The sisters known simply by their first names — Aly and AJ — have grown far beyond being the adolescent pop starlets that fans first came to know. After last month announcing a name change — 78Violet — to fit their more mature musical sensibilities, the twenty-something duo did a Billboard Tastemakers session on Mophonics Studio’s Manhattan rooftop to perform brand new single, “Hothouse” and another new track, “Boy” and to talk about their new sound, natural style, and film careers.

Aly Michalka says the ethereal, wistful “Hothouse,” is particularly special, “because we wrote it with a dear friend of ours who we’ve been co-writing a lot with over the past couple years, Mike Einziger from Incubus.”

Aly says the song is also an indication of the more mature music to come on the pair’s upcoming album. They are “just really finding who our sound is now as older, adult artists instead of just young teenagers,” she says. “I think that our life experience was definitely a huge part of making the full album.”

Coming six years after launching their careers as Aly & AJ with 2007 debut album “Into the Rush” and Hot 100 charting singles “Chemicals React” and “Rush,” 78Violet has not only been busy recording new music, they’ve also been performing live and the reaction to the new material has been instantly positive, says AJ Michalka. At a recent New York show the day after ‘Hothouse’ was released, “people already knew the lyrics… It was really, actually emotional for Aly and I because I look out at the audience and this is what we’re doing it for. It’s for them. And to see that response back is overwhelming. It’s incredible.” Continue reading 78Violet Live: Watch Aly & AJ’s Tastemakers Performance