Gwen writes:
Hi Tegan!
I feel like I’m going to the doctor where they tell you “only one issue per visit” and I’m feeling anxious because I’m going to sneak 2 in!
First, I’m wondering what city (anywhere in the world) sells the most concert tickets or sells the the quickest and has the most enthusiastic fans?
And second, when you and Sara write 50 songs for an album and only 14 make it onto the record, what happens to the rest of them? Do you just forget about them? Play them for yourself occasionally? I know some are probably recorded before you cut them from the record, but what about the others. Are they just abandoned like an old tree fort?
Okay, I guess technically more than 2 questions. Two topics!
Thanks!

Hey Gwen,

Great questions! I don’t mind answering them (more than 2 actually):

First, which city sells the most concert tickets…I think on the last record we did a gig in Chicago that was nearly 4500 people or something…generally we break up the shows over multiple nights if we get to that many tickets in a city. We like playing more intimate venues. Not always possible though..so…

Second, which city sells the fastest…I mean…we have such a great audience and we typically see shows sell pretty fast in the major cities…we try to pick venues that will fit our audience perfectly as “Selling out” a venue means a lot of fans not being able to see us..and that isn’t good for us or them so…!

Third, our most enthusiastic audiences have typically been in Europe and the UK, but LA is pretty crazy. I think one of the wildest shows on the last record cycle was in Salt Lake CIty! Florida is pretty crazy too. Ha. They are all good! OUR FANS RULE!

And what happens to all the unused songs? Well…wouldn’t you like to know! Ha. Most go to a hard drive or our iTunes library and rarely get listened to.. but every once and a while we go digging around in there for inspiration. I mine ideas from old songs and use them for new songs. There is a song on the new record we’re working on where Sara took lyrics from a song we did in New Orleans for our last record and wrote new music for it. So…we recycle and reuse

Thanks for the questions!

-Tegan

Dave writes:
Dear Tegan,
You and Sara sure do get remixed, covered and re-imagined quite a bit, by everyone from EDM DJ’s, acoustic singer-songwriters, and even hardcore and deathcore(!) bands. How do you guys feel about all the creative love thrown your way? Any favorite versions of your songs by another artist?
For a corollary question, as of writing this, you and Sara will be hard at work on the new album. Just wondering if you guys planned on having different artists remix one of the new songs, as you did with “Back In Your Head” and “Alligator”?
Thanks,
Dave

Hey Dave!

We are absolutely going to have a remix campaign on this new record. Sara and I listen to a lot of dance and electronic and we love having our music remixed.

And do we love all the love? We do! I love hearing our music reimagined and remixed! The weirder and more obscure or different from the original the better! This year we heard quite a few awesome dub step remixes that blew my mind! We always post them when we get them!

I also love the Cancer Bats version of So Jealous! Brilliant!

Thanks for writing in,
Tegan

Ang writes:
Dear Tegan,
What kind of vocal warm-up exercises do you do before a show? Do you run through the entire set during rehearsal/sound check?
Until next time,
Ang

Hey Ang!

I do not do any! It’s terrible of me not to do any. But so far so good. I talk A LOT during the day so..I feel like that get’s my vocals warmed up naturally. I also only sing lead half the time on stage..so I get a lot of breaks. I feel like if I had to sing a whole set, I’d be retired already. My vocal would give out for sure. That’s why I keep Sara around

And we do not run the entire set in our sound check usually. If we are just starting a tour we do but generally once we hit our stride on tour we only run 3-4 songs from different points in the set. We generally “check” all the instruments, so we’ll be sure to both do a song where we sing, where we play acoustic, where we play electric, where we play keyboards! We try not to use all our energy in sound check. ha.

Thanks for the questions!

-Tegan

Lila writes:
Hi Tegan,
I was wondering how hard it is for you to make ‘new friends’. This might seem like a trite question, but my best friend is a very well known actress in the country I’m from. I hate going out with her because she gets recognized all the time. We’ll be having dinner or be at a show or a bar and people would just stare at her all night and come over for an autograph or picture. She doesn’t mind, she’s used to it, but sometimes it’s really inconvenient (we happen to get into fierce discussions or arguments sometimes and there’s nothing like being interrupted by fans when you’re having a heated debate!). We’ve talked about how hard it is for her to trust people she meets, for she never knows if they just want to talk to her for the fame or because they are really genuine. Do you sometimes feel like people want to hang out or get to know you because you are ‘Tegan from Tegan & Sara’? How do you deal with that?

Hey Lila!

