SEPT 20 - 2002
I couldn't tell they were twins, could you?
By Ben Conley
The Brunswickan

Don't ask Tegan and Sara how they got started, when they started playing guitar, or if they fight a lot.

"That's the most rhetorical question. Do you fight with your siblings? Can you imagine having an occupation where you are with your sibling all the time?" remarked Sara, one half of the Alberta pop-duo.

Having grown up in Alberta, a province stereotyped for cowboys and rodeos, it's nice to see that something fresh has made its way out of the west.

Currently on tour for their third album, and their second on a major label, Tegan and Sara swung by the Cellar for a show before heading off for Toronto to continue the tour.

If it Was You, seems like a giant departure from their last, mellower album, This Business of Art, which was produced by fellow Canadian songwriter, Hawksley Workman. However, Tegan explains that they were simply referencing the music they used to listen to in high school.

"We didn't really go out of our way to change anything. We felt like we were revisiting something we've done before. We were into rock and punk rock. We weren't listening to Black Flag or anything. But when we were getting out of school we were listening to more of a folk-rock thing," remarked Sara.

"We spent the last two years on the road with acoustic guitars. The last thing I wanted to do was go into the studio and record more acoustic," added Tegan.

As for the inevitable comparisons to other Canadian females, notably Alanis Morissette, and Avril Lavigne: "It's nice to see women playing guitars, and at least claiming to write their own songs. I can see myself when I was 15 or 16 definitely liking it," said Tegan, not really too ashamed of the subject.

So watch out, because these girls don't wear ties under their shirts, or pretend to be something they're not. It's good, honest music.

If you weren't in the Cellar last Wednesday, come a few months, you'll probably wish you were.