In Her Own Words: Tegan and Sara
Issue #32
One-half of the twin duo, Sara Quin, can’t wait for you to hear The Con
By Sara Quin
Published: June 1st, 2007 | 12:00am
With the upcoming release of their fifth album, The Con, Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara lets us in on ending her extended weekend, writing in her closet, and the duo’s “call-in show.” — Kristina Francisco
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After touring So Jealous, we decided to take some time off. I can only speak for myself, but my life quickly turned into an extended weekend. Except, not really a Friday or Saturday, just the Sunday part.
Starting with a to-do list and often ending with paralyzing muscle spasms in my brain, I would write songs in my closet for 10 hours a day. My “recording” chair is really just a lawn chair made of wood, and there isn’t much natural light — the closet is at least 60 feet from a window. I live in an “adult” building, and its silence is a commodity traded like magic jewels between the occupants. Some artists need space to unroll their ideas like carpet around them; mercifully, I suffered no writer’s block under these conditions! It takes a compassionate mind to adjust to the sudden anchored proximity of your body to a wooden lawn chair in a closet. (I credit all the knuckle pushups I did in karate when I was a kid. Discipline is really underrated.)
So Tegan and I wrote, we collaborated, we conspired, and my closet stayed meticulously organized.
We moved to Portland in January 2007 to record with Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) at the Alberta Court. Tegan and I and our “posse” decided to live together in a house. Sort of like a commune, but without babies, or a garden, or any sort of religious overtones.
We built a faux forest in our basement; we would come home from the studio and record a call-in show in our “forest” each night. Guests, including our mom (like a 100 times), called us and helped us create content for video chapters that would correspond with each song on the album. Fourteen songs, 14 mini-video evolutions. (Or 14 chances to watch my hair go from good to bad over 73 days.)
Working with Chris Walla was amazing. He is a true genius. I’m always impressed when someone really understands the tools in front of him. I have a tendency to wing it. If Chris is winging it, he does so with the intuitive precision of a producer with a PhD in improvisation. If making a record was a bobsled team, Chris Walla would be more than capable as a pilot, a brakeman, or a pusher.
I love this new album, partly because of the experience we had making it, the experience we had writing it, and the inevitable joy we’ll have performing it.
When we decided to call the record The Con, Tegan and I both took a crack at composing a mission statement of sorts to explain to fans, friends, and our mom why we chose that title.
It was hard. It involved a lot of uncomfortable admissions that were, perhaps, too personal to divulge to the general public. When our art guru, Emy Storey, sent us the mockup for the advance artwork, she only had the music and those ramblings to go on. We all agreed that the record was a story and that the artwork should reflect a literary theme. In Emy’s brain that meant bibliography cards. When I opened the image up, I read the words: “I. Fraud II. Death III. Confidence.” I hear those words when I listen to the album.
Currently I’m not anywhere near my closet or that awful wooden chair. In fact, as I write this, I am only six feet from a window and receiving plenty of natural light. This is the Friday-night feeling of my extended weekend life. I can’t wait for you to hear the album.
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