How Tegan and Sara’s sound has evolved from acoustic to indie rock to synth-pop
Ahead of Hong Kong gig by the Canadian twins, Tegan talks about how they have matured as people, family and musicians, and about how to be yourself when you’re in a band with your sister
“Hong Kong is our favourite new place, we love it and are so looking forward to coming back. We’re planning to get in a day before the show so we can hang around and check things out,” says Tegan, the older sibling by eight minutes.
Tegan and Sara Quin have been on the music scene since the late 1990s and built up a solid fan base with their early indie folk tunes and several albums which displayed an edgier indie rock sound. But in the past few years they have pulled out all the plugs and pushed their music to the next level and with it has come huge commercial success.
Heartthrob – their seventh album, released in 2013 – marked the turning point. It saw them break into the Top 40 chart with hits such as Closer, an infectious tune that earned them mainstream appeal. That same year Katy Perry invited them to join her on part of her North American tour and they were surprise guests at a Taylor Swift gig. They were now in the big league, so what prompted this fresh, new sound?
“We were listening to a lot of pop music and a lot of electronic music, and we saw a trend was starting where pop music was starting to sound like electronic, a little hip hop, a little urban, a little R&B. It felt like in the 1980s when there was so much fusion in pop music,” Tegan says over the phone from Los Angeles.