Although a hallmark of Tegan and Sara’s career, The Con isn’t exactly Sara Quin’s favorite album experience. Despite the album’s punchy singles (“Back in Your Head” and “The Con”) and chance to work with then-Death Cab For Cutie member Chris Walla behind the producer’s desk, the recording process was marked with personal strife, emotional turmoil, and the 27-year old sisters asking themselves some tough questions. Then again, a casual listen of "Burn Your Life Down," with its morose declaration, “You keep on fighting to remember that nothing is lost in the end/Then you burn, burn, burn your life down,” hints as much. As Quin recalls, the whole process, well…kinda sucked.
“I’ve been doing hours and hours of prep trying to come up with original antidotes and new answers to everyone’s questions,” she admits, calling from the band’s temporary rehearsal space in Los Angeles. “But I keep ending up going through this really negative stuff….Who listens to The Con and thinks that’s a happy group of people? We were f**king miserable. It’s a depressing record. It was horrible. I would say that record and touring that record was the worst time of my life.”
It’s why the eve of Tegan and Sara’s 10-year anniversary tour behind the album, the Canadian singer-songwriters are looking forward to getting the rare opportunity to rewrite history. There’s the tour, which given the band’s propensity for tight performances and witty onstage banter is largely sold out. A covers album, where upcoming and established artists (Hello there, Cyndi Lauper!) And the newly established Tegan and Sara foundation, a philanthropic cornerstone of the musicians’ career that, as Quin explains it, represents a mission she plans on devoting a lifetime to. In all, things are looking up.
Laura Studarus: Hard to believe it’s been 10 years since The Con.
Sara Quin: What’s so funny, I’ve been in a relationship for seven years with a woman. She’s a sarcastic person but she always says, “Finally you’re revisiting The Con!” She acts like it’s the only record she likes from Tegan and Sara. I’m like, “Um, hello? We put out three more albums since then.”
Studarus: So there’s a few sentimental ties going on here.
Quin: Yeah. For me, it’s an interesting album. People are like “The Con was amazing for you guys! You must have had the best time! It’s the biggest album of your career!” I’m like, “Well, that’s okay that’s interesting spin on the narrative.” It was actually a profoundly depressing time. We were going through the first substantial deaths in our lives, I was going through a divorce. Who listens to The Con and thinks that’s a happy group of people? We were f**king miserable. It’s a depressing record. It was horrible.
We’re happy to be celebrating 10 years because it’s like I get to redo the album. For me, the songs are still profoundly sad. It was the only time in my life I could remember thinking “I don’t want to play these songs for people. My life is a disaster and everything is falling apart.” And we were the most popular we had ever been. There was a cruel injustice to the fact that for the first time in my life I didn’t actually feel very prepared to share that stuff with people.
Studarus: What would have surprised you the most about the last 10 years?
Quin: I was pontificating on this earlier and started really tripping out. The Con was really our last analogue approach. It was the last time that everything was physical. That album was about albums and selling things and signing things. Physically putting something in someone’s hand so they could listen to it. Everything was for print. Everyone wanted original photographs. It was all about picking up the dailies when you got into the city on tour and reading your interview. For me, I don’t think I would have been able to project that 10 years down the road we’d have a million followers on Facebook and that Tegan and I aren’t popular but our cat is. I wouldn’t have guessed that we wouldn’t even be focused on selling things anymore. We would be talking about streaming platforms. I always knew our touring career would be a big part of why people connected to us and what we needed to do. But I would have never imagined that touring would become the main source of income for both of us. That festivals would explode. I would have never guessed that we would have been so embraced in our shift into pop music.
Studarus: And now you’re reaching out to bands to cover this album, which seems appropriate given how much support other musicians have given you in the past.
Quin: It’s an interesting group of people. They really do sort of fit into Ryan Adams, Cyndi Lauper category who supported me and Tegan in our early 20s and really gave us our first important jobs. Then there are the group of artists that are our peers that we toured with and came up with and are on the same level as. Bands like CHVRCHES and City and Color, and Jack from Bleachers. Then there are the artists that we love and think are the next generation of amazing, important, crucial voices, like Ruth B., and Shamir, and Mykki Blanco and Shura. People that we want to amplify as much as possible because we think they deserve to be taking up the space that me and Tegan take up all the time.
Studarus: Was there anyone whose take on a song really surprised you?
Quin: What was really cool was hearing Sara Bareilles sing “Floorplan.” I was sitting in the airport and waiting to board a flight and downloaded it right before I got on a plane. I started listening to it and I stopped listening because I thought I was going to start crying. But not because I was sad. I was going to start crying because it felt like I was finally able to hear the song and let go of my version. I was able to let go of my telling of the story. Now it’s Sara’s song. I felt like a weight lifted for me.
