Tegan and Sara made a lot of noise last year – first on the most amped-up album of their crossover career and then indirectly via a juvenile dis song about the tune-making twins. From a stop on the Quin sisters' current tour to support "Sainthood" , Sara opened up about NOFX's "Creeping Out Sara," their involvement in Lilith Fair's summer return and making "crazy" music with Margaret Cho.
When you're joking around on stage, is it rehearsed?
We certainly never really talk about what we're going to say on stage – a lot of it is off the cuff. I always worried that we would run out of "material," but it feels so natural on stage, and so I try not to deconstruct it too much just because it's always been something that's been very easy for us. In fact, it was a deflection thing early on in our career where it was much easier to riff with the audience sometimes than performing for them because a lot of the time they wouldn't even know the music. Sometimes talking to them, and sharing some of our personality or daily anecdotes, allowed people to feel more intimate with us. It was almost like a technique accidentally discovered early in our career where we were like, "This actually works."
"Sainthood" is edgier and heavier than the others. Were you deliberately trying to rock out more?
I don't know if it was so much of an emphasis on rocking out, but definitely giving it a live performance feeling. When we worked with Chris Walla (of Death Cab For Cutie) on "The Con," he had never seen our band play, so his knowledge of us was limited to what he had heard on "So Jealous" and what he had heard on our demos. At that time we were really into the idea of making the sort of anti-studio record.
When it came time to make this record, we had played shows together with Death Cab and he obviously knew so much more about Tegan and I as live players. He wanted to go in the opposite direction of "The Con" and flesh out the material and arrangements with a band and strip away the extraneous melodies. It ended up being a bigger sounding record because of that.
You wrote with Tegan on "Paperback Head," your first songwriting collaboration on record. Why now? And were there others that were cut?
Tegan and I were in the studio producing other records for other bands, so we were in this really collaborative space right before we made the record. We both decided to go down to New Orleans and just take a crack at writing whatever came out of it. We didn't know if it would be one song or five songs; we just thought, "Let's see if we can squeeze out anything good."
We ended up writing seven more songs, but we had written so much material that there was a real cohesive feel to what was already there. The stuff from New Orleans really took on a different tone, and because they were written differently than the way we normally write, it was funny, they really almost didn't even sound like us – which was super cool (laughs).
So, might those songs show up on an EP?
Oh my God, I would love to do that! I'm more enthusiastic about that than anyone else is (laughs). We are already doing an album campaign, and we're touring – and I'm like, "Let's make an EP!"
That's so ambitious of you.
Yeah – we'll see what happens. I'm not even sure it's releasable as is; we'd definitely have to work on it. Every time I bring it up, Tegan rolls her eyes because I don't think she wants to really commit to doing anything else (laughs).
What was the first time you performed during Lilith Fair 10 years ago like?
We only did one show, and we drove up to Edmonton on this terrible, rainy day. We didn't have a fan base at all. We always laugh because the only two people I really remember watching are my mom and this woman in full rain gear – the big rubber overalls sweeping the water. That's how I remember it. It wasn't a triumph in any way.
But we're really excited to be doing a couple shows, and I'm really glad that the festival has come back around again. What's super cool about it is we've played every kind of festival. I feel like we're one of those bands that gets away with playing in a lot of different festivals because we're versatile – we can make the show more folk festival, we can make the show more rock festival.
You collaborated with Margaret Cho recently on a song for her upcoming album. What should we expect?
The idea of the record is still coming together for her. She wanted to expand on her live show and do songs. She sent us lyrics, and Tegan and I wrote a song using her lyrics. It doesn't feel like a comedy song to me; the lyrics she sent us were about an intervention, and it's about somebody having an alcohol problem. When we started recording it, in the middle she was like, "I really want an instrumental break where we just riff a bit and do an improv conversation where you guys read me a letter and tell me I need to go to rehab." It just got so wacky. I was so nervous, but Tegan got right in the booth with her. It's so over-the-top and crazy.
What's your side of the story regarding the controversial NOFX song called "Creeping Out Sara," written about you and Tegan after you met the band's lead singer?
I'm not super offended. I don't think that they mean any harm; those guys are good guys and Fat Mike has (long pause) … an interesting take on politics that he really cares about. I don't think he was trying to be homophobic or sexist. I was worried how it would interpreted by people who didn't know them or didn't have the same politics. To be honest with you, he did really creep me out. (Laughs) When we first met each other, he was very –
Drugged?
Yeah. He was full disclosure about his life. I probably did act like a prudish, shy Canadian. I don't think they meant any disrespect. It's NOFX; it's not like Coldplay wrote "Creeping Out Sara." It wasn't too scandalous. But when I first heard it I was like, "Ew!" It almost felt like we were in high school and the punk-rock guy wrote a weird song, like that's his way of flirting or his way of saying, "I like you!"
Tegan and Sara
7 p.m. March 27
Royal Oak Music Theatre
318 West Fourth St.
$35 (general admission only)
http://www.royaloakmusictheatre.com
