Tegan and Sara are not about to let a global pandemic slow them down – at least not when it comes to creating.
The 40-year-old Quin sisters are at their respective homes in Vancouver working on graphic novels, a book about twins and, yes, new music. They are also helping others get through the COVID-19 crisis through their eponymous foundation.
On Tuesday, as the paperback edition of their compelling 2019 memoir High School hit the shelves, Tegan and Sara spoke to iHeartRadio.ca via Zoom about staying creative, the future of live music – and what it was like to hear Kelly Clarkson cover one of their songs.
How are you guys doing in COVID isolation?
Sara: It’s been alright. There are a lot of ways for us to socially-distant hang out with friends and our family here in Vancouver. I have a big backyard so I’m generally volunteering to host over here. I wouldn’t call any part of this experience isolating. It’s definitely been unique. We are used to traveling and flying and touring and certainly used to a more high-speed existence so the slowing down has actually been really rewarding and has forced us to think about creativity in a COVID world but also it’s made us talk a lot about the sustainability and the prospects of what a future will look like for us in terms of our touring and music career. I don’t think any of us are going to just go back to business as usual. This has sort of forced us to really think about what it is responsible and what will be possible in a post-COVID world.
Do you think we’re going to be packing arenas next summer?
Tegan: I don’t think we’ll be going indoors. I feel confident that there will be some outdoor festivals. That’s what we’re hearing through the industry. So I think that some of the smaller festivals are going to come back at maybe smaller capacities. I don’t think … until, you know, a percentage of the population is vaccinated that that would be probably safe or smart for anyone. But that’s what’s great about Canada, we have a ton of festivals. We have a legacy of lots of awesome folk, blues and rock festivals and I think we just have to get creative. I do think that’s really realistic for summer 2021 for sure up here in Canada but a lot of us don’t make our living in Canada. We make our living being international artists and that feels like a lot further away. I do have hope. The problem is the bigger question that I think Sara was getting at, which is what do we talk about as humanity, what’s realistic with climate change, with air travel being so bad for the environment, you know the cost of bringing people together. All this stuff. It’s definitely swirling in our minds. Sara and I always try to think of “What are some really genuine, really thoughtful ways we can connect with people that don’t consist of us bringing buses and trucks and gear and people all over the world?” We’re definitely dreaming and scheming.
Sara: Horse and buggies. We’re going to be doing the cross-Canada horse carriage tour.
Has the pandemic made you more creative or has it been frustrating?
Sara: We both felt that this has been a creative time. We had already sort of set our minds to the idea that part of this year would be protected from touring so that we could be at home working on creative projects. So, once we got over the initial shock of the pandemic and having to postpone and ultimately cancel all of this touring, we sort of shifted gears and we went back into a familiar, incubated, creative place. We’re working on a couple of graphic novels that we had already sold and had hoped to have time to work on this year. We spent a lot of time brainstorming other creative projects we might work on next year and we sold another book idea that we will start working on in the new year about being twins, a sort of light history and storytelling around twins in our culture. That’s going to be exciting for us. We’re in a unique position in that we see ourselves as storytellers and people who can work in many different mediums. I can tell you that as the type of musician I am, I struggle to think about a world where I would write and record music and not perform it for people so right now I’ve found myself less inclined to imagine just putting out an album and dealing with it digitally. I actually find the digital landscape really exhausting. I’ve taken to calling the online world “digital landfill.” You know, I feel like as soon as something’s out there, there’s scavengers and seagulls picking it, picking it, picking it for the bones. I love being in front of human beings. It’s a significant part of why I play music. So, right now I’m just trying to focus on things that require me to be at home.
One of the good things about quarantine is we can read books, including High School. It’s a good read for young women.
Tegan: Yeah, we take it even broader than that, to be honest. When we sold the proposal, one of things we talked a lot about with our publisher was the idea that this was a book that would expand well beyond our musical fans or even women. Something that’s deeply relatable is that we all went through high school and we all were adolescents at some point. There’s a lot of relatable content. I also think that because it was set in the ‘90s, there’s a certain age group that will just love this sort of journey back through… you know, we talk so much about Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana and Green Day. Regardless, I think it’s a good coming-of-age story. It’s so often that we hear about men’s coming-of-age story, men in adolescence, men’s musical stories…there’s just an unbelievable amount of memoirs and autobiographies about men and their music and their journey and their drug use. You just don’t see any of that for women. Sara and I just felt like, “Man, there just needs to be more stories about women in music. There needs to be stories about women finding their artistry and becoming artists and conquering the world and becoming international performers.” This origin story sets that up really nicely. It’s important. More stories like this should be on the shelves and I’m grateful that ours in there.
