Exclusive Tegan and Sara Interview

The Canadian twins, Tegan and Sara, are back in the US to embark on a fall 2008 tour with supporting acts, City and Colour and Girl in a Coma. The indie-duo launched their musical career back in 1998 after grabbing the attention of Neil Young’s label, Vapor Records, and most recently released their fifth studio album, The Con, on Warner Music.

I caught up with one-half of the creative pair, Tegan Quin, for a recap on their musical history, upcoming tour and future album plans.

How old were you and Sara when you decided that music was going to be your career path?

Well, I’m not sure we’ve decided that yet (laughs). We were probably about 15 when we started writing songs. We didn’t write together, we would just play each other’s songs and record them for each other. We had just entered high school and were in the phase where you drink, do drugs and get bad grades and your parents wonder what’s wrong with you. We sort of lost focus, but the one thing we had focus on was music. When we graduated, we pulled it together and got our grades up and intended on going to a University, but I just didn’t feel right about that. So I decided to take the summer off to play music and Sara agreed that she wanted to do the same. By the fall, we had started to tour at little places in Canada, got some attention from record companies and won a contest to get some recording time. All of the sudden, the ball was rolling and my parents said, “Okay, if you guys really want to do this and put some effort behind it, then you guys can do this for a while and then go to a University”. Now, all of a sudden, it’s ten years later.

If you weren’t a musician, what do you think you’d be doing for a career?

I think now with ten years behind me, I’d do something within the arts territory, whether it be a producer or an engineer for a record company or writing songs for other people. I feel like back then I really didn’t know what I wanted to do so I think that’s why music seemed so interesting to me, because it was the one thing that I could focus on for hours and hours. But now I love to make music, so it would have to be something related to those things.

Who were some musical influences that have had a great impact on your writing?

I think when we first started writing, we loved Bruce Springsteen and U2, and then I really got into acoustic music and started learning about Neil Young and Bob Dylan and Ani DiFranco. There were also other artists that shaped me as a child like Dire Straits and Mike and the Mechanics and Cyndi Lauper, and I think for the past couple of years I’ve been going back to them and wanting the drums to sound like they do on albums like When You Were Mine. I’ve been going back to old records and using them as a template for what I’m doing now. But Sara always says I’m kind of stuck in the mid-90’s because I’m still listening to Green Day and Face 2 Face (laughs). The 90’s are not going out of style.

What is your music process for writing songs? Do you and Sara write together or separately?

On the last couple of records, we’ve definitely done more collaborating than usual, but we don’t ever sit down in a room together and play music. We only do it when we have to rehearse and even if we haven’t played in three months, we’ll go out and do one day of rehearsal because we really don’t like the idea of there being homework. But on this record that we’re writing right now, we’re collaborating more than ever before. I’ll write an instrumental and send it to Sara and she’ll write the words and melodies. For our past records, we had little or no participation in each other’s songs. I think The Con is such a great record compared to some of our past records and it feels like a real Tegan and Sara record because we actually do participate in each other’s songs and record instrumentations in our each other’s songs and we really stepped up the collaboration. On this new record, whatever it ends up sounding like, there will definitely be a lot of collaborations, which will be the first time that we ever really do that on record, so I’m really excited about it.

How would you compare The Con vs. older albums such as So Jealous?

I think most people don’t get their shit together to put albums out until they’re 25, but we were just eager and putting records out when we were 18. I think we put music out there and built a career and a fan base which is great and I’m proud of that, but musically, I don’t think the songs are bad from our past records, but I think the production style was because we were just figuring it out. We would go into a studio with someone we didn’t know and say, “here are the songs” and try to pull it together in a month. I think that John Collins and David Carswell who produced If It Was You and So Jealous were great producers because they really started to understand what we wanted to do and really pushed us to get there and play as much instruments as we could. I think Chris Walla got us at a great time because he got us after we had that instruction, so we were recording 40 tracks at home and coming into the studio and saying, “okay, here is the 40 tracks I have so far” and Chris would just say, “awesome”. I think The Con gives off this confidence that Sara and I finally know what we’re doing and I think we do.