That’s an interesting question/insight. The easy answer is, yes, I do sometimes find it hard to meet new people or make new friends. The more complicated answer is, it’s always been hard for me to make new friends so I don’t just think it’s because some people recognize me or ask for my autograph when I’m out and about. Truthfully, I’ve always been a bit awkward and shy and hard to get to know. I think what I’ve chosen to do for my career has certainly exacerbated that social awkwardness I had growing up but it’s not the source of it! ha. I trust people for the most part. And I generally have good instincts when it comes to new people. I assume the best, always. We’re cautious for the most part these days as we have had intrusions via social networks and outsiders etc, but I like to think that most people are good, and if something is supposed to come of us meeting it will show itself naturally.

Thanks again for writing in,
Tegan

Fay writes:
Hi, Tegan!
First of all I hope you are doing well and have fun recording your new album! Hurray!
Thank you for all the great music you released so far and for being so visible in the business! There are (unfortunately) not many women who do what you do at your level, and it is great to see as a hopeful little musician and music student. I admire you and Sara’s text and melody work, and how you really play and use your guitars, not just standing holding it, posing and striking a D-chord at the end. – Not that it’s bad, but I prefer people who use their instruments:) Aaaanyways…. here we go:Do you use production as a “tool” to express your words, message and meaning of a song? Like in “Knife Going In”, “Like O, Like H”.
Especially in “The Con”, you use a lot of layering, as you do in your demos, and that is really interesting since that’s your original “package”/expression. And how did you (if you) use production as a tool comparing “The Con” to “Sainthood”? It’s interesting how the music can express one thing and the text something completely different like in “Back in Your Head” and “Alligator”(?) In many cases artist gets “developed” and their songs gets totally transformed into what their label (most likely a major) think will sell. And sometimes it might be great, but the original, feeling, meaning of, expression and the idea behind the song is something completely different. It’s great that you take part in the production of your stuff, I think it makes your band raw and one of a kind;) I’m writing a depth study about production on your work and your feedback and insight would help a lot:)
I’ve built a fanbase here in Oslo, and we look forward to your new album and hope you’ll visit Norway sometime, and maybe play too!
P.S. I love your stuff too, not meaning to favor Sara here) he.
Thank you for being positive role models in the business!
Take care!
- Your supporter, Fay (18)

Hi Fay!

Okay, I think I know what you’re asking. I’ll just go for it and hopefully this is what you had in mind:

Sara and I demo our new songs extensively as most T+S fans know. We rarely just track a guitar and vocal and leave it. Typically we’ll layer many ideas on guitar, keyboard, piano, bass as to get our melody, harmony, counter melody ideas in place. Generally we think that if we do this it will help the additional musicians we hire to play with or record on our records to capture the vibe we are looking for. We think of demos as blue prints. I never really day dream about putting out our demos. They are just too raw. Often the demos captures the FIRST time we’ve sung or played something and so … it isn’t really how the song ends up.

In a way we produce our demos to sound like what we HOPE our records will at least emulate. I never want our demos to be THE studio version though. Even with our record The Con, we wanted to attempt to fully capture the ideas we had on our demos, but take them to the next level. We were trying to influence how the drums and bass went down by recording all our guitar and keyboard ideas FIRST. Traditionally bands record drums and bass first. But then the bass + drums inform the rest of the track and we wanted to get away from that.

With Sainthood we wanted to go back to a more traditional path. So we played as a band and allowed the group vibe to inform how the tracks ended up. The Con had been a difficult record to initially tour with because it was so dense and complicated. With Sainthood we were hoping to sound more like a band that had played the record live off the floor, but then over dub over to capture “the studio” experience. Sara and I love hi fi recordings and being in the studio so we experimented a lot on that record.

With the new, as of yet untitled, record we are doing something TOTALLY different again. Which you’ll hear all about..soon!

Good luck with your writing!

-Tegan

Sarah writes:
Hi Tegan!
I was wondering how you feel when you go into a store or public place and hear one of your songs playing? Do you still feel excited at all or look around to see if anyone is into the song? Do you have a memory of one of the first times you heard a Tegan and Sara song playing in a store? (I know as a fan, I always get excited when any store is playing a Tegan and Sara song. I even once saw HMV playing the whole Its Not Fun Don’t Do It concert and nearly died!)

Hey Sarah!

What a funny question! YES~! I get excited and then I feel embarrassed. Sometimes it just depends on who is in the store with me. If I’m alone I feel like dying. Ha. If I’m with a friend or Sara I laugh and make jokes. One time Sara and I were shopping in an HMV in Canada somewhere and the video for Speak Slow came on and I was laughing/horrified all at once but when I went to look for Sara she had run out of the store! ha. I don’t remember the first time I heard my music in public but I remember the era…and I think it always made me happy. I’m also relieved to know that people like our music. Never gets old.

Take care!

