Date: May 6, 2003 Author: C : Cécile B. et J : Juliette Publication: Magic Box Headline: Interview tegan & sara - may 6th 2003 - Paris

C : How did you start ? did you take guitar lessons ? Tegan : We actually just took piano lessons from when we were about eight until we were like fifteen. And then we started to go see shows, like punk shows, rock shows around town, and we decided…well, there was a guitar kinda around home, which sounds kinda weird, but my stepdad has bought one when he was younger and never played it. We sorta stumbled upon it one day and just started pulling around on it, and both started writing and right away we were really kinda into recording ourselves and that kind of things and when other people started to hear it they were all like "oh you're good, you guys should you know, play shows" yeah, so…kinda started that way, you know, it wasn't really "oh I want to play guitar" and like you know…my mom wanted us to take lessons, we went to a few, but they taught us to play other people's songs and we were just like not interested, like we wanted to learn our own songs so…we just sorta started struggling through on our own and…so it was about when we were fifteen. You know…all by accident. J: so you didn't always want to get into the music business or ? tegan : oh no no no, just totally by accident, cause…I mean, when we started playing we were fifteen…we weren't like, you know "sara, it's cold you know, let's go to florida and enjoy the mickey mouse club" (laughs) you know, it wasn't like that. There was no intention initially except to play. And when we did get in the music business, it was only because, you know, someone was going to give us some money to put us on the road and we get to see more places and our record would come out in more stores. I mean, we didn't do it because we were like "let's make lots of money and be rich and famous" (laughs)..which is now what we want (big laugh) J : okay, it's nice to admit it T : yeah. T : now fuck the music (laughs) C : sara, I heard you wish you were a drummer, so did hawksely (workman) taught you how to play the drums ? S : no, he did not teach me…that bastard, he didn't teach me…but our new drummer, Rob, yeah, he gave me drums lessons for awhile, but not, not hawksley. Hawksley is a fantastic drummer, but.. C : he's awesome. S : yeah, he's cute, he's a fantastic guy, and…but Rob, I told him, I wanted to admit it to Rob, that I personally wanted to be a drummer, I didn't want to be a different person in the band, so he started to give me drum lessons. But I've quit since. J : Why ? S : I didn't have time, I moved and so I couldn't take drum lessons anymore, yeah. J : yeah, and that would be hard to play drum and guitar on stage… S : yeah, at the same time, no. T : you could get a headpiece so you could sing when you play drums. S : totally, that would be wicked. (laughs) J : so your first album, in Canada, "this business of art", I mean, it sounded quite folk and your new record, "if it was you", it's a lot more pop rock. So was it a choice you clearly made like "we want to make something more pop" T : I don't think we'd said we want to make something more pop or rock. I think it was mostly just we had more time. That record we did with hawksley that you're talking about "this business of art" we did that in twelve days. You know, and then Hawksley mixed it and we put it out, we didn't have time to add things or…and we were… J : like you didn't think about it T : we didn't think about it, yeah, there were no reasons for it, the songs were there, we liked the songs, and I think that with this record, the only conscious effort was to make a record we liked and what we like to listen to. And we listen to rock music, we listen to a lot of punk music, we listen to a lot of pop music, so we wanted those elements to be spoken forward this time around, you know, we wanted more guitar, we wanted loud guitars, yeah, we wanted…we basically tried to make a record that we couldn't play live without a band. (laughs) so that the record company couldn't talk us into not bringing the band again, but they did, except for some of it. So we are able to play it live without the band, but we were hoping to make it as rock and as pop as we could so that the record company couldn't be like " you're great just the two of you, it's cool" (laughs) cause that's what they did on the last record and we wanted to try to get away from that. Not cause we had anything against the last record or against folk music, we just really like to rock out, we really like to get loud and you know…so… C : I read on the official fan site they describe your music as "rawk" T : yeah, yeah, yeah. (laughs) C : like…not pop-folk, not rock… T : yeah…well, whatever they want, I mean everybody is gonna, you know, put a label on it and I definitely like something like more rock and pop label, for sure, so…and the fans, I mean, I don't know, we