Tegan and Sara
Tegan talks 'Sainthood,' solo projects and paranoid dads.
When you think of devotion and sainthood, you think of Tegan and Sara, right? Perhaps not, but the duo certainly connotes music full of the most complicated of feelings--love. On their sixth release, Sainthood, Tegan and Sara push their exploration of human emotion even further as they question romantic ideals and other assorted acts of love. HEAVE didn't question romantic ideals, but read on to find out what we did ask of these sisters.
HEAVE: I had no idea that you two had been performing for well over a decade. Tell me about Garage Warz and how that experience shaped the early part of your career.
Tegan: I think Garage Warz was integral in shaping how Sara and I ended up building our live show. We entered the contest and won. But it wasn't our songs alone that won us that title. It was our banter, our stage presence and our connection with the judges/crowd. We didn't really have any live experience at that point and we were short on songs: so we talked and bantered with each other and the audience. It just happened naturally. It filled the time while we tuned, and it made people laugh. I think it allowed people to relax and enjoy themselves, including the judges, and that didn't go unnoticed by us. It was a huge part of our live show even then. As it is now.
HEAVE: Both of you have pursued numerous solo side projects - do you guys feel that it's important to separate from the Tegan and Sara identity every now and then?
Tegan: I think we both feel very secure in our abilities as solo artists so I don't think there is that usual NEED to get away from one another to spread our wings that you see in some other projects that have lasted as long as this one has. But we do like to keep busy. And more and more we are able to take longer periods of time off. This leaves us bored very quickly. Sara and I both are interested in writing, song writing, producing and working with bands and musicians in our free time. It's nice to put to use 10 years of experience. We definitely each have our own unique way of working so it's nice to share that with other people. There are over 3000 miles between us at times and this gives us MORE than enough space to develop our own identities. Ha.
HEAVE: Your upcoming album Sainthood marks the first time that co-written songs appear on an album. Why wait until the sixth release to feature collaboration on a track?
Tegan: I guess it just took us that long to get around to writing together. Its exciting to know we can do it now, as we have a lot of years ahead of us to write songs and I think it will come in handy!
HEAVE: This is the second time that Chris Walla has been brought on as a producer--what effect has he had on how you two execute an album?
Tegan: He really encourages us to do things OUR way. Which means a lot of demoing and influence on the sounds we end up recording. For Sainthood he wanted us to record as a band, playing live off the floor. There was a premeditated effort to make a much heavier, harder, louder record and do it without overdubbing a lot.
HEAVE: I heard that the album title came from a Leonard Cohen lyric - what other musicians are you guys inspired by?
Tegan: We love Bruce Springsteen. I was listening to Gas Light Anthem a lot when I was writing this record. I loved the production and song writing on the 59' sound. Death cab for cutie, The xx, The Sounds, Muse, AFI.
HEAVE: As women in the music world, how important do you two feel it is to promote other female musicians? Or, is it preferable to keep gender out of the equation and just support good music?
Tegan: Obviously we support great music, but I certainly find myself drawn to supporting women in music more often as I get older. There was part of me earlier in our career that felt it was important to keep the scales level by acting as if there were no inequalities between men and women in rock/indie rock. But there are. And I'm much more comfortable with that now. And I like that we challenge it by being played on Rock Radio and by playing festivals with mainly male fronted rock bands. But we also support as many female fronted bands as we can because there are so many under appreciated, under supported female writers/performers out there and we have the power to bring attention to them and that feels like the right thing to do.
HEAVE: You wrote a song for the audio version of Augusten Burroughs' book A Wolf at the Table. Who are some of your guys' favorite authors?
Tegan: I love John Irving. I am reading Ayn Rand currently. Strange stuff. I love Charles Baxter.
HEAVE: Here comes the hard-hitting question: Halloween is coming up--any costume plans?
Tegan: We are playing in NYC so we'll be going as ourselves. When I told my dad I was going to dress up he said it might encourage the fans to do so and that people could smuggle weapons and other contraband in easier. And people wonder where we get our imagination/paranoia!
Posted by Alyssa Vincent on Oct 20, 2009 @ 11:00 am
