It's hard to believe the duo of RyanDan were once in a boy band.

Their strong vocals and classical leanings seem too powerful for pop tunes.

But they were - they were two-thirds of b4-4 - and they did very well at it, earning a Juno nomination for best new group, but they knew it wasn't a vein they could continue in.

Their epiphany came when the 28-year-old identical twins, who, along with Ohad Einbinder, were touring Germany as b4-4. They received a phone call from their mother in Toronto, telling them she had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

"We stopped everything to be with her," said Ryan, during a phone interview. "We spent three months with her. One day she sat us down and said she felt guilty and that she didn't want us to stop our music."

The brothers went into a recording studio and belted out the Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli song, The Prayer, their mother's favourite song.

"From that moment, we knew exactly what we wanted to do," Ryan said. Some might think Ryan and Dan Kowarsky have had an easy go of it. And they would be, in a way, right.

The brothers grew up the youngest of five children. Their father, Paul, is an opera singer and cantor at Beth Tzedek Synagogue in Toronto, the largest synagogue in North America, while their mother plays piano. Their older brother, Glen, is also an opera singer.

When they were 18, the pair, who had shared the lead in their high school's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, walked into the Toronto offices of Sony Music.

"We asked the secretary to take our demo CD to the company president or whomever she could," Ryan said. "She was getting really annoyed with us when two guys walked out a set of two doors and we ended up singing for the president."

They were signed right then and there and, in 1999, the pair and Einbinder, released the album b4-4, which went on to sell 100,000 copies in Canada alone. The trio also released a 2003 follow-up, In Your Face, in Germany only, on the advice of their management at the time, which included notorious boy band mogul Lou Pearlman (Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync), who is in jail awaiting charges for operating a Ponzi scheme

"It came a little too easily," Dan said. "You need people to say no to you."

"It was fun. We had a great time. It was a learning experience on how to be on stage, do interviews, be in a studio, but then it was frustrating," Ryan said. "We were playing to a young audience and the focus was more on our hair, our style and our clothes.

"After a few years, we were touring in Germany and we started to say we didn't feel happy," he added.

After spending some of 2005 in Toronto with their mother, the brothers left for England in 2006, armed with a new contract with Universal and new management.

"That's when everything started," Dan said.

RyanDan went into the Surrey, England home studio of songwriter Terry Britten, who penned Tina Turner's hit What's Love Got To Do With It, and producer Steve Anderson (Kylie Minogue, Paul McCartney).

RyanDan initially recorded 50 demo songs and then whittled the list down to the 13 tracks on the album, which was released in September. One of the songs, Tears of an Angel, the mirror-image twins wrote in honour of their young niece Tal, who was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour and was undergoing chemotherapy at the time. High was penned by 1970s folk artist Judie Tzuke, as well as Like the Sun, while Niagara Falls native Stephan Moccio wrote The Face, the first single released in Canada. The album also contains a remake of the Bette Midler hit Wind Beneath My Wings.

"It went to No. 7 on the (U.K.) charts and that was very exciting to us," Ryan said. "It went to No. 4 in Hong Kong and Australia. It was amazing to be in the top 10. We went gold in four weeks. It was incredible."

Strong sales gave the pair a record - RyanDan is the first debut album by a set of identical twins to be in the U.K. Top 10.

It's arguable that part of the album's success is due to the recent trend of popera. But, Ryan said, that genre's popularity has more to do with people appreciating real music.

"In the studio, you can make anything sound good," he said. "We're really trying to bring back honest music. When we get on stage, there is only a piano and microphone and us singing."

The twins have now returned to Toronto and are gearing up to headline a Canadian tour that kicks off at the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre at Brock University on March 1. Joining them on the stage will be Fenwick resident and pianist Mark Lalama.

"It's so much different when you have (your own) show and you have your fans there. The energy you get from the entire venue is like no other (concert)," Ryan said. "We're excited to get that."

In April, RyanDan will release their album in the U.S.

"It's exciting. It's always been a dream of ours to be released in the U.S.," Ryan said. "It's a big market. We'll keep working as hard as we possibly can."

Who Where When

WHo: RyanDan

WHERE: Sean O'Sullivan Theatre, Brock University

WHEn: March 1, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $49

CALL: 905-688-5550 ext. 3257