still get emails from people…we had an independent record we put out before this business of art, under feet like ours, we still get email from people "that was your best record" (laughs) and I'm like "what are you talking about ??" like…it's a fine record, it's a great record, we were seventeen, eighteen when we wrote those songs, so it's so…not what we're at anymore, and so when people say that…we have this uncle, he's like "do songs more like "this is everything"" which is off that first record, and we're like "Jeeez, let it go" (laughs) so…you gotta move… C : this song is great though. T : yeah, it is, each record represents what we're at, so…we definitely try to move fast, so you know, and continue to grow. J : yeah, so it's like some kind of maturity also ? T : also, yeah. Sara said that this afternoon on an interview, I think that was a good summation. It's been two and a half years, you know, we have changed, and we needed to show that on this record and we've made great leaps, you know, in our lives, we've moved out of home, we've moved out of you know, province, we've moved away from each other now, like…we've grown up a lot. So it's important to reflect that in the music, I think, not staying in one spot, not stay the same, so… J : So what changed, precisely, in the production of the album, the big changes. You said you had more time… S : I think that, what Hawksley did when we did this business of art, we had all the songs written already and he'd seen us play all of them live, just acoustically so it was more like going recording our songs like the way…it was almost like doing a live album in a weird way, like went and played all the songs acoustically and then he just added drums and bass and stuff. This time, it was like, we wrote the songs, and then we put together a band, and then we like…we organized it before we did it kinda thing, and it took months, and then once we went into the studio, it was like a whole band playing. You know, so, I think that what ultimately changed was that the whole process was more, you know collaborative between us and the band. J : they added a lot, like creativity ? T : oh, yeah, for sure. We had, I mean, we played with rob, like the drummer we've played with him while we were writing the songs. You know the first practice, we had like four or five songs, and the next one, you know we'd have more, so he really was there from the beginning, working out his parts, so the record wasn't just like "ok, we have ten songs now come in and think of a drum part", it was like we'd spend six months actually perfecting. The record made more sense. I think Sara and I said so many times on the last record that it was like an incomplete thought for us, like our part was complete, but the rest of the record wasn't complete. So it was really hard to make sense of the record and I think with this one, from start to finish, it was really well thought out, so…it makes more sense. C : so now you're touring with a band, not just the two of you, T : thank god.(laughs) J : why ? is it so much better to tour with a band, or ? T : it's nice…to have a distraction. C : might be fun… T : yeah, it's fun, and Sara and I did a tour just the two of us, and some nights when things go really well, and other nights when you feel really alone on stage, and it's nice to turn around and see those guys, you know, with you, enjoying it, you know, kinda supporting you through the good shows and the bad shows. And when it's just the two of us, we can be pretty hard on one another, and after a bad show, we get off and just ignore each other and that's pretty lonely. C : I read on the journal, on the site that Rob wrote it was his last show on March, that it was possibly his last show. T : He is gonna come back. Not for this tour, that we're doing right now in Europe, we have another drummer right now, but he will be back. We really miss him. He's one of a kind. So…he's got another band he plays in, and when he said he couldn't do may, we didn't know we were doing in may yet, and then we found out we were coming here, for press for ten days, and then two weeks tour with hot hot heat, he was pretty upset, like he was like "oooh, shit" but he's gonna come back with us, he's a great, when we first started working with him, it was like you know, really great and then we started touring and it was like really hard, cause he's a…like us. Yeah, he's just like us, he speaks his mind, he wants, you know, he thinks for himself, like he wants stuff for himself, and we were like "god, what a bitch !" (laughs) you know, he's so hard to work with, but now we've grown so fond of that, you know, like Sara moved to Montreal and they talk on the phone all the time and I've been doing practices with this new drummer, and I phoned Rob after everything and I was like "Rooob, we miss youuu !" (laughs) yeah, so, like he came to the practices and he helped us out, and