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 'There's always going to be a new way to get your music out there and thank God because radio is so packed full of crap,' says Tegan Quin when asked if she thinks the Quin sisters can get a boost by being on the next Twilight soundtrack. |
TORONTO – After 10-plus years in the music business, Tegan and Sara know what makes a good live show. And it's not a huge stage, chock full of pyro.
"It's banter," Tegan Quin, 29, says matter-of-factly in the Sutton Place Hotel. "Lots of talking and lots of jokes, that's how you win people over.
"We aren't Bruce Springsteen and we only play an hour and half, so chatting with the audience is important."
As one half of the beloved indie-rock duo that caught its first break after being signed by Neil Young's Vapor Records in 2000, Vancouver-based Tegan also has a pretty good idea of what people want to listen to as well.
After all, the music she's written with Sara, her twin-sister, has found traction with a fan base that is intensely loyal to the pair's punchy songs of love and loss.
But for their sixth studio album, "Sainthood," which takes its title from Leonard Cohen's "Came So Far For Beauty," Tegan says the twosome wanted to try something new.
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Having always written separately, the Alberta-born sisters collaborated in a weeklong session in New Orleans last fall. One of the songs ("Paperback Head") made the record.
"I think that there are a lot of themes in our music, but by titling our new record 'Sainthood' we are making a proclamation. To be good to someone is something we wanted to meditate on."
Produced by Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla and Howard Redekopp, "Sainthood's" 13 tracks flit between songs that test the waters of new-found love ("Red Belt") before using New Wave-y synths to revel in the angst-ridden pages of relationship breakdown ("Night Watch," "Alligator").
"Sara wrote a couple of songs from my parents' perspective that really shook me," Tegan says. "She was almost trying to hypothesize and wonder what kinds of pressure [our dad] faced being 25 and having two kids. And we meet people all the time with kids who say to us, 'I want to do better than my parents.' But it doesn't matter what you do; you'll f--- them up because we're…delicate.
"But at the same time, I started dating someone new and there's some enthusiasm that goes along with that because it's exciting to think of all the things we're going to do and how much better it's going to be.
"So we cover a lot of ground."
With all well on the relationship front, at least on her end, Tegan still thinks there might be one or two things missing from their oeuvre.
"I'd love to get a song on the 'Twilight' soundtrack," she says, referring to the immensely popular vampire films.
"If they call us up for 'Eclipse' (the next installment based on Stephenie Meyer's novels) I will definitely do it, but mostly because I love the books," she says. "At first, I didn't understand what all the fuss was about. When my girlfriend was reading them I could barely get her to talk to me, but she convinced me to read them and I went through all four in no time."
Seeing as vampires are listed as one of her main interests in a cleverly packaged 'resume' that was delivered with a promo copy of "Sainthood," Tegan knows that having a song attached to one of 2010's most anticipated movies, can do wonders for a career.
"We had seven songs on the 'Grey's Anatomy' soundtrack a few years back and our career exploded in the States," she exclaims. "All of a sudden we were playing to thousands of people and getting tons of hits on our MySpace page.
"So being on the 'Twilight' road to success would definitely be interesting."
But in case the phone doesn’t ring, the duo will stick to the formula that has so far helped snag them a devoted audience base.
"Our early tours were with artists that are extremely charismatic with their audience," she says, taking a final sip from her Grande Green Tea Lemonade. "And we learned that while we can't be friends with all of them, we could actually be friends with our audience."
Tegan and Sara perform tonight Massey Hall and tomorrow at Kool Haus in Toronto
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