Q&A with Sara Quin
Indie Canadian rock bands may be all the rage now, but Tegan and Sara Quin remember a time not so long ago when American journalists only seemed to know pop stars like Avril Lavigne and the Barenaked Ladies.
But the 27-year-old twin sisters persevered, taking the do-it-yourself attitude they saw in punk rock clubs in their native Calgary and applying it toward all aspects of the music business. Their fifth album "The Con" (produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie) is a densely layered rock album that made critics' top lists last year, and they've built a large enough fan base, especially among teens, that they can play large theaters like the Barrymore.
That's where Tegan and Sara will be at 7:30 p.m. next Tuesday for an all-ages show with An Horse. Tickets are $25 in advance through the Barrymore and its outlets, online at www.barrymorelive.com or by phone at 241-8864.
Just off a grueling European club tour, Sara Quin talked to 77 Square:
Was this last European tour pretty intense?
It's weird. After like 10 years of touring, we have done some tours on Greyhound buses, we've done tours in s----- cars where everything's piled up to the ceiling. We've done tours with sinus infections, Tegan did a tour with whooping cough and pneumonia.
But this European tour, for whatever reason, beat the s--- out of all of us. When I left, I was like 'This could be it, this could be the tour that kills us.' "
So it's nice to come back to America, where there are seats in the venue?
Also, in America, everything's big. You can park your bus anywhere, you can eat as much as you want, you can plug in the air conditioner and leave it on for as long as you want. Touring in Europe just seems very primitive to us bloated, gluttonous North Americans. It feels like camping. Everything is smaller. You just feel like a giant in a world of ants. You feel big and stupid and loud and inconsiderate.
You've been touring with "The Con" songs for a long time. Have they changed over the course of the tour?
You put 40 tracks on things, and realistically it's impossible to turn what is on the album into something live. We had to go, "OK, this is what the song is at its core." It takes on a different life.
The songs that turn into rock songs are fun, but I feel like the songs from "The Con" turned into something dynamic on stage. It's been a real pleasure to play it live. It feels very grown-up. It feels like we're offering the audience more than "We're going to kick you in the face with these rock songs!" We want people to trust us and to let us take them on more of a dynamic trip.
Have you redefined success for yourself over the last 10 years?
Honestly, what I thought the industry was going to be, it really disappointed me. I was terrified, and I felt very battered by the industry in those first couple of years. Me and Tegan, we came into it with so much energy, and were really excited. We were kids who went to gigs every weekend, and loved local bands.
When we started playing music it was so magical for us that we could be a part of it from the other side. We really had a lot of naive ideas about what it was going to be like to be in a band. To have the experiences that we initially did -- going out on tour with Neil Young, getting signed to a record deal really young -- it seemed like nothing can go wrong.
And then you really start to experience what the industry really is. I've never been part of a competitive culture before, and all of a sudden that's all it seemed like it was. It was a competition to get radio, to get press, to get noticed, to get a show, to get an agent, to get a manager. It was just really competitive, and it really traumatized me.
Then to have people critiquing you and being really mean to you, and you're not making any money, and you feel really alone and lonely. I just remember thinking, "I hate being a musician. I hate the whole industry around it."
Tegan and I, I'm so glad that we decided to keep going, and we really created a little world for ourselves. It really started by realizing that the only thing that really mattered was making the music and finding people to listen to it. Everything else that was created was a vehicle to get those two people to connect.
It sounds like you've come to enjoy the business aspect of it.
I love it. It's a challenge. Music is something that I love and it's easy. What keeps my brain working and challenged is trying to negotiate all these hurdles.
When you first toured the United States in the late 1990s, people here had never heard of a Canadian rock scene, but now those bands are everywhere. Does it feel weird to be sort of retroactively put in with that group?
I don't mind it too much. I remember a couple of years ago when Spin or Rolling Stone were doing this big piece on Canadian bands like Broken Social Scene, Stars and Arcade Fire and everybody. To me, we were the only one that wasn't included. I felt really sad. And then I thought that we're not a part of that scene. Those bands are all getting lumped together, and even though we're not being acknowledged or recognized, in a strange way we don't fit with those people. We're not a part of that movement.
I try to keep positive about it, our success is our success and our failure is our failure. As much as I feel envious sometimes of these communities of musicians, whether it's in Canada or the States or whatever, I kind of feel like we probably did this on purpose. We manifested this destiny of being on our own, and it feels good.
But certainly we feel the effects of this community in the United States now of Canadian bands doing well. We feel proud of them. A lot of those bands are our favorite bands.
How did you get involved in this summer's "True Colors" tour (a festival-type tour organized by Cyndi Lauper aimed at raising money to support gay civil rights causes)?
Cyndi Lauper's manager came to see us play in New York, and after she saw the show, asked us if we would consider doing some dates. We were obviously just thrilled. Cyndi Lauper is one of my biggest influences growing up as a kid in the '80s. I feel like you were either a Cyndi Lauper kid or a Madonna kid.
Being queer, I really think it's so inspiring that she's such an amazing ally to the gay community. It's not often that you have someone who is so influential who's not gay being so articulate and talking about and caring about it so passionately. There's so much power when you have allies in the heterosexual community.
Do you think you might be getting more overtly political this year?
I don't know that we have become more political, but certainly people care more about what we have to say. I can remember when we were touring during the initial invasion of Iraq, the "Shock and Awe" campaign. At that time in our lives, we were speaking about it, but we were like a pixel, people didn't care what we had to say. Now, to be in a place where we have a bigger audience and more people to speak to, without being preachy or getting away from what we really are, which is musicians performing certainly to give our perspective on the election or gay rights or human rights, I think that's important.
Is there a great con that you've either perpetrated or fell victim to in the course of your life?
I think the idea of "The Con" is that life is a con. The less we know, and the less affected we are by it, the easier it is for people to con us or take advantage of it. I'm all about education and reading and filling your brain with information. I think it's an easy time in this world to be able to con people. The media does it every single day.
rthomas@madison.com
Submitted photo
Tegan (left ) and Sara Quin will play the Barrymore on Tuesday.
