Arts
Pop Band in an Indie World
Pop
Band in an Indie World
by Lluvia Mulvaney-Stanak
Tegan and Sara recently played the Third Annual Pop Music Fest in Montreal
as they start promoting their newest release So Jealous. The
young twenty-something twins sat down with Lluvia to banter through topics
ranging from "selling-out" to Nov. 2.
Lluvia: So let's start with talking about your audience and all the indie
rock kids, the women and the eclectic mix that you draw to your shows.
Tegan: Well... yeah, I would say our shows are really 60/40 these days,
it's actually quite mixed.
Sara: Listen, when guys see us, they always think that it's all women...
Tegan: They’re like in a room with 10 women and three boys and they’re
like “THERE’S NO MEN HERE!"
Sara: It's a really interesting societal thing about men who want to appear
so straight, but when they are around a lot of women they are completely
threatened. God knows if a man had a whole women audience it would be
like "ah…he's a stud! He's a babe magnet." (sarcastically)
But [for] us it's like shameful. It's such a shame that all those women
come out all the time.
Lluvia: So you guys have been doing "this" for some time and
this is the fourth disc now. So compared to the last couple, is this better
- as far as musical growth, maturity?
Tegan: I think the major difference between So Jealous and If
It Was You is the obvious one, that we wrote it separately on different
sides of the country. It took a lot of confidence and maneuvering and
crazy emailing and stuff. I think it has an intense energy on it.
I also think that we have mastered our sound.
At least closer to our sound than If it Was You. I think If
it Was You was really going in the right direction. But we still
weren't confident enough to say "No, no don't hire your cousin to
come play the organ, we can figure the chords out." I think that
this record is a deliberate attempt on our part to really make a Tegan
and Sara record - with some help from some amazing people, of course -
but it was our choice in the end.
Lluvia: I guess that is what separates you from a lot of musicians out
there.
Tegan: A lot aren't penning their lyrics or doing the production or getting
involved on the level we are involved in. We are making pop music in an
indie world.
Sara: Which is so hard.
Tegan: With an indie label, with some major attributes to attach to it
... but we still sleep in the van sometimes and Sara still doesn't get
a per-diem yet - but we're close. We have these pop tendencies but we
live in an indie world... And I am not really sure it that helps us sometimes.
Sara was saying that if we were cracked out and just on the outside and
people were telling us what to do, we probably would have sold a million
records by now. But because we are so incredibly resistant...
Sara: ...and stubborn.
Tegan: You know?... We don't want to be on samplers with other bands that
aren't setting a good example or going on tours with bands we don't respect...
not just doing it for the money.
Sara: And we're not trying to be a jerk...
Tegan: ...we're just trying to stay attached to our audience, 'cause that
is our major goal. Write music we like. Write music our friends like.
Write music our family likes. Write music our fans like. Write music our
label likes. We do believe that our label believes in us - they have proved
it by not dropping us when they really could have. So it is our job, Tegan
and Sara, to make sure we don’t alienate everyone who is with us
right now. We are a pop band in an indie world and we want to grow out
of that, eventually, but not right now.
Sara: You know... even if this just blew up tomorrow...
Tegan: ...there would be a lot of strangers in the audience. Now at the
same time, we run into people that say "I never want you to get big
and famous." And I say, "You are basically saying 'I want you
to be poor and live in a 400-square-foot apartment.' Please let us get
bigger than that!" But that doesn't mean millions of records and
that doesn't mean Tegan and Sarah with boob jobs on the cover of Maxim,
even if we are giving the finger.
Lluvia: What about the "pressure" of that cliche of "selling
out" - what do you think about that possibility of really "hitting
it big" and the bands that do?
Tegan: They just get massive and just do everything because you're basically
on a train. Even on our level, you sell a few records and get a few interviews
and everything starts piling up... It is really tough to say no to anything.
And when you do say no, people start getting mad at you. They tell you,
"do you know what you're doing?" "You're cutting your own
throat." "Look at all the work I've done." "Do you
know how hard I've worked on this?" ...and you really start to think,
“Oh fuck, it’s easier to just do it..."
And so bands like that, absolutely,
they get caught in the whirlwind of major success and they'll do anything
and everything, they get over saturated and over-played and you just don't
ever want to see them again. We just don't want to be like that. We want
to pick and choose where we extend ourselves and who we group up with.
It might seem incredibly controlling, but I don't care enough about success
and money to compromise... I just want to be able to leave every day feeling
good. There are going to be days when you just feel crappy. But when you're
at a show and you have 200 fans smiling at you... And you think, "I
could cry right now, I'm so happy," and they're all looking at you
and they’re so happy, and you say, "You don't understand -
somebody called us "Taygan and Erin" today," and the audience
laughs, and you know they’re going to buy your record and your next
record, too, because they know that you're just like them and that you
just got lucky and got this really great deal.
Lluvia: Talk a little bit more about being on separate sides of the country.
What is it like as a band to live on two different coasts?
Sara: When we were living in Vancouver together, we wrote independently
of each other anyway, so when I moved to Montreal the only thing that
really changed was that instead of Tegan walking over and knocking on
my door and me ignoring her and her leaving a package on my doorstep,
she would send it to me and I'd pick it up at the post office. We are
really two different songwriters and we eventually come together in pre-production,
where we really try to fill in the gaps with that Tegan and Sara glue,
trying to make something cohesive. From a personal standpoint, living
in different places was a statement of where we were at - Tegan was very
much rooted in Vancouver and had her whole thing set up there; I was much
more transitional, trying to step out on my own. I think that there is
a bit of a concept on this record about being insecure and jealous and
transitional.
DJ Llu: Favorite tracks off the new record?
Sara: To sing live, I really like "So Jealous" and "You
Wouldn't Like Me."
Lluvia: Nov. 2nd is coming up what sort of inspiration, advice, or rant
to have to say to [Americans] about the election?
Sara: It's an incredible opportunity to get out and actually do something.
People don't think it's exciting, but it's actually very cool to do the
whole process, to go down there on your bike or in your car and find your
name on the list, and get the ballot... You count! You are on a list.
When you are there, that's when you actually feel like you are making
a difference. Every time I vote, I get an adrenaline rush. You want to
tell people.
Tegan: If you think your vote doesn't count, there are millions of people
who think that, too. What if all of you got up and made a choice, think
about the difference you could make. Being complacent about who runs your
country is like saying that you don't care about your life. There are
people around the world who would do anything to live with a fraction
of the freedoms we have, and I don't mean television and name brands and
fast food... I mean things we take for granted, like being able to get
up in the morning and take a shower. Voting is one of our biggest freedoms,
because it allows us to live the way we do. And I think it's terrible,
it's sick how little people care, how few people vote.
Sara: Well that's not very positive...
Tegan: (sarcastically) Idiots!... That went downhill fast! (Laughter)
Lluvia Mulvaney-Stanak (aka DJ Llu) is the co-director of Outright
Vermont and listens to indie music everywhere she can.