Usually when a band or artist has five studio albums under their belt they also have considerable global success to match. However, sometimes a musical gem slips through the bogus media-hype net and remains a precious secret among loyal fans. Tegan and Sara are one such gem.
The Canadian twin sisters recently released album number five – The Con – in the UK, which was produced by Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla. With their UK tour creeping closer, I sat down with Sara in a Kensington hotel to chat about Bruce Springsteen, hiding under tables backstage at shows and playing 2008’s Carling Reading and Leeds festival.
What was it like working with Chris Walla on The Con?
Sara: Oh yeah, Chris Walla – awesome. Really nice guy. We were just having a conversation about the industry and the way things are in the industry and Chris is like such a great example of someone who really works on a level that we operate on. Our previous records, I loved everyone that we’ve ever worked with, but it was very clichéd. Sort of like Jack Daniels, and people getting drunk in the studio and me and Tegan would be like “I’m tired, I’d like to go home now. What time do we start tomorrow?” and it’s three in the afternoon and you’re like “Oh God…” So Chris Walla is like…we did it in his house and we would go over to his house for breakfast every morning. We would drink smoothies, then go down into his studio and listen to music and stuff, so he’s really sweet. And he’s probably one of the more political and very articulate musicians that I know. He doesn’t want to just talk about what cool new band he likes. We would come down in the morning and he would be on the BBC or something and he’d be like “Oh my God! Can you believe that this is happening?!” and we’d be like “Alright, shall we do keyboards?” so, he’s a very sweet guy, very, very nice.
You just had your instore at Fopp in Covent Garden. Were you expecting such a massive turn out?
Sara: You know what? It’s not that we weren’t expecting it. I mean we’ve done enough instores and shows, especially over the last couple of years, and we always know that there’s going to be people there. We really have that kinda consistent loyal fanbase. They don’t let us down very often. We very rarely do something and go “Well that was a total fuck up.” We knew there would be lots of people but you know we arrive and everyone’s like “There’s been people here since 6am!” and we’re like “Really?!” It’s so exciting to know that people wanna see us and they care. And in a weird way I really like these alternative instores and sometimes even though I’m not always real hot on radio, I really sometimes like the radio performance. When they bring people into an alternative venue to hear your music, you know that those people are really only there to see you and your music. They’re not there to drink and meet people and party at a bar or whatever and sometimes when we’re able to do these kind of events it reinvigorates my passion in what I do. Because sometimes when we’re playing a show and everyone’s real wasted there’s a disconnect that’s happening because they’re so intoxicated and we’re not intoxicated. I’ll be “Oh God, we’re like bartenders. We’re daycare/bartending.” So I was really happy with the instore. We didn’t want people to think it was capitalistic of us to do it at a record shop, but we started thinking it would’ve been real fun if we’d done one every night that we were here. Because we’ve been in London five days. We were like “It’d be really fun to do it every night” because a lot of people didn’t get tickets to the show, or people don’t wanna go see the show at a venue, so we thought this is a really alternative way to see music played. It was really fun. Although, everything we talked about on stage I regretted the next day. In that way when you wake up when you’ve been drinking and you’re like “Oh my God…and then remember when I did that…Do I even have shoes anymore…Where’s my shoes?” I was kinda like that the next day.
What’s been the high point of your music career so far?
Sara: It’s really hard to pinpoint one thing over another. We’ve now been doing this since 1998. We graduated high school in 98. So we’ve literally almost had a ten year career already. Sometimes when I meet new people and they’ll be like “What about this one thing that happened to you? Or this thing?” and I’ll be like “Oh my god, yeah! I remember that! That was amazing!” I think each record…not even each record. Each year, in a weird way, we’ll set goals for ourselves and if I achieve those goals, even if they’re the smallest thing, I always feel “Oh great, we’ve accomplished this really cool thing.” With this instore in London, for example, I can remember even on our last record we could hardly get over here. People didn’t care. The record company didn’t care. The agents didn’t care. But we had fans that cared. Every time we come here there are still people that are interested. It’s not bogus hype. It’s generated through them – fans – instead of us on our side. We’re not generating it; the record label’s not generating it. It’s the fans. It’s the people online and the people who are just listening that generate it. That is the high point for me. As long as that continues to happen, that makes me really happy.
You’re playing a lot of universities on this tour aren’t you? That should generate a lot more fans.
