Jen writes:
A few interviews back you and Sara mentioned the Tom Petty "Runnin' Down a Dream" documentary. I recently watched it and it's was awesome. Any other documentaries or other films you recommend?
Thanks,
Jen
Hey Jen!
Well, I saw Bill Cunningham New York recently and LOVED IT! WOW! Blew my mind honestly. Worth a trip to the video store, or where ever you kids see movies these days..? Also, saw the Conan O'Brien movie...Can't Stop. Also VERY entertaining and funny! I haven't seen much lately besides that...I really want to see that one...ONE DAY I think it's called. They used footage from youtube from ONE DAY. Apparently it's cool!
-Tegan
Yasmin writes:
Hi Tegan!
I was just wondering how your writing process changes from album to album, and specifically how has it changed going into the seventh record?
Much love from a dedicated fan,
Yasmin
Yasmin,
This time around I'm just trying to change it up song to song. Sometimes I write fast, sometimes I force the song to come out quick. I've been sending instrumentals to Sara, or sending half done songs, as we are trying to collaborate a bit more. I also write a song on the guitar and then one on piano, just to keep things fresh. I'm trying different tempos, keys and structures. You know...keeping it fresh! Ha. I'm feeling very inspired though! We're hard at work over here in the Tegan and Sara song factory! ha.
-Tegan
JP writes:
Hi Tegan,
My name is JP Prater from Kentucky (USA), and I think I'm your biggest hetero male fan ever (at least in my area). I just wanted to ask you a question: Which one specific lyric of yours means the most to you? (I already know the systematic answer about every one of them being equally special, haha.) Hopefully you can answer me, but no sweat if you can't. Love your music with all my heart.
JP
Hey JP!
I think my dad and step dad might have you beat on the biggest hetero male fan. But you can have the biggest hetero male fan that is not related to us award. Cool? Cool! Lets see. If I had to pick a lyric of mine that means the most...I'd say...maybe I would have been something you'd be good at from Call it off. From Sara...its from a song we never released and the lyric is...I try to leave, try to leave, because I know you won't. I loved that. Haunting. The lyrics that we are writing for this new record are pretty haunting though. In the vein of The Con. I think you guys are going to like the new record a lot!
Thanks for writing!
-Tegan
Liz writes:
Hi Tegan! I know that you and Sara have said in previous interviews that the best concerts depend on the audience --that the audience makes the concert. I was just wondering what you as the performer prefer, a seated calm audience or a crazy standing crowd that is dancing around? Which do you find yourself more at ease in front of? Which is easier to banter too?
-Liz
Liz!
I find every concert different, and depending on my mood and the tour my favourite room changes nightly. But, there are pros and cons to both. Seated audiences are MUCH easier to banter and story tell in front of/to. Standing/dancing audiences, not so much. But seated can be a bit low energy, where as the standing audiences that are dancing and singing can be pretty mind blowing to stand in front of. The energy that comes off a crowd that's screaming and singing and dancing is pretty cool. But that get's to be a lot around...song 15 so...ha..in a perfect world we'd have a screaming, singing, dancing audience for 10-12 songs and then magically seats would appear and everyone would sit down and listen and laugh and we'd maybe sit too? ha. What do you think?
-Tegan
Rayanne writes:
Hi Tegan :)
I'm curious how you think your younger self, like when you first got signed, would have reacted to who you are now? What do you think you would think about how your music sounds today, how much it has changed since then? (I hope I make sense!)
Thank you. And thank you for being you. You are friggin' awesome! :)
Take care,
Rayanne
Rayanne!
Thanks for writing! You're awesome too!
I think we were young and we didn't know anything when we signed our record deal and starting releasing music and so when I look back I feel a bit like...wow...what were we thinking. ha. I love our early songs but don't love everything we did early on. We hadn't found our voices yet. I think we were over singing and fluttering around too much. We hadn't figured out how to use our most important instrument. So I love a lot of the songs, but not the way we sound. We also were very un sure of HOW we wanted to sound, so I find our first few records don't really SOUND like US. They sound like the drummer, or the producer, or Sara in parts. Its very...all over the place stylistically. It wasn't until If It Was You that we started demoing our songs at home and writing all the backing parts ourselves. Its funny because some of our older die hard fans think our early records are "better" or "more Tegan and Sara" sounding..but those first two records we barely played any of the instruments. We had no idea what we were doing. We relied on Hawksley Workman (who produced TBOA) and Jared Kuemper( UFLO) and the band we hired to do everything. So...we laugh about those comments...since IIWY and SJ and The Con are truly T+S records to us! ha. I will say that when I listen back I hear raw, earnest, truth. And we definitely don't project that any more. ha. But I think that's okay. We're growing up, maturing and evolving. No one stays the same forever. Thankfully.
-Tegan