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Tegan and Sara Drop “The Con”

“All eyes are on you now,” sing Tegan and Sara in their distinctive harmonies on “Floorplan,” a track from their upcoming album The Con. One wonders whether the lyrics betray anxieties held by the “twin lesbian sisters from Canada,” as they are often – and far too easily – labeled.

The Con, after all, is a highly anticipated collection of 14 new songs that follows their breakthrough album, the critically acclaimed So Jealous from 2004.

AfterEllen.com caught up with Tegan and Sara Quin in New York just days before The Con was leaked over the internet – more than a month before its official release date. The leak prompted them to consider releasing the material early on iTunes, but the duo’s publicist confirmed to AfterEllen.com last week that the album will not be available – digitally or on CD – until July 24.

Although the buzz surrounding The Con suggests the hype around a sophomore effort, the new release is actually the fifth studio album by Tegan and Sara, 26-year-old identical twins separated by eight crucial minutes that seem to grant Tegan a palpable seniority. Its title alone, indicative of furtive schemes or jail time, suggests that The Con offers a darker trip than the sprightly foray fans relished in So Jealous.

Tegan denies this observation in the facetious manner she brandishes regularly throughout the conversation. “It’s a really upbeat record; there’s a lot of dance hits on it,” she said about The Con. “We’re definitely exploring a happier, settled, content side of ourselves,” she insisted.

Her point is well taken. So Jealous also skewed dark, but the ominous language of favorites such as “Speak Slow” and “Walking With a Ghost” – later covered by the White Stripes – was disguised by upbeat music influenced by pop rock from the 1960s and ’70s. This deceptive blend, recognized by Rolling Stone as one of the top 50 albums of 2004, was produced by members of the New Pornographers and the Smugglers, two Canadian indie rock bands.

Lyrically and melodically, The Con brings more complexity and exploration. The track “Are You Ten Years Ago” introduces electronic indie-rap that recalls the work of Kathleen Hanna’s alter ego, Julie Ruin. Guitar goddess Kaki King, discovered by Sara last summer at the Montreal Jazz Festival, adds her acoustic and electric touch to the aforementioned “Floorplan” and plays lap steel on the plaintive “Knife Going In.”

Sara, in her considered opinion, states: “This record – you need to listen to it. It’s a grower. But I think the reward is that it’s a better record than So Jealous.”

Of course, catchy tunes still abound on The Con, produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie. There is the bracing, super-synthesized title track and the peppy “Back in Your Head,” with clever lyrics concerning the distance between lovers. Both tracks, which demonstrate Tegan and Sara’s trademark pop sensibility combined with new wave exuberance, were made available on the duo’s MySpace page in response to the leaking of the album.

Their gracious reply to the leak fiasco is indicative of the growing maturity of Tegan and Sara, who were signed to Neil Young’s Vapor Records in 2000 after getting noticed as teenage winners of a garage band contest in their hometown of Calgary, Alberta. Before heading into the studio to record The Con, they enjoyed an unprecedented period of rest, reflection and musical preparation. As usual, they wrote the songs independently and conferred on the results – Tegan from her base of Vancouver and Sara from Montreal.

And since So Jealous, they have experienced significant personal events, such as the death of their grandmother, that inspired some of the new music. Tegan, single for a year and a half now, endured the breakup of her five-year relationship, while Sara, in a serious relationship for four years, has contended with feeling like the breadwinner. In fact, they hint that The Con, as an album title, refers to the coping mechanisms adopted to navigate life’s pain, guilt and fear.

“You’ve done something for eight years,” Tegan explained, “and looking back on that with all the time in the world to do whatever you want. You’re standing there at the crossroads being nostalgic and reflective, but you’re also looking forward and thinking, ‘God, what do I want?'”

Greater recognition around the globe, for starters, appears to be on their to-do list. “One of our major goals with The Con,” said Tegan, “is to be able to tour more internationally. It’s not about conquering the United States and Canada, it’s about spreading the Tegan and Sara music everywhere.”

The next round of evangelization begins in mid-July with some intimate shows that run midway through August and hit major cities on both U.S. coasts. Tegan and Sara will return to the States for a good portion of October and November as part of a more extensive fall tour.

When global acclaim arrives — and intelligent bets suggest it will — Tegan and Sara will likely have to revisit questions about being openly gay that they have already fielded for North American audiences. They seem to understand the power of their position as prominent, young lesbian rockers, even if they harbor mixed emotions about the emphasis on their sexual orientation instead of their music.

“When it comes to sexuality,” Tegan offered, “Sara and I have seen points in our career when it’s been extremely relevant for us to talk a lot about being gay, and then there’s been other points where it hasn’t seemed as relevant.”

That utilitarian perspective raises objections from Sara. “I just want to get my opinion in there because I don’t always totally agree with you,” she said.

“I know,” Tegan retorted. “You will.”

Sara, having wrested control of the discussion, continued: “I think it’s so important that people know we’re gay. But as a heterosexual person, you don’t run around saying, ‘You better know that I’m straight.'”

Here she cites the New York Times article about So Jealous as evidence. “I didn’t understand why they had to talk about us being gay so much,” she said. “I just didn’t get it. But then I think to myself: There are just not that many other people out there in the mainstream that are doing what we do. People have to write about somebody first.”

The daughters of a therapist mother who encouraged their teenage interest in the Pacific Northwest’s riot grrl and grunge scenes, Tegan and Sara seem more eager to talk about women in the music world. “It’s extremely political for us just to be us, to just be women in the industry,” Tegan enthused.

Some of the hurdles for women in rock include, according to the pair, uncooperative soundmen and internalized sexism and competition among women themselves. “We can be the worst,” Sara lamented. “The things that we say about ourselves and about our community.”

The issue is aggravated by the fact that there are simply so few slots allotted to female acts. Once Tegan prodded Sara, a Sleater-Kinney fan, to introduce herself to the band at a festival where the two groups were practically the only female performers on the bill.

Tegan and Sara strongly believe, however, that being out lesbians makes it easier for them in the rough-and-tumble boys’ club of rock music.

“I feel like we’re in the best industry to be lesbians because we’re entertainers,” Tegan said. “In music, it’s probably the least stressful thing to be. I think it’d be worse to be a gay man. With rock it is such a testosterone thing.”

Still, Sara thoughtfully added, “It would be really interesting from a heterosexual woman’s perspective how things have changed over the last eight years.” Noting how her reputation allows her to avoid girlie clothing at a fashion shoot, she asked, “What if you are the girl from Rilo Kiley and you show up at a photo shoot and they want you to wear underwear and a teddy? Do you feel as comfortable?”

You can almost hear Sara ruminating over the matter while answering fan mail. She and Tegan get tons of it. “We try to give as much advice as we can,” Tegan explained, “because I remember that 17-year-old me wishing there was someone that I could have called, that there was some kind of hotline network where a girl would have answered the phone.”

Although they may be sought after as role models, neither Tegan nor Sara will admit to anything more than a minimal sense of celebrity. “I am absolutely, legitimately surprised when people come up to me in Montreal,” Sara said.

She moved there because she wanted the challenge of being around French speakers, and she felt drawn to the gritty toughness of the East Coast. Tegan, for her part, confessed to being star-struck by brushes with celebrities such as Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, who live in her area of Vancouver.

Their low profile could be subject to change depending on the success of The Con and their future releases together.

Yes, that’s right.

“Contractually, we’re obligated to do two more records,” Sara noted.

“So we’ll see how it goes,” said Tegan.

For more on Tegan and Sara, read their interview with NewNowNext.com and visit their MySpace page or their official website.

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