-Tegan

Christine writes:
Tegan,
I remember you once said that it´s easier for you to live openly gay because you are a musician. I guess the music business is somewhat used to alternative lifestyles. For the average gay woman who´s maybe the only lesbian at her workplace (like I am) it might be harder. But do you sometimes think about being a mother and having to deal with teachers and other parents who might be oblivious or even hostile to homosexuals? Are you sometimes concerned about what lies ahead? Unfortunately I am.

Hey Christine!

Yes. Absolutely. I live with those fears for sure. I definitely feel lucky to be from Vancouver, Canada and to live in a very open minded community and do something so alternative for a living because I am rarely discriminated against. But I date an American and spend more and more time in Los Angeles and recognize that things here are different than in Canada. I worry about having kids and how they’ll be treated. But I know more and more people that are raising kids that are gay and who were raised by gay parents and they’re pretty okay.

As a musician I feel like I get respect and love even from people who don’t necessarily agree with our lifestyle but I also face tons of hurdles and discrimination in the press and from outlets like radio and TV every day. We are constantly objectified and sexualized and marginalized because of these things. What keeps me going is that every time I step on stage, or a new person learns about my music or another gay band, or queer friendly, ally heavy band like FUN. comes around I think…there…we’re one step closer…there…one more person not afraid..there one more person standing up and fighting with us..not against us. I try to focus on that and try not to get hopeless. Which I am prone to do. I won’t not be proud or have a family or be open just because I’ll face discrimination. It’s not worth it.

Good luck Christine! We’re with you!

I imagine being the only gay person at your place of work is very difficult. I know SO many people who are closeted in our industry but also who have regular jobs. It makes me so sad to think of them not being loved for who they really are. We did a tour a few summers ago and Sara and I were the only gay people on the tour. There were 75 band and crew members on the tour. It was really weird. We acted out by putting signs on our bus that said “gay bus” and put a gay flag in the window after we heard people making “that so gay” jokes. After that I felt like people went out of their way to ask about it, to come visit us and to be more respectful. Sometimes people just don’t know how to act. I can’t believe it but….for some people … we were the first gay people they had ever met! That blew my mind! So we just went with it. Sometimes it takes standing out to fit it.

-Tegan

Maya writes:
Dear Tegan,
Before my question, I just wanted to say that you and Sara are my favorite people and saved my life a few times in more ways than I will say. You two are just so amazing and inspirational! Now, for my question: When you and Sara banter, do you guys just come up with it onstage and go along with it? I have watched MANY of your concerts on YouTube and you guys just never seem to not be funny. I know that you said in an interview that you and Sara once started fighting onstage, and I also wanted to ask when you and Sara had the toughest time getting along. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all of our questions, it really means a lot.
Love you guys,
Maya

Hey Maya!

Thank you for being a fan. I’m glad Sara and I and our music was able to help you through so much. We feel exactly the same way about our music and all of you fans out there listening to it. You get us through!

Now. We are definitely not always funny. No way. Ha. The clips on youtube are funny because those are generally the best moments. Ha. I think if we weren’t funny (which we are often not) people just don’t post them! ha. I think.

But. We are typically funnier on stage than off. And we just banter naturally. There is never any planning. We just go with the flow up there. Sometimes its the audience that influences our humour, sometimes each other or something we did during the day. Often it’s the stories about the songs that we focus on talking about…it just comes naturally.

I think in a past life we were comedians. I think we sometimes think we still are! ha.

Take care,
Tegan

Deanna writes:
Hi Tegan!
I just want to say quickly, how much I LOVE yours and Sara’s music so very much! You’re an inspiration to everyone, and not just with your music, but how amazing you both are as people! Thank you and keep it up! Okay, now I have two questions that are kind of the same. I was curious if you had seen the documentary Miss Representation and if you had, what your thoughts on it were? I also was curious to know your thoughts on the Gay Rights Movement Video that you tweeted about (I had seen it the previous day and was almost in tears!) and the making of Second Class Citizen?
Thanks so much! xoxo
~Dee

Hey Dee!

I have not seen Miss Representation but I will add it to the list of movies I need to watch! And regarding the gay rights movement video I tweeted and being a second class citizen…

It’s tough. You know. The fact is I live in Canada, where I have all the same rights as everyone else. I live in the USA part time and date an American and I get sad over the limitation and restrictions and inequality all the time. On top of that I can’t believe that she (and all Americans) don’t have proper health care. Don’t even get me started on the giant ass bills my girlfriend has to pay for health care. RIDICULOUS! So I feel the pain everyone down in the states is feeling. It’s unfair. I work very hard to educate our audience, our friends and our families about this in equality. I work daily to try and get our straight allies working with us. I try my hardest to focus my attention on the positive and moving things forward. But it’s tough. Sometimes I just can’t believe that people wouldn’t like me because I’m gay. It blows my mind. Moving forward I just want every queer person in American to know…from a Canadian who is NOT a 2nd class citizen, that you are NOT a 2nd class citizen either. And that we love you and we’ll keep fighting for your rights along with you.