Studarus: Tell me about The Tegan and Sara Foundation.
Quin: Every time someone asks me about it’s like “Oh my god, how will they even synthesize that into any kind of articulate statement?” The truth is the foundation is something we want to be working on for the rest of our lives. Our goals aren’t limited to one issue or set of time or organizations or a dollar amount. It’s one of those things I see as a way for us to continue to work with and give back to a community that we see ourselves as a part of. In becoming more successful it felt more and more important to be proactive and address some of the inequities and just lack of visibility and support that we can really see. There’s a real lack of funding for queer women and girls. Especially women of color.
We want to go out and find funds and support with other areas of our business and socialize and activate parts of our community that I think want to be a part of being activists or being giving but they don’t know how. It sounds so easy. People say “Just get involved!” People are like how, with what? What do I do? With us, it’s very strategic. I believe there’s a way to integrate that philanthropic spirit into what we already do. The tour is really that. You’ve bought a ticket to the tour? You’ve already given because we’re going to donate a portion of the ticket to the foundation. You want to buy the covers album because you love Mykki Blanco? Perfect. All the proceeds for that are being donated from the label to our foundation. There are ways to social engage our audience that are easy and natural, and they’re participating in that distribution of wealth to organizations that really need it.
Studarus: I think you hit the nail on the head. When it comes to certain causes there can be this sense of ‘Well what do I do other than just feel really sad about all this?
Quin: I think people are like “Okay, I can give money. But what happens? What does that mean?” Tegan and I have always been really transparent about being business people. I think it’s important for people to understand that it’s not magic. We don’t sell you a ticket for $49.99 and then take that money and split it in two and go on a vacation to the Bahamas. That’s not the way business works. We have costs. We have health insurance, and travel costs, and hotels, and accommodations and taxes and all of these things. I think for me being philanthropic and saying ‘hey, you don’t just say, there’s someone in need we’re going to give them a dollar.’ We’re going to provide a structure of a group of people who are already doing amazing work to address these issues. But they need to be organized and they need health insurance and they need a place to work. I think talking about these things with people is also very enlightening. It gives them a better understanding of where their money might be going.
Studarus: I also think at the end of the day a level of representation is important. Sometimes in order to feel like a problem can be solved you need to see people working to solve it.
Quin: Oh, yeah—I think it can be done. I think not everyone is equipped to do what we’re doing. I don’t think to myself “Why doesn’t every artist start their own foundation and fundraise?” It’s challenging! It’s like having a second full-time job. As my activism has become more public and outspoken, I’ve become very aware that in the media there’s a lot of celebrity shaming. “I can’t believe so-and-so isn’t talking about Trump!” “I can’t believe so-and-so isn’t saying something about Planned Parenthood!” Whatever. What I realized is that you don’t always have examples to lead by. Back in the day, we had Bono. I remember thinking that Bono was a great example of a public activist. But now, our generation, who is that? Who are the people who are leading by example? Who are inspiring the other artists to get involved?
Instead of complaining that so-and-so put another selfie out and didn’t talk about Donald Trump, I think to myself, even in our small way Tegan and I can lead by example to our peers and our fans and say “We’re going to put a picture up of our cat and our vacation selfie, but we’re also going to commit creating a narrative and a visual and a representation that we’re interested in politics and things that matter and activism and whatever. If we do that maybe other artists will do that. There are small things that I think can happen. I think we’re both optimistic.
Studarus: You and Tegan have been called queer icons for much of your career. Do you feel the conversation has widened a bit?
Quin: I think that we’ve always fought for the idea that while we are gay, we’re not necessarily “gay artists.” We just make music and try to pay the bills and support ourselves. But it’s unavoidable. We know that we’re representative of something that there’s not a lot of in the media. It’s something we adjusted to. In the past it was like “Fine, we’re queer icons. We’ll take route.” But we’re just one slice of what it means to be queer.
That’s something that’s been part of the foundation as well. There are lots of amazing and inspiring artists and queer people in the world. Tegan and I also want to make space for them. When people are saying “You’re queer and lesbian icons” I want to be able to say, “We are, but have you heard of this person, and this person, and this person?” It’s also a defense mechanism. For so many years there were people who were like “Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I like Tegan and Sara.” I was like “Fair enough!” Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I want to go to your weird lesbian bar and listen to whatever weird music you’re listening to. That’s totally cool. But I also think to myself, I want to include other people. Maybe you don’t like Tegan and Sara, but maybe Tegan and Sara can inspire the editors of whatever magazine to cover more queer artists that represent a diverse group of people.
Tegan and Sara’s The Con X tour dates begin next week in Los Angeles. Check out the full run of dates here.
