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Tegan And Sara.
Tegan Quin, one half of Canadian awesome-fringed twin pop-rockers Tegan And Sara, is currently enjoying a tour of the States with Cake, despite walking on stage to a booing crowd every night. "We've been touring for four days and it feels like a month. It's been going well, but Cake is sort of well known for having a 'Cake' audience," she sighs. "A friend of mine opened for them a few years ago and got booed off the stage. We've never had an issue with them; we played some dates with them before. I think our music goes well with theirs so the tour in that way has been fun.
"It's just that there's a comedian, Eugene Mirman, that plays in between everybody and the first couple of nights it just wasn't the right audience for it. His stuff can be pretty inappropriate but if you're listening it's funny because he's actually quite liberal and PC, but because people weren't really listening to what he was saying they heard it out of context so he got booed off stage every night. So every night he goes on, gets booed, and then we walk on. It takes the audience three or four songs to get back into it because they're really riled up. But we've adjusted it now so we don't go on right after him which has made it a little better.
"Eugene Mirman has toured with The Shins, Beck and The Flaming Lips so he's definitely done this before, but I haven't. I don't think it works. It's weird, it's not my dream to be coming on after a comedian."
Tegan And Sara have a reputation for their own impromptu routines of onstage banter and, although I didn't want to steer towards it, the whole 'twins touring together' topic came up. "I think when you're on the road you're jammed in with everyone so I don't feel any different towards her. With Sara it's easier to release feelings and argue with her, but we enjoy what we're doing - we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't. I think there are all the stereotypes about twins and family members and all the ideas about what we must be like. We tend to tell stories and interrupt each other on stage, but that's not exclusive to Sara, I do that to the rest of the band as well. When things are going well we get along better, but that transfers to anyone around us, not just each other.
"Sara lives 3000 miles away [in Montreal, Tegan lives in Vancouver] so we have space and our autonomy and independence. We write all the songs separately and collaborate near the end. I'll send Sara a demo and she'll send something back. Once in a while she might record something over the top of mine. We just say it's by Tegan And Sara because essentially we've both contributed to the song."
And what's a girl to do in Vancouver without her twin sister by her side? "I do enjoy a good game of scrabble," Quin admits. "I'm getting into charades and we have big dance parties at my house to mixed 90s music [did I mention her first ever album was by Crash Test Dummies?]. I don't get up to much geeky stuff, but I'm sure I would if I had more time."
It's at this point that the conference operator interrupts with the usual, 'You have one minute left'. Quin seems surprised by the interruption, whispering, "It's so weird how they cut in like that." I agree that it's as if they've been listening the whole time. "They're probably writing notes for their own interview," Quin suggests, giggling.
Not only will you find Tegan's name plastered over the front
cover of the conference operator's underground street press,
you'll also see it on roll calls in schools across the world
in 5 years time. "You'd be surprised how many people email me
to say that they've named their kids Tegan! They're not necessarily
named after me but they just heard the name and liked it, or
they saw the band name and really liked the name Tegan and then
discovered us afterwards. It's like my legacy, I'm like a philandering-type
male," she laughs. "I have babies named Tegan all over the world!"
Cassie Hilditch
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Tegan And Sara play at the Governor Hindmarsh on Sun 12 Feb with Sparkadia and Iron On.
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