So I was moved by the video needless to say! ha.

Take care,
Tegan

Sarah writes:
Hey Tegan!
I was recently listening to your album If It Was You, and noticed that you and Sara both used the line “In the back of your car I feel like I have traveled nowhere” in Sara’s song Not Tonight and your song Terrible Storm. I was just wondering if it was just a coincidence that you both used that line, or if not, who originally came up with that line. Also, the next time you come to Ottawa would you consider playing My Number? Thanks a lot!

Hey Sarah!

Those are actually both Sara songs! During that era we both used a lot of repeat lines in our songs. I think we were playing with the idea of perspective and different voices. So I found it really haunting that she wrote those two songs about two different things and yet tied them together with that one line. They were both such different feeling songs and thematically were touching on such different topics..and yet…were bound together with that line…very moving stuff!

And regarding MY NUMBER…one day I’ll play it again for sure! For now we’re focusing on new music and not doing a lot of touring…but I think I’d like to do a medley of old stuff when we tour again. We will have 7 records worth of material to get through..it’s hard to decide WHAT to do and what not to do…harder than you’d think!

Take care!
Tegan

Roak writes:
Hi you guys,
I was wondering if you would be attending NAMM in January of 2012? I’ve recently become fans of you two (and Ted) in August, but you’ve been one of the biggest influences on me musically and socially and I think it’d be great to see you guys there.
-Roak
P.S. I’m not totally sure if its actually you answering these so it was a little weird wording the question, but thank you anyway!

Hey Roak!

Thanks for sending in a question! I am indeed the one who answers these questions! Very exciting for me! ha.
I had never heard of NAMM before your email. I had to google it! It looks really cool! I will not be there but now I am
very interested in attending and learning more! So thanks for that! And thank you so much for becoming a fan! We love
hearing about new people finding us! Very inspiring!

Take care and happy new year!

-Tegan

Ricky writes:
Hey Tegan,
I don’t know if you would classify this as a question maybe more of an idea I had. I had an idea to keep fans busy and also a way potentially gain new fans through your current fans. I know you’ve talked about in the past you have around 30 or even more songs that you whittle down to the album and there are some songs that don’t get used, my idea was to upload the lyrics and the chords to your website of one of these songs that you aren’t going to take further (or one that you may take further) and then see what your fans can make of it. You could see how it differs to the original without us actually hearing the song. I think it could be an interesting competition with the judge being either fans or you and Sara, either way I think it would be awesome to see what Tegan and Sara fans could do with it (and maybe see how your fans inspire your music for a change!).
Take care!
Ricky

Ricky!

That is actually a brilliant idea! One I will share with my product manager and Warner and with the Tegan and Sara team! I have no idea if we would ever be allowed to do that (record contracts are quite limiting) but I love the idea! Nice work! Thank you so much for the suggestion. We do write a lot of songs and it’s sad that so many never get heard. We currently have over 35 written for the new record and I feel anxiety when I think of how many won’t ever even get recorded! YIKES! So thank you for this very creative and thoughtful idea!

-Tegan

Kaitlin writes:
Hi Tegan, I came across a YouTube video with a song called Sheets on it and I know that isn’t from any of your records but I was wondering if you were going to release that and other songs? …I absolutely LOVE Sheets it’s stuck in my head and I would definitely be the first to buy it!
Thanks,
Kaitlin
P.S. PLEASE COME TO MIAMI!!!

Hi Kaitlin,

Sheets was released with the pre order of Sainthood on iTunes. I’m so glad to hear that you liked it so much! We definitely need to continue to work on creative ways to get you guys more of our new music. It’s so hard to decide what should be on the record or not. We start with such a large pile of songs and we become so attached to the demos as we write them. It’s a real challenge for us to figure out which ones you all will love the most. I really wish we had included Sheets on Sainthood. Sara and I wrote that song together and I really came to love it AFTER we were done the record. But by then it was too late…

Anyway! Happy New Year

-Tegan

Hi Tegan,
For the past 6 years Tegan and Sara has been my FAVORITE band! I’m a contemporary dancer and your passion within the music inspires me in so many ways. Every time your music is playing its literally impossible for me to sit still! You have inspired me to play the guitar and create my own songs. I find this process fun but really difficult! How do you start/go about this process, do you write lyrics then a melody or vice versa? Any tips?
Thanks for being AMAZING at life!
- Kaitlin

Kaitlin (so many questions)! ha.