like, he's a great…we really really accumulated some really great players, great people, so, it's cool. I just wish he could be here. C : Tegan, it seems that you write more songs than Sara, it seems only. T : yeah. It's even. I did, for a while, definitely during the writing period, we took the time for it, and I wrote more, and while we were recording the record and afterwards, I was like writing all the time. I don't write as much as I used to. I tried to relax a bit, like I try to write maybe one new song a month, just relax. Cause, I started to rush, you know, and Sara does take a lot more time, it seems and I like her songs more, they stay with me, like I look forward to it, with my songs, it was like a week I will really like a song, and then I write another one, and I forget about the other one, and I try to force myself to spend more time on my songs, I think that's…hm…when we did the bio, that was what we're trying to say, it was that I kinda write and they end up on the record, whereas Sara spends her time and write six really great songs, and I'd like to be more like that. Grow more…fond of my songs, which at this point I'm not…But Sara writes all the time, she's writing really good stuff right now. Hey Sara ? S (waking up) : hey.(laughs) J : so when you write the songs, it's your songs, and you don't mix up, or you bring your ideas, or ? S : pretty much not. It's pretty much like giving parts to each other on each other's songs, it seems to work better that way, like not us arguing and fighting over…like if I have a song, the reality is that I already know what I want it to sound like, and…so the more finished it is before…so the more finished it is, then the most easier it is to give it to her and have her play the parts. There's not as much collaboration, but I think it's better for us, gets more creative energy into the project, so… C : Could you just say a word about each song of the album ? T : okay. Do you want us to say the names of the songs, and whoever responds ? J : yeah, exactly, just a word, a short sentence… T : okay. Huh...Time running. Jeeez, I wrote it in my apartment one morning, very early, and I recorded it immediately and the shaker that you actually here on the record, and the guitar part (she sings), that part I wrote like that morning, and we sampled it, when we did the record, we actually sampled those two sounds off, cause we liked it, and it was really quick, Sara and I had to go for dinner, with some of my family that night, and Sara came over and she put the headphones on, and she turns around and she's like "it's good, it's good" it was, I think one of the first songs that I wrote like where I thought I'd written a really hooky song, whereas trying to rip off Sara. And I wrote it about, huh…all my friends, all the people that I was involved with in Vancouver had jobs, and I was at home, and I was starting to feel really obsessive compulsive and that was my way…I was making fun of myself, just wasting time, sitting in my apartment, obsessing. C : "you went away" T : I think that's pretty much like the same way, I actually wrote that song probably…maybe three or four months before that, it was actually like a folky kinda like…it was more like, you know..i don't know how to explain that but more….there wasn't so straight tad tad tad tad, it was more like tad tadaa dam… (she sings), and actually one of our producers was at a practice one day, just kinda hearing what we were doing, and he's like "you should play it more punk, play it more straight" so that's how the song ends up sounding like that, but it was pretty much the same thing, me obsessing, making fun of myself, obsessing. C : "monday monday, monday." S : I don't really have anything interesting to say, I think I watched "behind the music" on Depeche Mode one day and there is moment…I don't know I really liked the documentary, I just really liked it, I hadn't really been a fan of Depeche Mode before that, I wrote that song right after I saw the documentary, I don't know how Depeche Mode influenced the song but this is why I wrote it. C: so Depeche Mode was an inspiration ? C : (laughs) that's interesting. S : I don't know if I can call it my inspiration…That is what I did right before it happened, when I imagined the song, I wanted it…I don't think it turned out how I wanted it to turn out, like to be honest, but I remember when I went into the rehearsal I told Rob I wanted him to play it like this one Cindy Lauper song, and so he took it home and listened to the drum part and he was trying to copy it, but he didn't understand what I was trying to get…it was really frustrating when we did that. Like we were picking drum, like we were telling him how to drum, and it was frustrating, but that was Monday Monday Monday. And I like how nothing in that song came really easily. C : and tell us about Monday Monday Monday and the video Mush Mush the Monkey ? S : aah yeah (laughs) T : it turned out we really like it, we really like it now. Yeah…what a weird process ! like we've always been so involved in everything creatively we've ever done, and not being involved was pretty hard. Not to be…like we basically did our shoots of like…the scenes of us cleaning crap for like you know, half a day, and that was it you know, so… S : it was cool because…it was nice to let go T : yeah, it was nice to let go, it was cool that somebody had been so inspired by our song, like his ideas really came from our song and he just thought all through the end so it was cool. I liked not being involved and letting somebody else take control, it was one of the first times we'd done that, so it was cool. S: it was interesting. T : yeah, it was cool. Just kinda like someone remixed our song or something, you know what I mean ? like they give it a whole different feeling which is interesting cause that song is a really dark song and he gave a kind of like…I mean there was a dark element to the video in the end, but it's kinda silly, like this monkey, you know, it's interesting cause I saw it very different. So it's nice, when I play, I think of it very differently now. S: hmm, weird. (laughs) C : the video is very funny. T : yeah, it is. It's…it's silly. C : huh… "city girl" ? T : hmm, city girl. Yep. Pretty much the same thing. Just feeling pretty… C : oh, if you don't have anything special to say… T :yeah, it's…(laughs) T : yeah, city girl...when i wrote it, I played it for Sara right away and I recorded it, and that was fun, too. Sara seemed really…Sara's always very excited about my songs, too. It was nice, cause usually, I was writing a lot but this song is kinda the first few that came Sara was pretty excited about. I like city girl, I like playing it. My favourite line in it was "so I started smoking, thought the signals would scare your wolves away" and I meant smoke signals like it was scaring wolves, like I meant literally but lot of people thought it was very metaphorical and all…actually a few people in the Canadian press asked if I meant like…cause of the whole "delicious wolves", like Hawksley Workman kind of thing. (laughs) "are you scaring Hawksley away ?" and I was like "yes" (laughs) so…I really like that line, when I wrote that line, that's when the whole song came together so…I like singing that song, I like…I like this record for me especially, like I've always felt like Sara was really tapping into her motion but I felt like this was the first record where I was actually saying things that I felt literally, like I feel sad, you know, or I feel happy, or I feel this, so that song was one of the first where I felt that it was me talking…so… C : So…if you have a song you have something special to say… T : okay. C : I don't know if there is a song you have particular stories… S : Living room ? T : Yeah, living room. Same apartment that I wrote Time Running in. Around the same time. I was really sick, weird crazy neighbours, never ever saw them. One day I woke up and I saw them. It inspired the song. But I was supposed…I think…I got mixed up when I was telling people about it, I thought people meant I was telling that when I saw them I wrote the song about them. But actually, when I saw them, and I was like wandering in my apartment incoherently it was the first time I saw them and I wondered what they thought of me, because my blinds were open all the time, they could see me all the time. (laughs) so the song was actually…cause I was going through really tough time, I was…ups and downs all the time like writing and doing this and blah blah blah. So I was actually writing like them, like as if they were looking into my apartment and thinking you know, like how odd, like this person, what's wrong with her kinda thing…so…and it was really annoying when I wrote it, and the chorus was really annoying and I brought it home for Christmas and played it just for Sara and my mom, and they were both like "yeah, it was all over our heads" but it was an annoying song, it almost didn't make it on the record, I tried to cut if off the record and the producers put their foot down and they were like "no". and it was the last song we mixed and the second last song we heard when the mixing was done, and they changed everything, like they…cut all the drums out and just put that "tap tap" stomping like Rob played it kinda Fleetwood Mac like…(she sings) double time and everyone hated it, we were all like "ahhhrr" we wanted to cut the song and they cut it all. I really…it's one of my favourite songs to play, one of my favourites on the record, but it almost didn't make it. S : let me see if I have any favourite… T : well, I liked when I heard "not tonight" and "terrible storm" cause of the same lyrics in it. C: oh, yeah, I noticed that. T : and Sara played them both for me when I'd just written city girl and I was recording it at Sara's house and she