(cnn)laying down tracks for their debut album in the recording studio in los angeles, iman hashi, 25 and her sister siham, 27 could not be further from their hometown of mogadishu the sisters were born in the somali capital but were forced to flee after war broke out in 1991 along with their parents, the girls relocated to canada as refugees where during their teens they discovered a passion for music heading south to la by way of atlanta, the singing sisters with a bold flair for fashion are now embarking on a musical journey, gearing up to unleash their afro pop sound to the world cnn's african voices caught up with the sister act    known collectively as faarrow (combining the translation of their names into english    iman means 'faith' and siham means 'arrow') to talk about music, aspirations and somalia cnn: hi guys, thanks for chatting with me today what are some of your musical influences? iman: we love michael jackson, lionel richie    stuff my mom would listen to and play    and the spice girls we used to die for the spice girls i love new artists now but i don't know if it's a nostalgia, but i remember  my mom used to pump whatever    mariah carey, whitney houston cnn: you are working on your debut album now    how's that been? siham: we've been working with elijah kelley    he's actually an actor he was in 'hairspray,' 'the butler,' and most recently he was in the george lucas animation, 'strange magic' that's what he's more known for but his first passion is music he's an incredible producer, writer and singer i just felt like he was always the missing piece he brought everything together cnn: so now that you've found your 'missing piece,' how would you describe your sound? siham: our music before was experimenting with afrobeat sounds but now it's more of a fusion (of what) we are inspired by it's pop with undertones of hip hop and rhythmic african percussion it's a fusion of everything cnn: and do you guys write the songs as well? siham: the entire album was pretty much (written and produced) by me, my sister and elijah and when we signed we already had a lot of those songs already done warner brothers records is really great in that way that they already loved what we were doing and let us do our own thing cnn: what are you listening to right now? siham: oh my god, there's so many! iman: sia with 'chandelier' siham: i really love this new song    i don't know if iman is going to agree with me    but his name's lunchmoney lewis, it's called bills; i love it cnn: as well as your music, you both work with the un high commissioner for refugees (unhcr)    how did you start your humanitarian work? iman: ever since we were kids we wanted to help somalia, we always talked about it but we were like 'what can we physically do?' we were doing some research and we called our mom and she said 'you know you still have family over there there's a refugee camp in kenya and your great uncle and his kids live in a refugee camp' and we did some research about dadaab refugee camp, it's a massive camp that has taken in sudanese refugees, somali refugees, rwandan refugees    pretty much anywhere there was a conflict everybody fled to dadaab in the beginning (it was) pure advocacy talking about it on twitter and facebook cnn: but then you decided to 'up your game' as it were iman: yes, then we started a non profit and we'd do small benefit concerts in toronto and in san diego    wherever there was a big somali community we would do outreach but all we had was our singing, working with unhcr in a capacity as a spokesperson we headlined world refugee day at the kennedy center, as well as the nansen awards twice in geneva we felt like this platform of singing    the bigger it gets, the more we can do siham: we obviously love fashion so we wanted to do our own socially conscious brand so we've been making these bracelets and necklaces called 'wish creatively' wish stands for 'women internationally selling hope' we wanted to do a socially conscious brand where we sell these bracelets where it goes back to projects in kenya or somalia with women providing them with a sustainable income cnn: so what's next for you two? siham: we're actually in the mixing process right now we still have a few (tracks) to finish up but the majority of the album is pretty much done we want to turn it in as soon as possible so they can put together a rollout plan and get ready for the first single to drop iman: i don't feel like we ever lost that feeling like we're creative spokespersons for our generation as well as for somalia i feel like now because we followed our dreams it's like 'they're not just refugees anymore' we don't have to become doctors so we can one day give back to somalia and help rebuild    it's such a beautiful dream but not ours in our culture, anything creative is not really respected or appreciated but i feel like now but even with our new deal we're still trucking along i feel like we inspire people read this: nigerian soul singer nneka is back! read this: angelique kidjo takes no prisoners  more from african voices 
somali iman siham hashi faarrow afrobeats
somali sisters, iman and siham hashi, make up faarrow . a fusion of hip hop, world pop and afrobeats, they are currently finishing debut album 