Tegan and Sara

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tegan and Sara
Tegan (l) and Sara (r)
Background information
Origin	Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Genre(s)	Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Instrument(s)	Vocals, Guitar
Years active	1995-present[1]
Label(s)	Vapor, Sanctuary
Website	http://www.teganandsara.com

Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Kiersten Quin (born September 19, 1980, identical twins^[2]) are Canadian singer-songwriters, performing as Tegan and Sara.

Contents 1 Biography and musical career 2 Cover songs 3 TV and Film 4 Accomplishments 5 Band members 6 Discography 6.1 Albums 6.2 Singles 6.3 Music videos 6.4 DVDs 7 Awards & Nominations 7.1 2000 7.2 2003 7.3 2006 7.4 2007 8 See also 9 External links 10 References

[edit] Biography and musical career

Born in Calgary, Alberta, they got their start winning Garage Warz, a local music competition in that city.^[3] Since then, the two have toured extensively with many artists, including Neil Young, Rufus Wainwright, The Pretenders,^[3] Ben Folds, The Killers, Rachael Cantu, Vivek Shraya, Cake, Gogol Bordello, Hot Hot Heat, Ryan Adams,^[4] Veda Hille, Little Birdy, Bryan Adams and Weezer and on Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair. They are signed to Neil Young's Vapor Records in the U.S. and to the Universal Music Group in Canada. Tegan currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia and Sara in Montreal, Quebec.

Originally, as when they were competing in Garage Warz, the duo was known as "Sara and Tegan." They changed their band's name to "Tegan and Sara" because that's how they'd always been known among family and friends. It just so happened that they didn't submit their own application to Garage Warz; someone else did, and reversed the names on the application. Their first album, Under Feet Like Ours, was initially released under the name "Sara and Tegan";^[2] copies are now a sought-after commodity among their fans.

The twins tell comic stories on stage, a throwback to when they didn't have a lot of material but still wanted to give people a full show. Their sisterly bickering is part of the show^[3] and endears them greatly to their fans.

While both twins are similarly involved in vocals and playing instruments, the singing of the lead melody often goes to whichever twin wrote the particular song. Sara has been quoted saying that Tegan writes songs prolifically, "like a fish lays eggs," eventually discarding most of them. Sara's songs, on the other hand, evolve slowly and methodically and almost always make it onto the record.^[3]

Their fifth album, The Con, will be released on July 24, 2007.^[1] It will be co-produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie. Jason McGerr of Death Cab for Cutie, Matt Sharp of The Rentals and Hunter Burgan of AFI will appear on the album.^[5]

[edit] Cover songs

In 2004, Matt Sharp and Maya Rudolph of The Rentals recorded a cover version of Tegan and Sara's song "Not Tonight" and released it for free on the World Wide Web. [1] Sharp also played moog on "So Jealous."

In 2005, The White Stripes did a cover of Tegan and Sara's song "Walking With A Ghost," which was released on the "Walking With A Ghost" EP by the group. "Walking With A Ghost" was also used in a mashed-up Dance remix bootleg by Party Ben[2] with a song by Mylo, "Paris Four Hundred," under the title "Walking With A Ghost In Paris", which became a sought after club track after an influential dance radio station in the United States, C-89.5/KNHC/Seattle, Washington, started playing the song.

Tegan has contributed backup vocals to "The Alphabet" by Vivek Shraya, "La Le La La" by Kinnie Starr, "Hey Kids" by David Usher, and "Saturday" by Rachael Cantu.

In 2007, Sara contributed backup vocals to The Reason's "We're So Beyond This" and Vivek Shraya's "Your Name."