was like "I've got some new songs". And I was all excited about my own and "whatever play them for me now" I was like, and when she started playing terrible storm and not tonight, I was really jealous like…(she sings) "in the back of your car I feel…" it reminds me so much of the Police, and just all the eighty stuff I was listening to at that time and it made me so jealous that she's written that. I was really jealous. And like "not tonight", I walked around for weeks. I'd just made friends with this guy at that point and I was hanging with him and he was a musician, and he wasn't very good but he was like constantly like "oh my god" and we listened to a lot of the same music and he was telling me about it and stuff. And one night he takes me out for ice cream and it was horribly uncomfortable and I didn't really wanna hang out with him anymore except like he was sitting on me all the time and I was like "I'm not interested" and it was really awkward and I went talking about Sara's songs and that's why I liked me, cause I was really frantic and passionate about music around him and… S : what are you talking about ? T : Gary. S : oh…euugh. T : yeah, and when he was like "what's you favourite Sara song ?" I don't know why I answered but I started talking about "underwater" and not tonight and terrible storm and just like quoting them and I was so excited when I heard those songs, really like…excited. Cause Sara never wrote it when she did write something good and I was really impressed cause when I didn't write and I write…I had a sucky period for a while, like if I didn't write, I write like ten or twelve really bad songs, and then I start writing good stuff, but it takes me a while to flush out all the shit, but Sara's like, doesn't write, doesn't write and then she writes a really great song, it's really horrible actually. J : and the title of the album ? where does it come from ? C : like any funny story ? T : it came from me, but it was actually Sara and my mom who kinda…I think…"if it was you"…picked it out, wasn't it ? S : nah. T : was it mom ? S : no, you called and… T : oh, right right right…okay. I wrote a song…when I wrote "and darling" it was when we were doing the record. And I recorded it at home, and the record company was like "take your time, write more songs if you want" I flipped out, I was all upset, cause I thought they meant they didn't like the record. Sara told me to relax, but I wrote three new songs, and recorded them all at Sara's house and I played them all for them and we really liked a couple and then one of them was called "there's nothing" and the first lyric in it is : "I thought I'd like the view if it was you". And so we were coming up with titles and we narrowed it down, Sara wanted…she had a song that didn't make it on the record called "drums" like I want to play drums (laughs) and it was the first song that Sara wrote like when we were starting doing the record, and the last lines is "I've got money in the bank, and tears in my eyes over you" or something like that (she sings), and Sara wanted it called "I've got money in the bank" (laughs) and we were all like "bad idea" just like "c'mon, it's hip hop" and we were like no…so…we were kinda trying, deliberating about all this stuff and I don't know why, I can't remember someone heard it, I think someone brought it up anyway…I can't remember anyway, but my mom…I can't remember, she picked it out anyway, but it was a little different like it was a variation of that, I think oh, she said what about "if I was you" and I was like "nah, that's too twinny and stuff" so I thought "if it was you" and Sara liked it, and…we like the, like when we came up with the cover shot, like we did this pictures, actually, we're not on this picture together, it's two separate pictures that they put together. I don't know, it just seems really cocky, it seems like an "in your face" kinda cover, you know what I mean, like kinda…"here we are" and if it was you, it just seemed really like…you know, it poses questions, but it's a statement too, you know, it's like, all in one, and the record is kinda like that too. It's like a statement, but it's a question, and you know, brings up a lot of things, yeah…So…the song itself, that it came from, I really like, but it too is an annoying song that I wrote. C: so, now about being twins. Would it be harder or not if you weren't twins ? S : I don't know, it's hard to say cause we don't have brothers or sisters so like, I don't even know, like I only know what it's like to be a sibling based upon my experience with Tegan. So…and then I've never been in a band with anybody but Tegan. So it's a hard question. I mean, I know apparently based on the relationships I have with my band, like no matter how I get with them…I mean, just the experience of being in a band and travelling and touring together, you're bound with a very different thing, like with normal