Tegan and Sara seem more like a circus act—twin lesbians from Canada who sing in an indie punk band. With six albums since 1999 and a huge tour, these rockers are out to prove that this is more to life than the big top. Windy City Times talked with Sara about the album.
Windy City Times: Hi, Sara. Where are you calling from today?
Sara Quin: I just flew back to Vancouver where my mom and Tegan live. I am visiting with my mom and hanging out for a week. It is sort of a vacation, I guess.
WCT: So, you were born identical twins. Her name is very unusual. Where did it come from?
Sara Quin: My parents just found it in a baby book. It is a Welsh name. It is a boys name and in a baby book.
WCT: Interesting. Can people tell you apart?
Sara Quin: Most people, yeah.
WCT: Where did you learn to play keyboards and the guitar?
Sara Quin: We took piano lessons when we were kids. We did that for about fourteen years. With guitars we didn't take lessons. We just picked it up, figured out a couple of cords.
Once I started playing the guitar then I started writing songs.
WCT: "Arrow" is a really great song on the album Sainthood.
Sara Quin: The album is split down the middle, half the songs are written by me and the other half by Tegan. In the past we have done a lot of recording independently because we hired musicians to back us up. With this record we tried to do it in a more traditional way. We recorded a lot of the material as a band with back up musicians live off the floor. We wanted it to be an album, which felt a little more like our live show is like. We wanted the energy and intensity of the live performance. Tegan and I were writing introspectively about relationships. Not just ones that we were in but the cycle and end of relationships.
WCT: What inspired this?
Sara Quin: We were both inspired by a Leonard Cohen song about an unrequited relationship. It became a thematic talking point that we were both feeling during the making of the record.
WCT: Are either one of you in a relationship?
Sara Quin: Tegan has had a long-term girlfriend that she has been with for a couple of years and I am not currently in a relationship.
WCT: Well, we will have to get the girls to come out to the show. [ Both laugh. ]
Sara Quin: To be totally honest I was in a relationship for five years. Once it was over, I actually quite enjoy being single. It is nice to be on my own and be able to travel and not have to check in. I miss loving someone but it makes my job a lot easier.
WCT: With putting out so many albums in the past few years I can imagine it is a big undertaking.
Sara Quin: Yeah, it is. It is funny each album is a little more successful than the last. What that means not that we are selling more records but that we can tour a lot more. So we are on the road more and in different countries. It is really tough to balance having a normal life. A normal life would be to go to work everyday, sleep in the same place and we don't have that. Juggling a relationship is hard but I have managed to do it before.
WCT: Describe a live show with Tegan and Sara.
Sara Quin: Our shows are now hovering between an hour-forty and two hours. We play material off of all of our albums. We have a banter or dialogue with the audience and that was important. We grew up Bruce Springsteen telling stories in concert and I think we gravitate towards that connection. I have always enjoyed that about other people's live shows. We give ourselves room to shoot the shit. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. We are really casual about it.
WCT: I look forward to seeing the show. You have been working on other people's albums this year, such as Fences and Hesta Prynn.
Sara Quin: Yeah, we have both been working with other people. I got to work with Fences last year and that was my first thing on my own. It was really fun.
WCT: Where do you see your music going in the future?
Sara Quin: I hope Tegan and I keep making records. We still have a couple left to go. I don't think I want to tour the rest of my life. This is our twelfth year of touring professionally and I feel like we have a really wonderful good relationship with touring. We both love to write songs for other people and have them come out to see us. We have a job not like other people's jobs. I get up everyday and prefer to go to work. I have one of those kinds of jobs that feels like fun. Even when I am pulling my hair out crying and frustrated, I think this is awesome!
To see Sainthood in all its glory, watch Tegan and Sara perform live on Friday, March 26, at the Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence. For more information on the band, visit www.teganandsara.com .
