Six years ago I found myself sweating through my t-shirt in a park adjacent to the University of Illinois-Chicago waiting for a group of teenagers touted as the next big thing in Chicago finished a sound-check. That was 2012’s Spark in the Park and the band was Kids These Days, the vaunted Voltron that spawned many of our favorite acts today, among them Vic Mensa, The Social Experiment, Ohmme, and Marrow. In the years that followed I often wondered where that next spark would come from, who would push the kids forward again? That question seemed to be answered upon meeting the Burns Twins this summer at a Mexican restaurant in Pilsen. With a background and understanding that speaks both to the past and impending future, the pair of 18-year-old musicians appear uniquely suited to take on the task.

The brothers possess all the trappings and stereotypes of twin siblings. Eddie is the comfortable star, enjoying his first full year side-stepping college. The wild-haired, sleepy-eyed teen often appears aloof in his own thoughts, his commonly-worn striped joggers often clashing with whatever else has been assembled. Seemingly always groggy from late nights practicing, the young drummer has raised eyebrows in even the most talented of rooms with his free-wheeling process which led him to handling the backing duties for the likes of The O’My’s, Malcolm London and Wilson. Meanwhile, Isaac, better known as IZ, is the somewhat steadying presence between them. He just returned from an experimental semester at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. Following very much in his father’s footsteps, he possesses a handle of the trumpet that is years beyond his age and has emerged as the latest in a brass-lineage that is becoming increasingly illustrious and appears well-heeled to assert himself to his place in the greater picture. Whereas Eddie is often the easily out-there one, IZ, who produced Eddie before putting his trumpet where his head was, talks often of the business side of the music and seems to understand the position he and his brother have found themselves in.

“When I went to school I’d be talking to my friends and they got tired of this shit, but I just gotta learn the business of the music. Like I was standing with Eric, Carter and Marcus and we were talking literally the business aspect and the efficiency of making music and how to do it and Carter told us something that completely changed the way we make music in like five minutes,” said IZ on a break home over Thanksgiving break. “These people who are around us are showing us different ways of doing things, this is how you can go about this and the model of not signing and making your music yours has been something we’ve really been focusing on.”  

To be sure, Eddie and IZ’s place in the larger context of the Chicago Renaissance has been in place for some time. While IZ follows in the lineage of his father and Segal & Miller, Eddie has found a home in percussion and learned the nuances of drumming by taking lessons from Greg “Stix” Landfair. It’s undeniable that the influence of groups like KTD and The O’My’s, who subsequently took the brothers under their wing, have proven to be a huge catalyst in the musical development and understanding.

True to the spirit of those influences and those who came before them, the brothers have dived into the local scene headfirst. Since graduating from Parker High School last May, which counts Maceo Haymes as an alumnus, Eddie and IZ have appeared on a myriad of stages big and small. Together and solo they have rarely said no to a gig whether it be as their own project, The Burns Twins or playing the support role for acts like London, The O’My’s and Wilson when he performed at last year’s North Coast Music Festival. Through it all, they’ve maintained the mentality instilled similarly in acts like those pacing the Social Experiment and serve as an appropriate loop to segue to the next up.

In the simplest of terms, the two brothers are perfectly suited to anchor the next wave.

“Greg Landfair pretty much taught me most of what I know, definitely shaped me stylistically so it’s just been incredible seeing them be successful through Kids These Days, watching them break up and  keep going and never really stop and that’s just really inspiring and they’ve just been so kind to bring me and my brother along to rehearsals and sessions and be like older brothers to us, it’s just been incredible to experience first hand,” said Eddie. “I’d love to carry the torch. I love that the music that I make makes me feel good and that it makes other people feel good so why not spread that kind of love? I don’t know if it's a full responsibility but at this point in time with everything going on in the world I think as an artist I have an immense responsibility to spread love and eliminate all that hate, so I guess I do feel a responsibility to that.