people, like you're in each other's space constantly all the time and whatever, and I think the boundaries that I have with Tegan is still even more alter and ever more special than compared to other people, but yeah, I don't know, I don't know, I guess it would all change when I've been in a band with other people and had a different experience, you know. J : and what would draw two twin sisters to play together ? was it some kind of evidence that you should play together ? T : no J : like because you have the kind of interest, or did you just forced yourself to play together ? (laughs) T : no we just did…we always wanted to. We were both writing, so yeah, we just ended up playing together cause it made sense, yeah. Maybe because we shared the same address (laughs). You know, living with a band mate. I think being sisters had very little to do with it initially. Lot of people focused when we first started playing, on the harmonies and stuff, and made it into a twin sister kinda family thing, and even when I record by myself, I record other parts, and harmonies, I really like lots of vocals, I like a lot of harmonies, sounds, and I think being twins helps, not even being twins but sisters helps us, because there is that camaraderie and there is this like… J : well, you just know each other and… T : yeah, it's like some same level passion to succeed together kinda thing, I think we are interested in other people, we are living 3000 miles apart, you know, we don't need to be around each other all the time, we've proved that, you know… J : yeah, you know, people would always tend to think that being twins means always together, like that… T : yeah, which we aren't used to be that way, my mom used to have us make different things, but we really liked doing the same things, we wanted to in classes together, we wanted to do things together. (laughs). But my mom encouraged us to dress differently, have different haircuts, we always sort of stayed together anyway so…yeah…I like it, I think it's fun, I know lots of people in bands, and I've danced around tedious like a path off and people ask other people to come in and just jam and do that, and it seems so unappealing to me, I like…cause i…when I'm with Sara sometimes I feel like I hum along, you know what I mean, like I don't feel her presence there necessarily…so I don't know how I would share, I don't feel like I'm sharing light with Sara, I feel like we just are one, in that way, like I don't mean in a twin way, just like because we're so used to each other, I don't feel like she's taking up my space, except in a sister way, I'm like "you're annoying now get out of my space", but in a band sense. So I don't know how it'd feel with other people exactly. So I agree with Sara, probably hard to say. Well I'll have to get back to you on that, you know when we've had experience. (laughs) C : we've heard from recordings that you often tease each other in concert and in interviews, which isn't the case today (laughs). T : yeah. J : it's a bit theatrical, I mean… T : Yeah. For sure. When we've first started playing six songs, seven songs in forty minutes, so we had to fill the time somehow. So we talk to each other, and our family and friends were our audience for the first year, so we were really used to kinda making fun of people that were in the audience that we knew, so the whole thing started to happen, and it seems to warm up a lot the audiences, it's hard over here, like in Europe where people don't speak the same language, because we talk fast. J : yeah, exactly. And the accent… T : Yeah, we still try to do it a lot, like we slow it down, a lot of times, we just had a couple oh shows in germany, we brought someone up who could speak german and english, and get him to interpret what we're saying. (laughs) J : that's awesome. T : yeah, we don't talk as much but we're trying to have two or three segments where we try to get people involved, I think it warms people up, it gets people to see some of our personality, and, and it's fun, so…but we do, we make fun of each other, we toned it down on this record, for a little bit, just because people were starting to think that it was a bit of a trick and it wasn't, that was just us, like we just do that. They thought we were sorta planning it and scripting it out, and as our band will tell you, every night is different, and every night, depending on the audience we talk more and more, or less and less. It's always gonna be…our management, we had a management on this record and they tried to encourage us not to talk and it didn't work, like we wanted it, the audience wanted it, yelling for it and were mad that we weren't talking. We were like "and this is "you went away"" "and this is time running" and they were just like…they needed a break. The audiences…it feels like you know…we're attracting an audience that's used to television you know, half and hour segment, they need a break, they need commercials, think of our talking as commercials. (laughs) You know, taking a break from selling to you, and telling you a story. C : how would you define each other in a word ? T : Today ?