On The Record with Tegan Quin from Tegan And Sara

I remember finding a copy of Sublime’s 40oz. To Freedom at a record store. I have no idea why my parents let us buy this. But Sara and I thought the cover was ‘cool’. Which leads me to hypothesise that we had smoked pot before we went CD shopping.

2. The Last Record I Bought

I bought the new Chvrches record, Every Open Eye. I do tend to download or stream music more often than buying it these days. But I love them so much I preordered and bought the record. I also love Lucius and their new record Good Grief is astonishingly good. Both bands – albeit very different – have incredible female lead singers and vocalists. The songs are deep and dark and heart-wrenching while also managing to be uplifting and inspirational. I would happily join either band if they were looking and willing to take me.

3. The First Thing I Recorded

Sara and I started writing songs when we were 15. We had an acoustic guitar kicking around the house. We had played piano all of our lives, but as we were classically trained and focused more on theory than on creativity, the guitar opened up a whole new world to us. Both of us had an interest in recording our new songs that we had written and so we used each other to man the tape recorder, and over time we started to collaborate. While Sara was performing her song into the tape recorder I would sing along or add little guitar melodies here and there. With the recordings we would create artwork and dub them after school to then sell in and around the hallways of our high school. And that is how Tegan And Sara was born.

4. The Last Thing I Recorded

We are [about to release] our eighth full-length studio album. It’s called Love You To Death. For old-school Tegan And Sara fans I think they will find a darker, more melancholy, raw, edgy version of Tegan And Sara. But for fans of the pop production and sheen of our previous record, there is a lot there for you too.

5. The Record That Changed My Life

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. Live 1975-85. The stories, the live production, the crowd. It just sold me from a very young age on everything to do with music. It shaped the Tegan And Sara live show more than people even realise. It inspired us to tell our own stories. It encouraged us to be real, raw, open and honest with our audience. It made fans out of us. But it also ignited a spark in us to make music from a very young age.

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