What made you choose City and Colour for your opening act?

I love Dallas (Green). I think he’s a real talent and I love Alexisonfire. So, when I knew that City and Colour had a new record coming out, I saw Dallas in Vancouver and I just thought he was such a pleasure and so funny, and I asked if he would be interested in doing the dates with us and he said yes. Girl in a Coma is the other opening act and I just think they’re amazing. They went out and did a bunch of touring with Morrissey this year, which is quite a feat to survive that. I think their record is amazing and that it’s going to be a really good show.

How will this tour be different than the previous tour with Northern State?

I love Northern State, and I think everyone we’ve toured with this year has been amazing. Northern State are friends of mine so it was a really fun time because we could socialize together and went out on our days off and I sat along side the stage and sang every night. Then after that we had An Horse, which is a duo from Australia that we love, and I think Sara and I get so behind the bands that we pick. They’re always bands that are friends of ours now, but they weren’t friends of ours when we knew of their music. I hear of a band and I get to know them and then they become my best friend. So, with City and Colour, it’s kind of similar I’m hoping. The same goes for Girl in a Coma, too. I really like creating a family aspect for being on the road and I think it’s really important that the bands that are on tour together get along. We’ve been on a lot of tours where we’ve been taken under the wing of the headlining act and other tours where we’ve just been ignored, and I think the audience knows that, too. They know when the headlining act cares about the (opening) band and we really try to participate in our supporting acts when we’re on the road, and we think of ourselves as mom and dad. I think this tour is going to be great because both bands are amazing and I’ve obviously got to know them since I asked them to be on tour so I think it’s going to be really fun. And also, with the Canadian elections that are happening really quickly, on October 14th, Sara and I will be, as usual, filming a TV show backstage before the shows. We’re going to have a political show that’s tentatively titled, “You Think Your System is Confusing, Learn about Ours”.

Do you have a favorite song to play live?

It really changes from tour to tour depending on the venues we’re playing, but I love all the songs off The Con. I find (the songs) more of a challenge to play because they have a lot more instrument changing and a lot more keyboards and pianos and a lot more singing on each other’s songs. I feel I have to apply a lot more energy and efforts to the songs on The Con. With songs from the past, I’ve been more just rocking out, which is totally fun as well, depending on what kind of venue you’re playing and what kind of mood you’re in, but I find The Con’s songs work anywhere, whether it’s a venue that’s small and clubbish or big and theaterish. I think The Con songs really work well whereas the old stuff starts to feel a little tired, which is normal I’m sure.

Are you writing for a new album?

We are. We actually just printed off some artwork. Two or three times during the demo process we send the songs to a few people we like to get opinions on it. We just burned about 23 songs, so we’re well into the writing process. As I was sequencing my portion of the songs, I was thinking “I hate all these songs!” (laughs) but there’s definitely lots of time between now and when we record.

Do you think the new album will be similar to The Con?

I like to think we write in pairs. If It Were You and So Jealous are sort of a complete story, so I think this next upcoming record will have a lot of the same textures and similarities to The Con, but we’re definitely playing with different themes on this record, and I feel like I’ve been writing outside of my usual box. Writing tends to be really inspiring when you’re miserable, but neither one of us are miserable so we’re kind of like, “What are we going to write about?”

What are your plans after this tour ends? Are you planning on recording right away or taking a break?

We’re going to write. This tour ends in October and then we have a couple months off before we go to Australia, so we’re going to be writing a ton. I’m going to be staying in L.A. for most of the fall and avoid the rain here in Vancouver and do some writing there, and I’m not sure about Sara, she might do her own thing in Montreal. I think we’ll record in the spring or maybe the early summer or fall next year. We have lots of other projects also. We’re going to do a book and lots of fun little creative things. With the upcoming elections, we’re sort of obsessing over that, so we definitely have lots of fun upcoming things on the go.

(As published in Jamsbio Magazine: magazine.jamsbio.com/2008/09/19/tegan-talks-new-tegan-and-sara-record-tour)