[edit] TV and Film

• Tegan stated at the 2004 Folk on the Rocks festival that the music video for "I Hear Noises" was based on the 1974 film Phantom of the Paradise.
• They have made many television appearances, including Vicki Gabereau's Canadian talk show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Sonic Temple, Jonovision, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live (March 23, 2005) and The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (November 11, 2004). They also played "Monday Monday Monday" on ZeD, and thus the song appeared on the 2003 CD ZeD: Live Off The Floor.^[6]
• Their songs have also appeared on the movie soundtrack for Sweet November, the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack, The L Word Season 3 soundtrack, and the Veronica Mars soundtrack.
• Most recently, Tegan and Sara had a guest appearance on the hit Showtime series, The L Word. The episode was entitled "Last Dance" which aired on March, 19, 2006.
• They were the first featured artists on WNYE-TV's live music program Summer in the City, which shows outdoor concerts and interviews with band members taped in New York City. It was first broadcast on September 29, 2005, but has been in heavy rotation ever since (most recently re-broadcast on June 8, 2006). One in-between-song tidbit from the show: They appreciate "good steak" from "a fancy French restaurant" their record company treated them to.
• Their songs "Living Room", "Not Tonight", "Take Me Anywhere", "Fix You Up", "You Wouldn't Like Me", "I Won't Be Left", "Downtown", and "Where Does The Good Go?" have appeared on episodes of Grey's Anatomy.
• Their songs "Walking with a Ghost" and "Don't Confess" have appeared on episodes of One Tree Hill.
• Their song "I Know I Know I Know" appeared on the Veronica Mars episode The Rapes of Graff.
• "Walking with a Ghost" appeared in the Fall 2006 NBC commercial for the TV series Medium.
• "Walking with a Ghost" was also featured on the soundtrack to the 2005 film Monster-in-Law.

[edit] Accomplishments

In late 2004, Rolling Stone magazine named their album So Jealous on their list of the best 50 albums of the year.^[7]

Tegan and Sara were nominated for a 2006 Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year alongside Hot Hot Heat, Metric, The New Pornographers and Broken Social Scene.

[edit] Band members

• Tegan Quin – vocals and guitar
• Sara Quin – vocals and guitar
• Johnny Five Andrews – drums (2005-2006)
• Rob Chursinoff - drums (up until 2005, returned 2006)
• Chris Carlson – bass guitar
• Ted Gowans – guitar and keyboard

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

• Yellow Demo [pre-1999, cassette only]
• Red Demo [pre-1999, cassette only]
• Orange Demo [pre-1999, cassette only]
• Under Feet Like Ours (1999) (Initially released under Sara and Tegan; re-released under Tegan and Sara in 2001)
• This Business of Art (2000)
• If It Was You (2002)
• So Jealous (2004)
• The Con (2007)

[edit] Singles

• "Time Running" (2003)
  
• "I Hear Noises" (2003)
  
• "Monday Monday Monday" (2003)
  
• "Walking With A Ghost" (2004)
  
• "Speak Slow (2004)"

DC Shoes also released a 3 song sampler of So Jealous as a promotional offer during 2005. DC Shoes will also be selling Tegan and Sara DC Remix shoes in the Spring of 2007.

[edit] Music videos

• "The First" (2000)
• "Monday Monday Monday" (2003)
• "Living Room" (2003)
• "I Hear Noises" (2003)
• "Walking With A Ghost" (2004)
• "Speak Slow" (2005)

[edit] DVDs

• It's Not Fun, Don't Do It (2006)

[edit] Awards & Nominations

[edit] 2000

• YTV Achievement Award
  • Band/Musical Group - Won

[edit] 2003

• Western Canadian Music Awards
  • Outstanding Pop Recording (If It Was You) - Won

[edit] 2006

• Juno Awards
  
  • Alternative Album Of The Year (So Jealous) - Nominated (lost to Broken Social Scene)

[edit] 2007

• Juno Awards
  
  • DVD of the Year (It's Not Fun Don't Do It) - Nominated (lost to Sarah Harmer)

[edit] See also

• List of bands from Canada

[edit] External links

• Official Website
• Official MySpace
• Official Fansite
• Audiojunkies Interview with Tegan and Sara
• Official Fansite Forum
• The -NEW- .ca Fan Forum
• The Tegan and Sara Blog
• The Tegan and Sara lyrics & video

[edit] References