I start with guitar or piano cords. I find something that feels good, and let a melody start creating itself in the guitar structure. I hum and howl over the guitar chords until I find something that sticks and then I write lyrics. I rarely write lyrics before melody. It doesn’t work for me the other way! Keep working at your song writing! It just takes time! We’ve been writing since we were 15! So 16 years of practice! WE’RE SO OLD! ha.

-Tegan

Ami writes:
HI TEGAN!!
Okay so my question is why do you and Sara usually write in the form of singing to the person instead of singing about the person? I don’t know if that made sense, but like in Nineteen saying “I felt you in my legs” instead of “I felt her in my legs.” Hopefully you get what I’m trying to ask! I hope everything is going well for you, and I CANNOT WAIT for the next record!!

Hey Ami!

Our intention when writing songs is to write from a perspective that would allow anyone listening (young, old, married, single, heartbroken, happy, girl, boy, LBGTQ) to connect and apply the song to their own life. We have found “he” or “she” to be limiting when listening to songs WE love, so we try not to limit the listener. Also, we’re often writing songs FOR someone and so it feels better to sing to them then to an audience..ha.

Take care,
Tegan

Angela asks:
Who was dressed up as the creepy blue/green parasitic-looking creature in the Hell music video? Was that Sara or some random person?

It was Sara I think. But as I get older my mind has started to fade and so I can’t say for sure. But I THINK it was her. It may have been an extra on set. I remember they wanted me to do it originally and I outright refused. I am absolutely terrified of small spaces and refuse to be confined in any costumes. Once I dressed as a giant bunny for a fundraiser for Easter Seals and I needed to be medicated afterwards I had such a claustrophobic moment. Never again!

-Tegan

Katie writes:
Hi Tegan,
I’ve heard you and Sara say that The Con was probably the fans’ favorite album, but you think that Sainthood had better (or more well-written?) songs on it. Given such a changing music industry, how do you define what it means to have a successful song or album? Is it sales, concert responses, critics’ reviews, yours and Sara’s personal feelings toward the work…etc? And has that changed over your career?
Also, just want to say thank you for all you and Sara do. Not only do you bring beautiful and thoughtful tunes into the world, but you’re both incredibly giving to your fans. It’s so rare. I definitely think it helps people better connect to your music and come to respect you as individuals.
You are neat,
Katie

Hey Katie!

Well, first off, thanks for writing in and for supporting Sara and I. It’s our pleasure and we’re humbled by your being fans of us!!!

Second, Sara and I felt successful the first time we managed to get through a set of our songs at a coffee shop without having to stop and start over. I remember the feeling of Under Feet Like Ours arriving and how thrilled we were to have done that at 19. Finishing a record at that early point in our career and lives was a huge achievement for us. We had borrowed all the money to make it from our grandpa and we were able to pay it back within the year and that was also a huge thing for us.

Right from the start of our career Sara and I would make a list of goals we had and set out to accomplish them. Using that model we’ve been able to sustain a healthy outlook and grounded approach to our lives and our career. Ultimately, record sales are just not that important to us. It does bother me that a better way of distributing music has not yet taken over our industry because I do think it’s wrong that some people take our music for free. But I believe that a subscription process will eventually happen and we’ll be compensated fairly. With that being said I would like to “sell more records” in that I would like our band to grow, more people to hear us, be it through radio or video play or something else. I definitely don’t want to limit our ability to reach our fans, or the people of planet Earth in any way. We will of course never do anything that feels wrong but as we have grown older the list of things we won’t do has not grown, in fact it’s gotten shorter. So, as long as people keep coming to see us play, we will keep writing songs and being able to release them to all of you.

Thanks for the question,

-Tegan

Holly writes:
First off, I think it is great that you guys are so considerate of your fans. I’ve just been wondering how much theory you guys know. How did you guys learn? By ear? By book? By trade? Please enlighten us.
Thanks,
Love Holly

Hey Holly!

Thanks! You all are so considerate of us that we can’t help ourselves! ha.

When Sara and I were 7 or 8 we started taking piano lessons. When we established we liked piano and consistently practiced my mom allowed us to start taking Royal Conservatory training. Basically, Sara and I played classical piano and trained and tested in both playing and theory for years. When we were 17 we stopped. I cannot remember one note of any of the music I played back then. But I do think it helps a lot when I’m working on new songs and want to add keyboards and piano. At the start of our career I was a bit resistant to adding piano or keyboards but Matt Sharp (who played on So Jealous) really encouraged us to embrace those instruments. I think I was resistant because I associated the piano with classical music and 10 years of lessons and training. Ha. Regarding our guitar playing, I know nothing. Even after 15 years. I can’t figure out anything ever. I find the guitar so frustrating and limiting. I write on piano more and more. ha. I should have taken more lessons. I tell myself I’m going to start practicing guitar but I just can’t make myself. It’s a tool I use to write and that’s pretty much it! I like playing guitar live only because it creates a shield between me and the audience. Ha. It makes me feel more confident! ha.

