Dani & Lizzy’s breakthrough came in 2013, when a simple video of Lizzy singing in front of her computer went viral. The song was “Dancing in the Sky,” a soulful vocal tribute to some close friends who they had lost, and its message of hope continues to spread, with 19 million YouTube views and counting.

The Vancouver duo’s debut album, Work of Heart, is a collection of pop and hip-hop, R&B and throwback soul, and every song was written by these twin sisters and born collaborators.

“We’ve always been a very close team,” says Dani Nelson, and while the siblings have their differences, even when it comes to their eclectic record collections — Lizzy listens to EDM and acoustic singer/songwriters while Dani’s more about Hip-Hop and RNB — they’ve been making music together since they were kids. As teens, they were rapping and breakdancing in a local hip-hop crew. More recently, they’ve brought their genre-blending material to Canadian Music Week and BC’s Shambhala Music Festival. And as songwriters, they’ve made international hits for the likes of The Offspring (“Cruising California”).

“We’ve always wanted to connect with people through our music, and this was such a blessing, being able to reach so many people. That’s what we’ve always wanted out of being musicians,” the sisters say. The honest emotion of “Dancing in the Sky” is just the beginning.

“Because we’re twins it’s really easy to feed off each other,” says Lizzy. “ Collaborating with Dani just comes naturally.” In fact the only outside songwriting credit still keeps things in the family. Their brother, rapper Emotionz, provides a verse on “Do it Again.”

That tune is Lizzy’s personal favourite of the bunch, a woozy R&B ballad about on-again/off-again relationships. “We get a lot of inspiration from the people around us,” says Dani. “Muse,” another album track, is literally all about that, a smooth and slow-burning pop smash that captures the feeling of falling in love “and how you can write 10 songs because of it.”

In their own words, Dani & Lizzy’s music is all about positivity. “The message is respect and love,” the sisters say, and that message, like their work, comes from the heart.