(laughs) J : no, not today, in general. S : I think that this is going to sound really flicky, but I really that our names like…describe us. Like I really think that my mom couldn't have picked better names for us. Like Tegan is just like…it's different, like it's not a common name, it's a little bit hard to say, people don't recognize it, like those kind of things, you know, it's a little bit more, like I don't know…a little tougher or something. Like, I don't know, just, I just think like…our mom has always said that when she…like Tegan's name was Tegan Rain, and I was Sara Kirsten, and when we were born, before she saw us, after we were born, Tegan was really sick and so they took us away and when they came back to get the names they said like you know, baby number one, and so she said Tegan Rain, and then second baby, she said Sara Kirsten, like that's how they decided they would name us based on what order we'd came out, and then Tegan was sick so they brought me back so my mom could hold me, and she said that I was really fat, with lots of hair and I was like, I was really small, like my cheeks were so rosy, and I was like really happy, like I was totally, like I wasn't freaking out or anything, and my mom said that she immediately thought that she had made a mistake like she…the cool name, I should have gotten the cool name. (laughs) she has told me this story…she felt like... and so I always felt resentful but I think that I am a Sara, like I don't think I'm a Tegan, so…that's the only way I can explain us, like I really think that our names make sense, like my name is a little bit simpler and understated or something, you know, like it doesn't even have an h. T : understated ? S : yeah. T : everybody's named Sara. S : that's not true. Sara without an h. T : more Sarahs with an h. S : yeah. J : oh I know some Sara without the h. S : yeah, well, so do I. Yeah, but you know… J : yeah, it happens, but it's not common. S : yeah, it happens. J : I mean, in France, it's Sarah with an h. T : right. S : yeah, and I'm not saying that Sara is exclusive to all people, I'm saying between you and I, like yeah, it's a bit different. T : gotcha. S : okay. (laughs) T : fine. Well, I agree with that. I would…if I had to sum up Sara, I would need two words, not one and I would say…that the two words to describe her would be…huh…well, one would be independent, but the other one would be…huh…co-dependent. And the reason why is because I think Sara is, because I find between, especially, and this isn't a twin thing, just the way we were raised and how close we were, that you become used to being with somebody and I think that both of us had to pull away and learn how to attach to other people and there's this fine balance between that independence and co-dependence. You know, and so that's how we describe Sara, in her music and the way she talks, the way she deals with people, in the way that she conversates, socializes, lives her life, dresses, does her hair, all of it, it's all…think it sums it up : independent, co-dependent. Hey sara ? S : hmm. C : about the show in paris…what do you expect from the Parisian crowd ? T : no idea… J : no idea ? (laughs) T : no, I hope it's fun, I mean, we played in London, like maybe six weeks ago or something that. It was a really good show, but at one point I was trying to tell a story and someone was like "shut up and just play". And I totally made it into a joke, and it was fine, everyone in the audience was like "wow, you know, if you were an english band, you would have just coward in the corner, but you guys stepped up, like is was very American of you" (laughs) And…so I don't know yet. I'm not really sure, because we've had so many years to develop our audience, in north America, people have gotten used to seeing us talk and fool around, and play and… C : we're used to that too. (laughs) C: if you do something different, that would be weird. T : yeah, we'll see what happens, I mean, it'll be interesting J : depends on the crowds, too. T : yeah. For sure, but by that point we'll have played a bunch of shows, and in Paris, I mean, we're doing lots of press, we're doing lots of stuff, so I'm hoping there will be people there to see us, in which case, they will be expecting us to speak, and to be honest with you, they probably will be yelling at us in French, so we won't know any better anyway, we'll be like "yeah, hey to you too" (laughs) and like you know they could be like "you ugly assholes, stop talking !" and we'll be like "cool, bye" (laughs) so we won't know any better anyway so…yeah… J : oh we can tell before the show to speak english. T : yeah, if you're going to yell us, speak english.