"It's win-win for Quin Twins"

Article from Australian website:

Defying assumptions that twins are close and identical twins even closer, Tegan and Sara Quin live nearly 3700km apart in the Canadian cities of Vancouver and Montreal, respectively.

And, when not in Canada or on tour, the 28-year-old indie pop sisters spend their time even further apart; Tegan stays with her girlfriend in Los Angeles while Sara lives in New York.

Despite recording five studio albums and touring the globe as a duo, the Quin twins - both lesbians - have never written songs together.

As Tegan explains from LA, where she is escaping the Canadian winter, that is about to change.

The twins will convene in New Orleans for their first ever joint writing sessions, the follow-up to last year’s critically adored album, The Con.

“Earlier this year we swapped back and forth a few instrumentals,” she begins. “I had a couple that I didn’t know what to do with and so did she. So, we sent them to each other and the songs turned out cool.

“We thought if we took our two different sensibilities and put them together maybe we truly would make a Tegan and Sara record.”

The sisters first picked up acoustic guitars and started writing songs when they were 14, yet Tegan says they were both too shy and awkward to share their innermost thoughts with each other.

They would write alone, and then collaborate during the recording process.

“We sort of kept that up over the years, so the fact we were living on different coasts really wasn’t that big a deal,” she says.

And it wasn’t just music — the sisters were so shy, Tegan says, that they felt alienated from each other.

“People always found it strange that we didn’t talk about our relationships with each other. That only really started in the last couple of years.

“We support each other no matter what but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we talk about everything, thank God,” she laughs. “There’re some things I just don’t want to know.”

Tegan reveals that this separate songwriting methodology means she doesn’t always know what Sara is singing about, and vice versa. Sometimes this results in a raised eyebrow or dropped jaw, as when Sara first played her girlfriend and Tegan the song Back in Your Head, which contains the line “I’m not unfaithful but I’ll stray”.

Despite being shocked by the sentiment of those lyrics, Tegan respected her sister’s brutal honesty.

“The passion for what we do sometimes transcends our reasonable nature and sometimes you just have to say things that aren’t necessarily nice. I read into (Sara’s songs) from time to time, but I’m also a fan,” Tegan continues. “I automatically take Sara’s songs and apply them to my own life.”

Tegan and Sara have written 30 new songs. While she avoids talking about her own compositions, Tegan says the fresh material is moving on from the heartbroken theme of The Con.

“The stuff that Sara’s writing is very interesting. She’s avoiding writing about love.

“One of the songs, my favourite so far, Light Up, is about my mom and what it was like for her … to be so young and alone with us. When my dad left, my mom would’ve been 26 or 27. There’s a lyric in it about being the same age as my mom when my dad left and how that must’ve felt for her,” Tegan says, before adding: “Trying to imagine us right now having children seems terrifying.”

Tegan says that they’re talking to potential producers for their sixth album, including Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla, who helmed The Con.

They’re aiming for a mid-2009 release, but admit that might not be realistic with an Australian tour from late December to early January, plus a February concert with fellow Canadians Broken Social Scene, in her hometown of Vancouver.

“They’re rad dudes,” she says. “I love their record. I’m totally stoked to play in Vancouver again and, in particular, to play with them.”

Two years ago, Broken Social Scene’s self-titled release beat Tegan and Sara’s So Jealous for the alternative album of the year title at Canada’s top music awards, the Junos. Arcade Fire repeated the feat this year when their Neon Bible was preferred to The Con.

“I’m holding out that we don’t ever win any sort of award,” Tegan laughs. “I can’t even imagine going up there, I’m so shy. I don’t want to win.”

Tegan and Sara, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, Feist and many more, are at the forefront of an impressive Canadian music scene that seems to have exploded in recent years.

Tegan insists there’s always been great music made in Canada - we’ve just started to notice it thanks to the internet helping bands break out internationally without the support of major radio.

“Sites like MySpace and blogs and Pitchfork Media, these kinds of things, they started this momentum…where it didn’t matter if you had sold millions of records or if you had a major record label deal or if you got radio, you could still sell 150,000 records and go out and tour huge venues,” Tegan explains.

“More than anything, it’s just allowed countries like Canada and Australia to have music from their country exposed to a bigger and wider and more diverse audience.”

Tegan and Sara play Southbound at Sir Stewart Bovell Park, Busselton on January 3. The event has sold out.

PERTH
SIMON COLLINS

------------------------------------
LINK:
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=5&ContentID=112769