Two years ago, when singer Piper Kaplan asked her guitar-obsessed 13-year-old sister Skylar if she wanted to start a band, she did so on a whim, motivated by boredom rather than ambition. What she didn’t anticipate at the time were the logistical problems involved in ushering a teenager into the adults-only world of the indie-rock club scene. Initially forming a band under the name Pearl Harbour when Piper was 20, the Kaplan sisters have since rechristened the group Puro Instinct and are now about to embark upon their first North American tour.

Speaking on the line from a rehearsal in Los Angeles, Piper hopes clubs won’t be demanding her now 15-year-old sibling sit in the parking lot until it’s time to play.

“Everywhere in L.A. is pretty cool about just letting her hang out,” she says, “so long as she’s not pounding brews, y’know? Which she doesn’t do, luckily.”

Still, drunken concertgoers should be warned not to get too friendly with the younger Kaplan sister. “I don’t let scumbags come up and talk to her,” Piper observes wryly, adding, “Everyone’s pretty respectful. I don’t know how they run shit in Vancouver, but I think it should be okay.”

Despite the sisters’ youth, there is nothing immature-sounding about Puro Instinct’s newly released EP, which evokes early-’90s dream-pop outfits like Lush and Black Tambourine with its shimmering guitar jangle and soft-focus vocal harmonies. Entitled Pearl Harbour in reference to the band’s former moniker, the collection is steeped in reverb and home-brewed electronics, with songs like “Slivers of You” and “California Shakedown” sounding so hazy that they’re practically narcotic.

There’s more to Puro Instinct’s sound than North American retro-pop, however.

“I’m really into Soviet stuff right now,” Piper enthuses, launching into a lengthy monologue extolling the virtues of Russia’s music scene. “Contemporary Russian music has all these genres infused in it. You can hear disco and funk and you’ll definitely hear punk in it, but it doesn’t sound like typical post-punk either. And then you’ll also hear traditional Russian folk guitar licks in it.”

The genre-bending sound has inspired her own anything-goes attitude to music.

“Why not incorporate as much of what I love into my own music as possible?”

The sisters’ fondness for genre-splicing recently resulted in a new collaboration with friend and touring buddy Ariel Pink, who contributed to a Puro Instinct song that’s due out soon on seven-inch vinyl.

“It’s definitely distinctly Russian,” Piper notes, referring to the song as “Stilyagi” (a Soviet subculture popular in the 1950s).

In addition to lending a hand with this latest recording, Ariel Pink and his backing band may prove useful in shielding Skylar from the drunken debauchery of the night club circuit. “We’ve got plenty of watchdogs in the other bands that we’re touring with,” Piper says. “I think with all the able-bodied gentlemen around we’ll be okay.”

Puro Instinct plays the Biltmore Cabaret on Wednesday (July 14).