And it’s not patronizing. It doesn’t talk down to the reader or make judgments.
Tegan: We tried to write in our teenage voice. That was a big thing you’re picking up on. We tried to only insert our voice a few times. We tried truly to write from a young person’s perspective because young people don’t get taken seriously and we were very serious so yeah, thanks for picking up on that.
Was there anything in the book that you regretted and wanted to take out of the paperback edition?
Sara: No. I feel like we put everything we needed to put in there and much like when we make an album, I very rarely go back and start critiquing it. I’m always on to the next. What are the next stories we’re going to tell? What is the next version of the next thing? You know, it’s in the rearview mirror at this point.
I’m wondering how your high school experiences would have been different if you had a Tegan and Sara?
Tegan: It’s a great question. It’s one we thought a lot about over the last couple of years because so often we’re asked who we looked up to and our stock answer was that it was really hard – there wasn’t a lot of queer representation, especially not queer women that were in our age group. Obviously we looked up to k.d. lang and Melissa Etheridge and Ani DiFranco, there were some really great queer icons but we were teenagers and they were women that were decades older. I do believe that our youth would have probably felt very different, our adolescence would have probably been slightly less fraught in terms of our sexuality if there had been more representation. In writing the book I realized there actually really was a lot of queer representation, especially in the scenes we were interested in – rave music, alternative music – but it was nothing like today. If we were growing up today with Hayley Kiyoko and King Princess and Janelle Monáe and Tegan and Sara, I think it would be really different. But I would also caution against saying just because there are rich, famous people that are coming out and living successful lives doesn’t mean that the average queer teenager or the average rural trans person is looking at our experiences and going, “I bet it will be easy for me!” There’s still a very small sliver of the queer population that does well and is accepted. But it is better and it would have changed everything and that’s part of why we are so out and so big about talking about our queer identities because if it helps people even in the smallest sliver of a way, I think it’s worth it.
Your foundation has responded to COVID-19 by selling masks to raise funds for a native women’s shelter and giving out grants to LGBT organizations.
Sara: One of the areas that we really focused on during COVID-19 was giving these micro-grants – so, small amounts of money, sometimes $1,500, $2,000 – to these organizations that are directly dealing with communities that need food, they need masks, they need access to public transport to get to work during this really difficult time. With the help of our really generous fanbase we were able to raise close to actually almost $150,000 through donations. We’re really excited. It gives us a way to sort of engage and connect with our audience but also with the community that has been supportive of us over the last 20 years.
What did you think of Kelly Clarkson’s version of “Closer” on her show?
Tegan: It was really amazing. We get a lot of requests, especially from the singing shows and rarely does your song end up getting picked or used or whatever. So when we got that request, I read it as “Kelly Clarkson has a new show and there’s a karaoke portion and so someone will come on and karaoke it” – so imagine my surprise when I woke up that morning and my Twitter feed is all like “Kelly Clarkson sings Closer!” I couldn’t believe it, I was so shocked. She did such a killer job. Her pipes… I mean, she took the song to the next level. It was really cool. We’re such big fans of hers and it’s always really cool to see somebody who can actually sing your song.
It’s been awhile since you put out an album of new music. Can you give your fans some hope for a new album?
Sara: We’re just being patient with ourselves. In some ways, I feel like we’re on the cusp of writing our next big statement album, like something that is hopefully lodged in the future of where we’re going, not where we’ve been. And so we’re taking our time. I don’t want to rush anything out. I have no desire to only put something out into the digital space. The fans will probably have to wait at least a year but maybe a little bit more but we’ll be able to tease some new projects, some new music-related things to tide them over very soon, in fact. Next month we have a big announcement. We wrote a song for a film that’s coming out and I’m really excited about the song. There will be little things here and there for people to digest while we’re making this next big album.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
BELOW: Watch highlights from the conversation.