-Tegan

Steph writes:
Hey Tegan!
First, I just want to say that I’m a huge fan of you guys. I live in Edmonton but road tripped down to Portland to see you guys play last year! My question is in regards to Soil, Soil. It is one of my favorite songs, and Sara mentioned in The Con DVD that your mom liked the “extended” version of the song. What can you tell us about the extended version?
Steph
and rasengan.barrage wants to know if fans will ever hear this version.

Hey Steph

I don’t know if anyone will every hear the full version. Maybe. We are releasing The Con demos at Christmas on iTunes but the version of soil, soil is the version that we cut down so…Sara really did love the full version but felt the sweet, soft, short version was just more important and that the song did not need to be repeated in a punk rock pop variation. That was really all the original version was. I basically just played the whole song a 2nd time twice as loud and twice as fast. ha. Use your imaginations!

Thanks for writing in! Thank you for road tripping too!

-Tegan

Hannah writes:
“I just heard the first Christmas song of the year mid-November, yikes! I was wondering what you are doing for Christmas this year?”

Hey Hannah!

Sara and I spend the holidays each year with our immediate family! We have been changing it up the last 6 years since my grandma died and so this year we’re going to bbq on Christmas day. Feeling very excited! We don’t give Christmas gifts anymore. All of us just travel to see each other and donate to charity on each others behalf. It’s all very nice and politically correct. Secretly I miss presents a bit. But not THAT much. We need a child in our family so we can spoil them. Hurry up Sara! Make a baby!

Happy Holidays to you all!

-Tegan

Stacey writes:
Hey Tegan,
First of all, I think you are brilliant; you’re the best thing to come out of Canada since Trudeau!
I heard you and Sara talking on stage about how your song “The Cure” made Sara cry in New York.
Are there any of Sara’s songs which make YOU cry? If so, which ones?
Thanks and all the best,
Stacey xo

Hey Stacey!

Thanks SO much for the question. Sara and I are always very entertained by this question
as we get it (in slightly different forms) A LOT! There are no songs of Sara’s I don’t love, or feel
emotion about. It feels like a grand privilege to be in a band with Sara and get to hear her songs
FIRST and get to participate in bringing them to the world! They all make me cry the first time.

Take care,
Tegan Trudeau (kidding)

Ashley writes:
Hey Tegan,
I really loved Paperback Head from Sainthood. Will there be any more similar Tegan and Sara writing collabs in the future?

Hey Ashley!

Well, we are definitely enjoying working on songs together but not always for our own project. We do a bit of collaboration on our own songs by making lyric and arrangement suggestions but no 50/50 collaborations have appeared yet. We will have some collaborations that we did with other artists coming out early next year! So keep your eye on the website for those!

-Tegan

Makayla writes:
Dear TRQ,
My question is somewhat complicated, it has to do with what you said at the Calgary tour dates. About how some artists treat there music as a career and others don’t. I was wondering at what point does a band turn into a career? You and Sara have been playing together for over a decade, like you said you first toured coffee shops bars etc. At what point did your band turn into a career? I know this may seem like a weird question but its something I have not yet found an answer for. So basically the main thing is when does a band that tours turn into a career for life?

Hey Makayla!

Thanks for the question. This is a difficult one. Let me see if I can answer it.

When Sara and I started to play for people that weren’t our friends and family around age 17, I became obsessed with the idea of doing that all the time. Sara and I both wanted to travel very badly post high school and music seemed to offer that. We also wanted to do something creative with our lives and music allowed for that. As we became more and more successful (putting out our demos, getting signed, putting out records, selling out shows etc) over the next few years it slowly evolved into a career.

In a sense, I look at the first few years of our career like college. We were studying to became career musicians. While our friends were at University studying to become doctors and teachers we were studying song writing and record making and business. When we started to achieve success it was like we had graduated and landed our first job. With that came better pay and health care and stability. Which in turn motivated us to continue. Underneath it all we were just striving towards more creative endeavours and freedom within our work of course, but being paid and building a stable foundation were all apart of that. And I guess that’s what I mean when I say some artists build careers and other’s don’t. I don’t care about making millions, or even selling millions. I just want to ensure that Sara and I can make music as long as we like and not go hungry doing it. That means working hard every day and ensuring the future is planned out. A lot of artists just want to play music. Which is totally great. But often without planning and foundation and goals etc it’s hard to sustain!

