Neoni

**Neoni** is a band consisting of sisters Caitlin Powell and Sidney Powell, creating mainly alternative, pop, and electronic music.

## Official description

> SISTERS WHO ARGUE & WRITE SONGS
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> Caitlin and Sid combine modern alternative pop and electronic music. In short time they’ve built an extensive catalog, debuted their first album 'Wars in a Wonderland' in the Fall of 2021 and “All My Favorite Monsters” in 2022 and amassed over 450 million streams on Spotify, two viral TikTok songs DARKSIDE and ROYALTY with over 1 billion video views with 1 million user generated videos. Their music continues to connect with a broad audience worldwide.
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> Alternative + pop + electronic
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## "Neoni" meaning

*Neoni means zero in Scots Gaelic. We started at zero. It’s a reminder of who we are and how we got here! We started at zero and then our supporters started to arrive and they changed everything. The new name keeps us humble, it keeps us driven and it keeps us connected to our roots.*

## Neoni: History

### Early Life

In a Discord VC after the DOOMSDAY premiere, they explained that they were born in Duval County, Florida, then they moved to Columbia, South Carolina, then they moved to Denver, Colorado, then moved out of Denver but still within Colorado, and then they moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where they are currently living.

### Two Girls With Guitars

Sidney and Caitlin Powell started their band in 2013, when Sidney was just 12 and Caitlin was 15. They were initially a folk band, before transitioning to alternative pop as Neoni. When explaining why they started a band together, they explained in an interview that:
> "*When we were kids we really didn’t get along. We are two completely opposite people and we definitely hadn’t figured out how to combine our different opinions and skills and actually like do things together! But one Christmas neither one of us had saved up enough chore money to get our wonderful mother a candle or anything**.** So we were both like, “Hey mom what do you want for Christmas that doesn’t have anything to do with money?” Not that we spent all our money on stupid stuff or anything but, hypothetically… She had always wanted us to sing together but we had always found a way out of it… Now her moment had arrived! It’s not like we could say no that would make us terrible people. Our first cover together was a battle. We survived… Barely and in the end neither of us would admit it, but singing together had actually been… fun. So we started performing together and everything started from there!"*
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In a Discord VC after the DOOMSDAY premiere, Neoni explained that they started busking in the strip in front of Starbucks in downtown Golden, Colorado, outside a restaurant. They said that it was where they started busking together.

### Facing West

In 2014 or 2015, they changed their band name from "Two Girls With Guitars" to "Facing West". Under the name "Facing West", they released multiple singles as well as several albums: "Skyline (2014)", "Long Way Home (2015)", and "Footnotes (2017)", as well as an album of covers songs.

As "Facing West", they amassed a following of over 250,000, 3 million video views and almost 3 million streams on Spotify, when they began making trips to Nashville, collaborating with producer and co-writer David Spencer who mentored the girls in the development of their sound.

### Neoni

Sidney and Caitlin decided to change the name of their band from "Facing West" to "Neoni" in May 2019, stating that:
> *"Through the whole process of looking for a name we kinda relived the whole Facing West experience; what we learned, how we grew, where we came from. And that’s when the idea hit us! When we started the band we were busking on street corners, signing up for open mic nights and playing quiet restaurants"*
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When explaining what Neoni meant, they commented that:
> "Neoni means zero in Scottish Gaelic. When we started 7 years ago we had zero experience and zero knowledge. We started with open mic nights, street corner busking and videos with zero views. We chose Neoni because we started at zero. Then you all came along and changed everything!"
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Since 2019, Neoni have amassed over 450 million streams on Spotify as well as releasing over 70 singles and their two EPs, "Wars in a Wonderland" in August 2021 and "All My Favorite Monsters" in October 2022.

## Sources

1. ↑ https://weareneoni.com/about-us
2. ↑ https://fiercefabulousrevolution.com/2019/06/12/interview-neoni-its-our-everyday-decisions-that-decide-our-future-and-we-all-have-the-power-to-decide/
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://fiercefabulousrevolution.com/2019/06/12/interview-neoni-its-our-everyday-decisions-that-decide-our-future-and-we-all-have-the-power-to-decide/
4. ↑ https://www.girlgangmusic.com/qa-with-facing-west/
5. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/WeAreNeoni/posts/2457136214310865