Everything is ...
You may not know it, but it’s likely you’ve had one of their songs stuck in your head, writes
THannah McKee.
here are plenty of highlights to read in a press release or bio for Canadian indie-pop identical twins Tegan and Sara Quin, but there’s also one glaring omission.
It’s not that they came out of the closet together 17 years ago when they released their debut album, going on to become double-platinum, inspirational musicians particularly for the global LGBTQ community.
It’s not that they’ve sold more than one million albums, received a Grammy nomination, or performed at Coachella and the Oscars.
It’s not even that they perform in New Zealand next month in the world tour for their eighth studio album, Love You to Death, produced by Greg Kurstin, who has also produced for Adele and Sia. That’s all in there. What the two-women band doesn’t overtly broadcast is possibly the biggest, mainstream music accolade.
The 36-year-olds are responsible for arguably the biggest earworm of 2014, Everything is Awesome, from The Lego Movie.
One half of the genre-chameleon force, Sara, says that they prefer people to make the link organically, rather than be known as ‘‘that annoying band that sang that song’’.
But while they’d prefer to be known for their individual music, they saw recording the track for Warner Brothers as a unique opportunity.
‘‘It’s turned out to be a cool thing because it’s sort of a significant, cultural marker, but a lot of people don’t even make the connection.’’
Despite having sung one of the biggest hits of 2014, the song hasn’t necessarily hijacked their musical direction.
‘‘It didn’t change our career as Tegan and Sara because a lot of people didn’t know it was us. It had an affect on our personal career because we got to perform it at the Oscars, and there was a certain level of marketing introduced with it, but it didn’t necessarily change the fabric of our band.’’
The two started making music together at about the age of 15, before scoring their first record deal pretty fresh out of high school.
Since then, they have amassed a collection of eight albums, ranging in influences that make them almost impossible to slap a genre on, but have most recently embraced a more mainstream, indie-pop sound. ‘If I’m not talking about what’s problematic in our society and in our industry, or what is unfair, or what are the inequities ... then what is the point.’
‘‘This latest album is more reflective of pop, hip hop, and electronic music that we’re listening to and I think it’s perhaps a little more personal to the others, and focuses on relationships. Not necessarily romantic relationships, but our relationship to each other, and our own identities.’’
Sara recalls that it was during their first press tour, fresh from releasing the debut album Under Feet Like Ours, that she came to a crossroads about how public she wanted to be about her sexuality.
‘‘We were talking to radio DJs and it became common that people would ask ‘Oh so your songs seem to be about love, so do you have a boyfriend?’
‘‘I was 18 and I had no idea if this was even going to turn into a career, but I thought, I’m not going to lie for the rest of my life, I’m not going to be coy, or say I don’t want to talk about it.
‘‘So I asked myself, what would a straight person do? They’d say yes, these are songs about my relationship.
‘‘So for us, being out wasn’t so much a political thing at the time, but an act of honesty and transparency, I didn’t see myself having separate public and private lives.’’
But as their careers have evolved, Sara says they have embraced a more political stance, starting the Tegan and Sara Foundation, which fights for the rights of LGBTQ girls and women.
‘‘If I’m not talking about what’s problematic in our society and in our industry, or what is unfair, or what are the inequities that communities are facing internationally, then what is the point of it, to make songs and take selfies?
‘‘I just feel like if I have a public platform, I’m using it for good.’’
Tegan and Sara perform at Auckland’s Bruce Mason Centre on March 11, tickets are at Ticketmaster.co.nz.