{"id":9020,"date":"2013-02-08T02:03:24","date_gmt":"2013-02-08T09:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=9020"},"modified":"2013-02-08T02:03:24","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T09:03:24","slug":"tegan-and-sara-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2013\/02\/tegan-and-sara-2\/","title":{"rendered":"TEGAN AND SARA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"TEGAN AND SARA<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Twin talents enjoy the view from the bright side on their latest project<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After 13 years and a dozen\u00a0albums, identical twins Tegan and Sara Quin are not afraid of change. \u201cWe always aim to create a slightly different record each time we step into the studio,\u201d says Tegan. Take their latest album, Heartthrob<\/em>. \u201cSara encouraged me to write outside my usual themes, like self-loathing, loss and heartbreak. So I wrote love songs for the first time\u2014ever. And I encouraged her to write more traditionally, arrangement-wise. In the end, this record feels a lot more triumphant, romantic and empowered than the past few.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pushing the creative envelope is exactly what fans have come to expect from the Canadian duo. And some of their loyal following are famous\u2014from the White Stripes, who covered their breakthrough \u201cWalking With a Ghost,\u201d to superstar DJs David Guetta and Ti\u00ebsto, who have collaborated with the pair. They\u2019ve toured with such diverse acts as Neil Young, Paramore, the Killers, Death Cab for Cutie and the Black Keys\u2014and they\u2019ve sold nearly a million albums along the way. Tegan and Sara have also found success in Hollywood, garnering song placements on Parenthood<\/em>, Melrose Place<\/em> and Grey\u2019s Anatomy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now Heartthrob<\/em>, their seventh studio album, finds the 32-year-old twins embracing a lighter attitude and more dance-friendly tempos than previous efforts. \u201cWe were hoping to tip the guitar-keyboard scale toward a heavier presence of keyboard rather than guitar,\u201d says Tegan. Between shows, the sisters spoke to us about the making of their new record and the shift in their creative psyche.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What brought on the new attitude?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TEGAN: Likely our age and life experience. We\u2019re in our 30s now. We\u2019re successful in our careers and our personal relationships. We intentionally tried to write songs from a different perspective.<\/p>\n

SARA: Some of it is about age, getting to\u00a0a place in our lives where we are able to reflect on our relationships and past breakups with more empowerment and a wider lens of experience. It was natural to\u00a0do something less passive than our last album, Sainthood<\/em>. I think this album and Sainthood<\/em> work well as a call and answer to each other.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How important are demos?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SARA: The demo process for us is very comprehensive. The earliest stages had quite a lot of programming and harmonies. It\u2019s essential to us that any ideas we have are put on tape and considered in the studio, even if only as a suggestion or placeholder for something else down the road.<\/p>\n

TEGAN: These aren\u2019t your basic two- or four-track guitar-vocal demos. For certain songs we probably did 50 demos. Sara and I like to experiment in the demo process. A lot of the vibe, arrangement and melodic ideas were already in place when\u00a0we got to the studio.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What\u2019s your writing process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TEGAN: Over the years, we\u2019ve tried all sorts of different forms of collaboration. For Heartthrob<\/em>, I had Sara write all my bridges. I was interested in really having a different voice in my music. For Sainthood<\/em>, we collaborated on two songs. It was our first time actually sitting in a room and working in a session together, and I think it gave us understanding into each other\u2019s processes that we weren\u2019t aware of until that point. Ultimately, writing is a solitary experience. We prefer it that way. But now that we\u2019ve collaborated successfully\u2014and with other artists as well\u2014we\u2019re always open to it. It\u2019s important to keep things fresh\u2014especially after 17 years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are you ever concerned the music distracts from the lyrics?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TEGAN: We don\u2019t typically worry much about the emotional depth or lyrical content being missed by our fans. They definitely read a lot into the music and consistently find meaning in the songs that reflect their own lives and experiences. It\u2019s what most fans love about us.<\/p>\n

SARA: Lyrics are very important to us\u2014messaging is first and foremost. We feel strongly that the stories we\u2019re telling should be as honest and compelling as possible. The music on this album is more of a pop sound, but I don\u2019t think the two have to be disconnected. Some of my favorite pop songs have incredible lyrical depth, but also have a poppier sound\u2014think about \u201cDancing in the Dark\u201d by Bruce Springsteen.<\/p>\n

TEGAN: If anything, the vibrant melodies and infectious sound create an interesting juxtaposition. That\u2019s exciting to us\u2014it creates a challenge for the listener and the player.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How have you evolved as artists?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TEGAN: Our first two records were just about the songs. We were exploring our voices and our writing. We didn\u2019t get into the arrangements or sonic template much. Our next two records were when Sara and I started to record ourselves at home before we got into the studio, which led to a lot more experimentation instrumentally. With The Con<\/em> and Sainthood<\/em>, we were getting more adventurous and had certainly developed a strong sense of self. We were striving to hone in on what our sound really was. With Heartthrob<\/em> we were specifically attempting to focus on creating classic, quintessential pop songs that reflected not only the music we loved growing up but also what we loved that\u2019s popular now. We decided not to worry about what anyone else was looking forward to hearing, and instead create something that was fresh and exciting to us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Does being sisters ever create its own set of challenges?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

TEGAN: Of course. But over the last 13 years we\u2019ve really learned to work together, and we\u2019ve learned how not to push each other\u2019s buttons. I would never want to be in a band with anyone but Sara.<\/p>\n

SARA: It\u2019s complicated to have a business and personal relationship with anyone for this long. We work hard to respect the two very different parts of our lives, and ultimately I\u2019ve been grateful that our successes were celebrated together, and all that we continue to accomplish is greater than any\u00a0conflict we have.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Have your perspectives as openly gay women affected how audiences relate to you and your music?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

TEGAN: I\u2019m not sure. I\u2019m much too embedded in our projects to know what people experience when they listen to us. But I assume it\u2019s like when I interact with people who aren\u2019t identical to me in terms of sexuality and gender. It\u2019s interesting to hear another perspective. Ultimately I don\u2019t think gay love is much different from straight love.<\/p>\n

SARA: I think love and relationships are universal. I\u2019ve always struggled to understand why my sexuality would devalue or exclude people who weren\u2019t like me from enjoying the music that I write. Which isn\u2019t to say that we haven\u2019t been cognizant of the influence or impact we\u2019ve had on those\u00a0in the gay community. We\u2019ve seen our\u00a0audience diversify over the years to reflect a broader demographic. But ultimately I see us as gay artists, and that shouldn\u2019t mean we\u2019re marginalized in the mainstream.<\/p>\n

\u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TEGAN AND SARA Twin talents enjoy the view from the bright side on their latest project After 13 years and a dozen\u00a0albums, identical twins Tegan and Sara Quin are not afraid of change. \u201cWe always aim to create a slightly different record each time we step into the studio,\u201d says Tegan. Take their latest album, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[6083,4680,810,4273,6075,5885,6084,1082,1196,4275,6078,6077,6076,2289,6079,6082,6081,6080,776],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9022,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9020\/revisions\/9022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}