Tegan and Sara share more than music

By: ALAN SCULLEY - For the North County Times | Wednesday, January 25, 2006 11:27 AM PST ∞

Tegan Quin calls "So Jealous" a CD that easily could have been the first album for Tegan and Sara, the group she co-fronts with her twin sister, Sara.

That might seem like an odd thing to say, considering "So Jealous" is actually the sisters' fourth record.

But as Tegan explained, "So Jealous" is the first time she and Sara have been able to completely achieve the sound and style they had in mind all along for their music.

"The first three records we made, we had low budgets, we had limited time, we had limited skills in the studio. So we did what we could," Tegan said.

A far more appropriate recording budget changed the circumstances for "So Jealous."

"'If It Was You' was definitely the first record where we moved in the direction that we wanted to go in," Tegan said, mentioning the group's 2002 CD. "But 'So Jealous' to me could have easily been our first record. Ö I think we finally entered the game in my opinion."

The sisters, now 25, started out at age 15 playing in a high school punk band in their hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia. They signed a deal with Vapor Records when they were just 17, and released their first CD, "Under Feet Like Ours," in 1999.

A second record, "This Business of Art," followed a year later, by which time the duo was beginning to get noticed by the press and had started attracting a small grass-roots following.

One thing that didn't sit well with the Quin sisters was that with the lean, acoustic-oriented sound of the first two albums (partly a product of limited finances and studio time), they were often categorized in those formative years as a folk act.

"I always thought we were kind of a pop-rock act. I never understood the folk (label)," said Tegan. "Listening to even 'This Business of Art,' there are so many keyboards and weird stuff on it, I just can't imagine why people called it folk. I really just don't understand. I think it's because we're female. I think people are sexist. I think because we are girls and we played acoustic guitar on that record, people called us folk. But they don't call Coldplay folk."

"If It Was You" should have obliterated any perception or assumption that Tegan and Sara were simply a folk act. It featured a beefed up full band sound and a collection of catchy, compelling tunes.

"So Jealous," released last fall, picks up where "If It Was You" left off. But one major difference was Tegan and Sara had six months to write and record demos and the recording budget to realize their vision for the CD.

Songs such as "I Know I Know I Know," "I Won't Be Left" and "You Wouldn't Like Me" retain the kind of disarming pop melodies that typified "If It Was You," but a growth in the duo's songwriting skills is also evident, especially on tunes like "So Jealous" and "We Didn't Do It," which offer edgier and more adventurous melodies and song structures than most pop music.

Another common characteristic is the way Tegan and Sara sound like a duo in the truest sense, as they trade vocals and guitar parts on the CD. Unlike many duos (think the Indigo Girls or Simon and Garfunkel) where it's easy to discern which member of the duo wrote a given song or sang a certain part, the roles Tegan and Sara bring to their music seem almost interchangeable.

That kind of blurred identity is exactly what Tegan likes about the music she makes with her sister.

"We complement each other well because we're not doing the same thing," said Tegan, noting she and her sister write their songs separately and actually don't spend much time together unless they are working on a CD our touring.

"I don't think you can go through a Tegan and Sara record necessarily and pick out what's mine and what's hers and whose strengths and weaknesses. I think each song has its strengths and weaknesses. and I think it will always be that way because I think both of us aren't a complete picture. I'm a firm believer as a twin for 25 years that we are missing parts of ourselves because we were supposed to be one and we were two. I believe in music we will always have (that)."

First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, email addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.