About Tegan and Sara
Tegan and Sara is a Canadian indie pop duo formed in 1998 in Calgary, Alberta. The band is led by identical twin sisters, Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin . Both musicians are songwriters and multi-instrumentalists.
The duo has released ten studio albums and earned a Grammy nomination in 2012 for their video album Get Along. Their most recent album, Crybaby, was released on October 21, 2022. Their memoir, High School, was released on September 24, 2019, and in the fall of 2022, the TV series based on the memoir was released on Amazon Freevee.
Tegan and Sara began writing songs at 14. One of the first songs they wrote was "Tegan Didn't Go To School Today", written by Sara and recorded by the pair on cassette tape. The band was first called "Plunk", short for "light punk", due to their lack of a drummer and bassist. In 1997, they used their school's recording studio to record two demo albums: Who's in Your Band? and Play Day. In 1998 they won Calgary's "Garage Warz" competition, which awarded them studio time. They recorded their first professional demo called Yellow Tape under "Sara and Tegan" using this studio time. This was followed by Orange tape and Red tape. In May 1998, they opened for Hayden in Calgary, marking their first major show.
In 1999, they released their debut album, Under Feet Like Ours, as "Sara and Tegan", with producer Jared Kuemper., After listening to it, Elliot Roberts flew up from Los Angeles to meet them at the Starfish Room in Vancouver, British Columbia, and he offered them a record deal that same night. Two songs from Red Tape and two from Orange Tape appeared on the album. They later changed their name to "Tegan and Sara" because people regularly misheard "Sara and Tegan" as "Sara Antegan". They signed with Neil Young's Vapor Records and released This Business of Art through the label in 2000. According to Tegan, having no manager for the first three years of their career taught them to be “very cognizant and present” in every decision.
In 2002, Tegan and Sara released their third album, If It Was You. Their fourth album, So Jealous, was released in 2004 and led to wider success and attention, both locally and internationally. This album was released through both Vapor and Sanctuary. The band's 2007 album, The Con, was released by Vapor and Sire because Sanctuary no longer released new music in the United States. The album was co-produced by Chris Walla. Guests and collaborators on the album included Jason McGerr of Death Cab for Cutie, Matt Sharp of The Rentals , Hunter Burgan of AFI, and Kaki King.
On October 26, 2009, Tegan and Sara released their sixth album, Sainthood, produced by Chris Walla and Howard Redekopp. The duo also put out a three-volume book set titled ON, IN, AT that included stories, essays, journals, and photos of the band touring America in late 2008, writing together in New Orleans and touring Australia. Lindsey Byrnes and Ryan Russell took the photographs in the book. Sainthood debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at number 21, selling 24,000 copies in its first week. While recording the album, Tegan and Sara wrote songs together in New Orleans for a week. The song "Paperback Head" was the only song the pair wrote to appear on the album, making it the first song on any Tegan and Sara album they wrote together. Spin gave Sainthood four out of five stars and wrote, "Tegan and Sara's music may no longer be the stuff of teens, but its strength remains in how much it feels like two people talking."
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