Sara: We don’t ever feel like we’re done or that we’ve hit some sort of ceiling. We meet people all the time who don’t know who we are or don’t know who whoever is and you think there are people like them everywhere who I know would like it, be interested in it. It’s just giving them a chance to organically access that. I don’t wanna be a ringtone commercial, I don’t want you to find out about me because of a robot that tells you…I like that organic approach. I like when people say “Have you heard so and so yet?” and then you go home and listen to it and it feels really special because someone didn’t tell you that was supposed to tell you. But having said that, it’s important that those people also are telling people as well.
Will you be playing any UK festivals this summer?
Sara: I think so, yeah. I’m really terrified of festivals. We didn’t grow up on them the way people over here did. My experiences of them haven’t always been positive. I always feel like everyone’s really drunk and has their clothes off and everyone’s dancing and those are all things I’m terrified of. So if there’s more than 100 of them doing that I’m like “It’s outta control! We need to bring in the military!” and they’re like “It’s just a festival, it’s fine.” But, yeah, we’re probably going to try to do it.
Which ones do you think you’ll play?
Sara: I have no idea. I don’t wanna say. No comment… I think we’re waiting on Reading and Leeds. But I don’t think Glastonbury. We’re not really known as a festival band. People are always like “You should play at this festival” and we’re like “Yeah, they don’t really like us. I don’t know why…” So for us we’ve always circumvented that whole scene. This is the first year where my managers are saying please just do them.
The smaller stages are much more intimate as well.
Sara: We realised that’s something we totally have to do. There are great ones everywhere. This year in Australia – Big Day Out – we didn’t get an offer from them and everybody when we were in Australia was like “Why aren’t you playing Big Day Out?” And we kind of were like “Well it’s not just as easy as [mimics telephone call] ‘Hello, I’d like to play Big Day Out now, so we’ll be over there in a minute alright?’” We really want to. We grew up going to folk festivals, which wasn’t always folk music, it was just really eclectic music and it would be in the inner city and you would have really crazy mixes of genres of music. Those were kind of like festivals but more multi-staged concerts that weren’t like you camped and there were hot dog vendors. It was more like a day event. I think I’m trying to wrap my brain around making those two things the same. Fun. Safe. Happy.
If you could perform onstage with anyone, alive or dead, who would you choose?
Sara: That’s a hard one. I felt really insanely jealous recently when Arcade Fire joined Bruce Springsteen onstage because Bruce Springsteen is my favourite. But then I think of myself onstage with Bruce Springsteen and I’m like “What skill do I really have?” What would I really do? Am I going to sing back up with him, or play tambourine? We’ve had a couple of really weird experiences with Neil Young. We’ve done his Bridge School festival in San Francisco a couple of years and at the end all of the bands that perform at the festival do a big group sing-along. I can’t tell you…Basically Tegan and I were hiding under a table and someone had to literally come and be like “Get out there right now! You’re being embarrassing.” We were like “Pleeease don’t make us go!” and it’s because we’re so terrified to play with other people. I think it’s because we’re twins. We didn’t play with other kids when we were growing up. We really were spooky and sat in the corner and talked to each other in a weird ‘ooboo-jooboo’ language and stuff. Our mom would be like [kicks leg] “Go over there and talk to them!” We’d cry all the time and stuff. It’s kind of like that with Neil Young when we played his festival.
Bruce Springsteen would be amazing!
Sara: Yeah. He’d be like [puts on deep American accent] “Come on, girls!” or however he talks and we’d be like “Ok, Bruce, we’re coming…” all scared.
I was going to ask Tegan this question…
Sara: Ok I’ll try to be Tegan right now.
At Bush Hall last year, Tegan said she wouldn’t play ‘My Number’. But apparently she’s started playing it now. Why is that?
Sara: Ok, ‘My Number’, ‘Superstar’ and ‘The First’…we have this bet within in our operation that there has not been one show in ten years that someone hasn’t called out for ‘Superstar’ and then after a while people started calling out for ‘Superstar’ and ‘The First’. Then we put the soundtrack out with ‘My Number’ and it kind of infiltrated the internet and people started to be like [puts on British accent] “My Number!” and we’d always look at Tegan and be like “Remember those songs? You’re gonna have to play those ones.” And she just dies. She doesn’t want to do them and I don’t know why. But then ‘My Number’, she pulled it out on the last US tour. You might hear it. You might. Personally I’m not a huge fan of those songs, but when the kids are all screaming hysterically you can see Tegan’s eyes going back and forth in this weird panic because she wants to please everyone, but just not with those ones.
