Saints and Sisters

“Someone asked me yesterday; “What’s wrong with you guys?”” says an amused Tegan Quin. “Why are you always writing these sad records? ”

When they were 17, it was okay for Canada’s sweethearts of indie rock to be fools in love, I suggest, but the twins Quin turn 30 next year. Surely they’re having more success in the romance stakes these days?
“We’ve definitely gotten better.” Tegan says. “We were both at the end of a five-year relationship. And my grandmother passed away, and that was like a Mom passing away – so we were really experimenting with the ideas of the end of things and death.
She continues: “I think at 29 I know a lot more than I did at 20 and I’d like to think that’s why our records are getting better. We come from a school of thought and a family that believes that you don’t have to be with the same person forever. Love is definitely fluid. I think that potentially this is the one life you get and I don’t want to spend it at home watching TV being miserable.”
A baker’s dozen of these love songs make up Sainthood, a bustling, ‘80s-influenced piece of pop-rock, with a title inspired by fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen.
“Sara was working on a song for a couple of hours,” Tegan explains, “and I was like, ‘OK come on, let’s get going now and record some vocals!’ She started singing and I was like ‘Wow, this is beautiful, these are amazing lyrics, did you write these? They’re so wonderful! You’re a genius!’”
Unfortunately, they turned out to be borrowed from Cohen’s ‘Came So Far For Beauty’. “They were perfect for the song which meant that when we couldn’t get approval to use them, we just couldn’t replace them. The song’s just kind of sitting out there in the ether.” The track may not have made it onto the record, but the name certainly fits; ‘I practiced all my sainthood/ I gave to one and all /But the rumors of my virtue /They moved her not at all’.
“Sonically, I think that we’ve gotten closer and closer.” Tegan adds. ”I think on this record, you compare a song like ‘Northshore’ which is mid ‘90s punk rock to ‘Alligator’ which is kind of like Sara’s version of The Supremes – it’s pretty different. The themes we were working on on this record were very similar. We both were dating and playing with the themes and ideas around relationships and love and lust and love obsession.”
Granted, this kind of Heartbreak Hotel pop has stood the feisty Canadians in good stead over the years, but how do they stop from sounding like a pair of angry, aggressive harpies?
“Well sometimes I think we do sound angry and aggressive!” Quin laughs. “I think that ultimately we’re really influenced by pop music and indie rock so we’re just naturally able to juxtapose really, really depressing ideas with really poppy music and obviously that works well on radio. There’s definitely a point where we both pull out some really dark stuff and the instinct is to make it a little more fun.”
Sainthood also contains the first collaboratively-penned effort by the duo, who usually split things right down the middle, like all good twins should. “We went on a trip together and wrote seven songs including ‘Sainthood’ and we just worked so well together that we said we’d wait and maybe release them as an EP later next year.”
Before I release Tegan to an afternoon of answering questions about break-ups, I have a little more investigating to do. At their only Irish show to date last year, my sources tell me the pair laid claim to Irish descendency, right there on the Button Factory stage!
“I think we got up and told that joke about how our last name was Quin. We’d always been told by our family that we were Scottish but we were always told by Irish people that we were actually Irish. So we told them we were Irish on stage just so that they would cheer!
‘My Dad’s Dad died when he was seven and his Mom abandoned him shortly afterwards so he doesn’t really know. He was told by his Mom that his Dad was Scottish but he doesn’t know if he was Irish and just happened to be living in Scotland when they met. ‘I’d like to think we’re Irish,” she pauses to consider.
“OK,” she spouts, “I’m going to just claim it!”