If you read anything on Ghost Bees - an alt-folk duo from Halifax comprised of identical twins Romy and Sari Lightman - they'll undoubtedly be referred to as telepaths.

So naturally, that was my first question for Romy during a recent phone interview.

She laughs. "I don't know, I think maybe that word is around a little. I think we can communicate on a level that's beyond verbal. We're both pretty good at picking up on each other's vibes."

They're also pretty good at making music together. Released in early April, The Bees' impressive debut record, Tasseomancy, is a collection of dark, literate tales about ancestry, death, and fortune-telling - all set to the twins' strikingly spooky soundscapes.

Sure, Tasseomancy isn't the most uplifting of records - but telling feel-good stories has never been on the Lightmans' agenda. The twins, now 23, have been captivated by all things dark and supernatural since they were little girls.

"I think my sister and I come across the darkness naturally," Lightman says. "From a young age, we've been naturally drawn to fantasy and death - we were always obsessed with those things.

"I think the idea of being twins is inherently creepy," she adds. "Twins have that ability to synchronize with another person. There's that element of the bizarre there, in twins.

"For us, we've always been raised that we were identical, but I think we're mirror twins. Our teeth fell out in the exact same order, but on opposite sides. I'm right-handed, Sari's left-handed."

OK, so that last part is kind of creepy, but perhaps 'unique' is a better word to describe the Lightmans. While sibling bands aren't new, there aren't many that would go out on a limb and craft a haunting, quasi-concept record about their great-great grandmother, a luckless tea-leaf reader, and her immigration to Canada from Russia.

"It was fascinating for us because we had just found out about her recently," Lightman says of their unlikely subject matter. "I had spoken to a healer, and she said I should look into my ancestry, specifically, my great-great-grandmother.

"She presumably had a harsh life - she married a man twice her age and had lots of kids. So visually and musically, she was a figure for us. She's a sorrowful figure, but (the record) is celebratory in a way, because we're giving her a voice."

Despite the Ghost Bees' telepathic tendencies and obsession with the dark and freaky, there's a sincerity to Tasseomancy that keeps the Bees from being a side show-esque novelty act. Lightman hopes that honesty is apparent.

"What we're doing comes from a very personal place," she says. "It never feels good to be a novelty, so I hope we aren't thought of that way."