Tegan & Sara Interview
Tegan and Sara are an award-winning indie rock duo formed in Calgary, Alberta. The identical twin sisters began playing music at an early age, and in 1998 they won Calgary’s Garage Warz music competition. They recorded their first professional demo tape using the studio time they had won, and soon caught the attention of Neil Young’s Vapor Records label, who signed them in 2000. Throughout their career, the songwriters and multi-instrumentalists have managed to transition successfully from their acoustic roots to mainstream pop, collaborating with a range of artists from Death Cab for Cutie to DJ Tiesto. As openly gay musicians, the pair have been credited with contributing to LGBTQ+ visibility in the mainstream music scene. Though their music is not political, Tegan and Sara are socially engaged and “have become champions for many indie, oddball LGBTQ+ youth”, which they promote through the activities of their Tegan and Sara Foundation.
Career Highlights
Tegan and Sara have released eight studio albums over the span of their seventeen-year career in the music industry: Under Feet Like Ours (1999), This Business Of Art (2000), If It Was You (2002), So Jealous (2004), The Con (2007), Sainthood (2009), Heartthrob (2013), and Love You To Death (2016).
They have sold over one million albums, and have been certified gold seven times and double platinum once.
Tegan and Sara have toured with Neil Young, The Pretenders, Death Cab for Cutie, The Killers, Ryan Adams, Weezer, The Black Keys, City and Colour, Jack Johnson, Rufus Wainwright, Hot Hot Heat, and Paramore. They have performed with DJ Tiesto, and have opened for Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and fun.
They have contributed songs for movie soundtracks such as Dallas Buyers Club, Monster-in-Law, and The Lego Movie, as well as several television shows. Their song “Everything is Awesome” from The Lego Movie was nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Original Song” in 2015.
The pair have three JUNO Awards, a Western Canadian Music Award, two Polaris Prize nominations, a Grammy nomination, an Oscar nomination, and they were awarded “Outstanding Music Artist” at the GLAAD Media Awards in 2017.
Source: http://teganandsara.com/about/