Hope that answered your question!

-Tegan

Richard writes:
Hey Tegan!
I love your and Sara’s music sooo much! I’ll probably never have the pleasure of meeting you both so I wanted to tell you how much I respect you for being true musicians and such positive role models in the music industry (you’ve inspired me to write my own music!). I’ve got two questions, I really like the way the your music has developed over time and was wondering if you’d ever consider rethinking/remastering/re-envision certain songs from some of the earlier albums and making them completely different with a completely different twist on them, with new instruments different harmonies etc. I watched a video for Moog sessions where you re-envisioned Living Room and it made me think if you’d ever do that with any other earlier songs and put them on a future album? Also I loved the video chapters for the songs on The Con and I loved the behind the scenes and it made me connect with the songs even more thought it was awesome to see how they were made and was wondering if you’d ever do that again? I can’t wait for the DVD and the new album!
Thank you so much!
- Richard (from North Wales)

Richard!

Thank you for the lovely note. I appreciate it very much. We love Wales a lot. Looking forward to returning. Regarding the rethinking of our music…we actually do that from time to time when we play live. For our latest release, Get Along, we played a lot of our music from our past 6 records in new stripped down arrangements. It was really fun. A lot of the old songs have weird arrangements that are counter intuitive to how we write and perform now so it makes it hard to just play them as is. But we try. Slowly we’re getting there. It’s hard to go so far back into our musical catalogue. Like looking at old year books or re kindling with old friends or lost loves, it can often be a trip you don’t want to take or one you just want to take quickly and then head back to reality. Ha. Meaning…we like hearing the old songs once and a while..but often just don’t want to go backwards. So. But slowly we pull songs out. I love our work that we did in high school that we have yet to release. I think that is music I could get into playing! Look out for it in the future!

-Tegan

Kerenza writes:
Hi Tegan !
I was just wondering, how do you and Sara organize which parts you sing on each other’s songs?
For example does Sara just ask you to fill in certain area’s of the song with lyrics of your choice?
A huge thanks from your biggest teenage fan,
Kerenza

Hey Kerenza!

Generally how Sara and I decide who will do what is based on who wrote the song. So for example:

Call It Off.

I wrote the song and lyrics. I send it to Sara in a basic form. Just a few guitars and my voice. Then she records ideas she has for back ground vocals, additional instrumentation and makes suggestions about the arrangement. That’s how we do it!

Now, some songs we don’t do any collaborating. Like..Sentimental Tune for instance. That is all Sara. I play a bit of keyboard on that song on the record. But all the vocals are hers. So when it comes time to play the song live..I just sing and play what she can’t.

Hope that sheds some light on our process!

-Tegan

Skyy writes:
Hey Tegan!
First off, I’d like to say that you and Sara are amazingly talented and beautiful women.
I was wondering, what are some of your favorite 80′s movies?
-Skyy

Hey Skyy!

We loved the 80′s! Most of the movies I love from the movies I grew to love later on in life..but…here they are anyway!

The Empire Strikes Back
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
The Shining
The Princess Bride
This Is Spinal Tap
Fast Times At Ridgemont High
Back To The Future
Rain Man
Phantom Of The Paradise
Bugsy Malone
Neverending Story
The Last Unicorn
Stand By Me
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Breakfast Club

I could go on and on. These are the ones that made the biggest impact! Enjoy!

-Tegan

Allison writes:
Hey Tegan!
Its just the start of September, but in a few months it’ll be the new year, so I was wondering what’s coming for Tegan and Sara in 2012? Do you have any projected time frame for when to expect a new album, the DVD, possibly an American tour? Thanks for taking the time every month to answer questions from the fans!
Allison

Hey Allison!

We are releasing a new DVD and Live Record in November. The date will be announced soon! Sara and I also have 2 songs on the new Morgan Page record which comes out next year. Sara and I are also hard at work on our 7th full length record. I would guess that it will be coming out…in the fall of next year (2012). I also wrote a few songs for Lisa Loeb’s new record! That is coming out next year too I think…um…I think that’s it..? No touring right now. Just songs. Songs. And more songs. Ha. Soon!

-Tegan

Michelle writes:
Tegan!
Hi! I was just wondering, is it hard to write music? Do you sometimes run out of ideas, or run out of things to write about? I’m so excited for a new record of yours to come out. I can’t even explain how much I adore you girls!
-Michelle.

Hey Michelle!