(laughs) T : yep, we'll see what happens. C : and you know the band Hot Hot Heat ? T : yes, they're from Victoria, like very close to where we lived. S : really good band… T : yeah, really good band, we dig the record. We're all actually big fans of the record, and our management know them so that's how we got the tour with them. They're really good, have you heard of them or heard them ? C : no I just went on their website. T : they're really good. I've never seen them live, so I don't know how they'll be live, but the record itself, if you get a chance, it's a really great record, very talented. S : yeah, they're really great live, like… T : they jump on things… J : so you're first act on this tour, how long a show can we expect ? T : forty minutes. C : so…the stupid questions part ? J : the stupid question part…did they make it to the stupid questions part ? (laughs) J : so to which point do you want to be famous ? T : like…to which point…you mean, how far we want to go with it ? J : yeah, kinda, is there a point when you'll be feeling it will be too much or…? T : well…I mean…if it comes slowly, you can get to as high a level as you like, you know, you always sort of…you know I think Pearl Jam is a really good example of that, you know when they felt they were getting really big, they stopped making videos, they stopped touring because it was too crazy, too much work, and they wanted lives, they wanted lives outside of music, so it will do it, if we continue to ascend, we'll keep doing it until we're uncomfortable…but I mean, you do have a certain amount of control and you can't necessarily control how big you can get, but you can control how big you can get and then slow it down if you're getting too big, you know, so at this point, we just want to play you know…we do have final say on most things, we try to keep our personal lives more personal, we try to take time off to, we've tried to pick people around us in our career, like managers and even record companies that we like, that we like working with, you know we don't compromise as much as some people would think we'd have to compromise, especially girls, young girls, like we don't have to compromise often you know, we're in charge. This record, the photo shoots, you know, our tours, we choose them, you know they're ours, it's our final say, so…I think we're gonna go as far as we want. J : yeah, so success doesn't scare you ? T : no. not at all. I don't think I want to be Michael Jackson, you know (laughs). I don't know if I want to be on sold out arenas tours, I don't know if I with this record would like it to sell 6 millions records, I don't know. You know, I want to, I want to create a fan base that wants to listen to our music, doesn't necessarily want to be us, doesn't necessarily want to touch us… J : like crazy… T : yeah, like I just want them to really like our music. And whatever comes with that will gage how much more we want. (laughs) C : now the really stupid questions…If you were a superhero, who would it be ? bart simpson, Garfield, or wonder woman with catwoman's outfit ? T & S together : hmm…I'd be Garfield.(laughs) T : totally, he gets to sleep all the time, someone to clean up his shit. S : eating, sleeping and being touched all the time. T : eating, sleeping and being touched (she laughs) S : that's what I want. J : what would you bring on a desert island ? T : desert island ? J : yeah. S : how many options ? J : my sister, her guitar, or I'm already living on a desert island with my sister and her guitar ?(laughs) T&S : that's c. (laughs) J : the last one. So what would you prefer, to have a moss leg, to have little ducks following you all your life… T : dogs ?(laughs) J : no, ducks, even in the toilets you know, or in restaurants, you'd have to book for twenty…or…to have little ducks with moss legs following you all your life ? (laughs) T : ducks. Just the little ducks. That'd be kinda fun actually, I'm really into pets and if they have to follow me all the time… J : it's fair enough T : yeah, that's fine. Totally… J : yeah, on stage and all. T : yeah. C : and what the word Cougar means in Canadian ? S : cougar…well cougar means when an older woman…max. thirties.. T : it doesn't matter how old they are, if they're considerably older than the person that they trying to hit on, they're a cougar. So it doesn't…it's not…it's not specific to guys and girls, it's like if an older woman and she dresses like you know, like she's like macking people who are younger than her, like considerably. So…35 years old woman who puts on like leather, boobtop, does her hair, lots of make up, makes out with a 20 years old boy, that's a cougar. (laughs) T : and if it's a guy, like a man and he's like late thirties, glasses, and a big beard, and he's hitting on usually, it's typically younger guys, that's a "bale". (or bear…) J : (laughing) well, thanks, that could be useful. T : learned something new, eh ? J : yeah, sure.