were hurting, but never said anything,” Yolanda said.
“If you’re in that position, say something. Don’t be afraid if they’re going to turn on you, you need to be strong enough to say, ‘that’s not okay’.”
The pair sold more than 120 tickets to their album launch party at the Hidden Valley Resort on Saturday night, and both said they hope to reach young people across the country to encourage them to call out harmful behaviour.
The pair acknowledged the timeliness of their album release, coincidentally coinciding with the March 4 Justice against sexual harassment and assault last week buoyed by the movement for both men and women to call out toxic behaviour.
Yolanda said calling out bullies in school, whether as a target or a bystander, was the best way to break the cycle.
“A lot of our followers are the younger generation so we’re trying to target those people, because … if you do it from a young age, you’re going to continue that through the rest of your life,” she said.
“And if you’re feeling bullied, or patronised, or isolated, or things like that, you can listen to this [album] and it’ll give you the power to stand up.”