Thank you! That’s sweet of you to say. I do not run out of things to say. Sometimes I get really busy and I don’t sit down and write for a long time and it feels hard when I return to it. Its a muscle (or so they say), song writing, and so it’s important to keep working at it. When I haven’t written in a while, the first few songs that come aren’t ever very good. I try to remain inspired by chaining my perspective, not rehashing too much. I find my life is very up and down and emotional and intense so I never run out of things to say or feel! Don’t worry we won’t get bored and not write ever! ha.

-Tegan

Nikita writes:
My question is about merch…I would like to know how you feel about fan made merch?…do you feel excitement when you see all the ideas your fans come up with knowing that you inspired them to create something?.. or do you feel about it the way you feel about people downloading your music as opposed to going out and buying the record…do you feel that they should buy what you ladies have had made or are you ok with them creating their own?… thanks in advance (i hope) for answering my question
-Nikita

Hey Nikita!

Thanks for writing in. Sara and I would love it if everyone bought our record, but understand some people can’t afford to, or would rather spend the money on merchandise or concert tickets and we get that. With sales down so much it IS affecting budgets at record labels. The label gives us a fraction of the marketing dollars that they would have 10 years ago because they just don’t project a lot of sales for a band like us. Which is tough. BUT we aren’t sticklers, or dinosaurs and mainly just hope a system that is fair for all gets worked out. I love the concept of paying for a subscription to ALL music on your phone bill or internet plan. I think that’s cool! Perhaps THAT is the future of music. Anyway. Regarding merchandise…same same. If you can buy a shirt, or pin or poster, awesome. If you’re inspired to make your own, awesome! When fans use images that we don’t own (taken by other photographers) and try to SELL the items, we do ask them to stop. But when people show up with awesome home made shirts I am TOTALLY inspired. I’ve even seen shirts that I thought were so cool I’ve emailed our art director to do something similar! Ha!

-Tegan

Hanna writes:
Hi Tegan!
My name is Hanna im 14 years old and i want to say thank you. You and Sara are both beautiful, without even trying! And your music is amazing! I was wondering what were your favourite things to do when you were 14 like favourite activities, hobbies, interests, etc.?
Hanna!

Oh man. I LOVED My So Called Life. So we’d sit and watch that over and over on VHS. Sara and I had a big group of girl and boy friends. We were always very co-ed. Lots of roaming the streets and getting up to no good but mainly just sitting around laughing and story telling on the weekends. We were in drama and piano lessons and very active in music at that point. So we did that a lot. We also loved riding bikes and playing basketball. Our family is very important to us, so we spent a lot of time with them too. Mainly, music. Laying around listening, lip syncing in our rooms after school, writing our own music, driving around with our step dad BLASTING music. MUSIC! Ha.
We also got really into 80′s movies then! One summer before grade 8 we probably rented every 80′s movie from our Blockbuster! I guess that’s not very exciting. ha.

Thanks for writing in!
-Tegan

I’m also working on a site re-alignment and will do it live. That means some things might look funky or broken while I’m working. I’ve created a public google doc at goo.gl/tH0Kp to list what I’m working on. Why? It seemed fun. You can drop by and leave comments or suggestions there too.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Jen

Here’s the thing with the site. It’s a lot of work. A lot of time.

I have a job. A wife. A kid. A blog about my kid. You know, a life outside of Tegan and Sara.

But, I still enjoy having the website even if I don’t have hours to sit and teach myself code. A cool thing about the interweb, is that lots has changed since the time I started the site in 2000.

Social media, social bookmarking, and content sharing have all come such a long way since .org started. One set of photos that would take me half an hour to save, re-size, organize, upload, and re-post on .org can now be saved to Pinterest in a matter of seconds.

And, let’s face it, I have a lot of articles hosted on this site that are copyrighted and really shouldn’t be here.

So, today I’m making a break from the way I’ve been doing things.

I’ll still maintain the site and still archive Tegan and Sara goodies, but I’m also going to relinquish control and trust outside entities like Pinterest and Linkable with some of the content I would previously host directly on .org. This will save me tons of time and free me up to focus on other parts of the site or my life.

It’s going to be a work in progress. Gone are the days when I can decide to revamp a part of the site and stay up all weekend working on it. Now, I’ll have to work on it a little bit every day. But, I will work on it consistenly.

To see where I’m starting, you can visit the .org Pinterest page and the .org Linkable page.

We’re also on Twitter and Facebook.

If you have any suggestions or tips, they are always appreciated. You can email us at teganandsara.org(at)gmail(dot)com

As always, thank you for visiting the site.

-Jen

PS – If 25 people signup for linkable via this link http://www.linkable.com/referral/teganandsaraorg they’ll remove ads from the .org page. Can you help out by signing up?

Details at juliesheckacool’s Channel