With Tegan and Sara you can never really be sure what is going to come out of
their mouths. Their first word as babies was a four letter one according to family
legend, and since then the only thing that's changed is that now people pay to
hear what they have to say. If you want to hear their legendary onstage stories
along with some new four-letter words, buy a ticket to their next live show. If
you simply want to hear the power, precision, and originality of their lyrical and
musical vision, then throw on their brand new album So Jealous
(Vapor/Sanctuary).
Produced by Tegan and Sara along with John Collins, David Carswell and
Howard Redekopp (The New Pornographers), So Jealous was recorded in
Vancouver, Canada. The band is happy to report that no one cried during the
recording process, except of course Sara (identity crisis on the second day of
mixing) and Tegan (she cries whenever Sara starts crying). And with only a few
unforeseen post-recording bumps the record company submitted a last minute
request for them to sing about "something other than love" for once Tegan and
Sara released their fourth studio album on September 14, 2004.
In preparing material for the new album, Tegan and Sara began writing and
recording demos in their respective bedrooms during the fall of 2003. Hoping to
transfer as much of their self-styled home-recording sound as possible to the new
album, these demos would become the official blueprint for the production of the
studio album. With 26 new songs written, Tegan and Sara recruited drummer
Rob Chursinoff and bassist Chris Carlson for album rehearsals at Vancouver's
legendary Renegade Studios. In an unorthodox move designed to stay true to the
vision of the demos, Rob was forced to rehearse his drum parts alone to the
sound of what became known as "the bedroom demos." The resulting mental
duress for Rob was reminiscent of the Karate Kid movies, and he was quoted as
saying it was a "stupid" technique and that he had never had to try such a thing
in all his years of "legitimate" rocking.
So after a month of stick throwing, yelling, and screaming (mostly by Rob, age
32), the band anxiously headed into Mushroom Studios to track the album's
foundation: drums and bass. They were quickly thrilled (translation: relieved) to
discover that their strict rehearsal regimen of dynamics exercises, Greek food,
magazine reading, and drumming to bedroom demo CDs had produced exciting
musical results. Tegan and Sara followed with three weeks of guitar overdubs,
vocals, organ, and Casio keyboards, and Matt Sharp (ex-Weezer, The Rentals)
flew in to make a sky-fisting guest appearance on Moog and strings. The end
result is a record that everyone seems to think is their best yet, in a "high-fi/low-
fi kind of way."
After mixing and mastering put the final touches on the CD, Sara returned home
to resume a life of bicycle riding and red onion eating, leaving Tegan to host
Scrabble parties in Vancouver. Known for their onstage banter, Tegan and Sara
are in fact now trying to isolate themselves on opposite sides of Canada to avoid
fighting; Tegan lives in Vancouver, BC and Sara resides in Montreal, Quebec.
