Please stop threatening us with this break up narrative. You have too many children and we would all be way too damaged to go on. Just write some books on your own so you can get this solitude dream out of your system. I don't care if you fight, we love it when you bicker. #staytogetherforeverandmakemoremusic
I feel like breaking up with yourself and who you have previously been is the hardest, but also the best breakup of all. Two days ago, I read a tweet about how without the pandemic, the person wouldn’t have been the same as they are now, and I couldn’t agree more. March 2020 fired up something personal in most of us, pushing us to be the new versions that we are today. Recently, I have decided to take a major decision of changing a life-long commitment I that I don’t agree with any longer. It was a major step that I knew taking it would get me hate or rejection. It was a sort of a breakup with the self, with my inner demons, with the girl I have wrestled with inside my mind for so long. Without the pandemic, isolation, grad school, and working three jobs all happening at the same time, I wouldn’t have been here; in this new refined version of me. I was my own opponent and I’m glad that I was. This is why I resonate with what you have said and with Yellow a lot. Though I don’t have a twin, I have an evil twin that I wrestle with often in my mind, and we just broke up, though I can’t live without her bugging my brain 24/7 about things I can or can’t do.
Thank you for that. I'm grateful you didn't break up the band while breaking up with so many other things in your lives. Did you like your yellow name sticker I sent you when you were here in Calgary?....perfect color for the impending song. I hope you use it somewhere special. So grateful for the pandemic because although its been tough, I found you and a world wide family that I never knew I needed as I began my journey of acceptance and coming out at 37. Your stories have changed so much for me and I am so appreciative. It kinda scares me to think where I would be if you had broken up in march of 2020. Although our lives are forever changed, I wouldn't change it for the world.
Do you think that its your personality differences that steer yourself and Tegan in different directions sometimes on projects? Similar to your coming out experiences in high school...just being in different mind frames and you being a bit more conservative. It's fascinating to me to learn about how different you both are given that you have identical genes and had essentially the same upbringing. Really makes me think about nature vs. nurture and how those affect a persons being. There is so much room for difference even in a world where, you two, are the only things that are identical biologically yet are so individual at the same time. I laugh when random peeps on the internet can't tell you apart...cuz its so easy (most of the time). Speaking of identical...one other question.... you have the scar on your bottom lip in the same place as Tegan's piercing hole. Can I ask how you ended up with a scar there, thus giving you and her another identifying feature that is so close?
I love that you recognize that space between each of your individual decisions is your collective decision. That's an amazing way to look at it. Appears to be that you balance eachother out from what you share with us in this little world. Loving Yellow and Crybaby and I can't wait to see what story the rest of the album tells. Also loved the live yesterday, I really hope you do more of them and truly enjoy them. Have a wonderful day!
Purely selfishly, I’m glad you didn’t break up the band and this isn’t your “swansong” You are really spoiling us with all these substack posts. I understand the smaller tour. Would you consider doing a substack of the logistical nightmare organising this tour during the pandemic will be. I think it would be very interesting and may give more of an insight to the fans upset that you’re not going to their areas as to how many hoops you have to jump through at the moment just to tour for a month. I hope this tour is amazing and you all have an absolute blast, I’ll be there i. Spirit and will be patiently waiting for U.K. dates next year. Love and support always. 💛💛💛💛 p.s. would you also consider live steaming a show for those of us who can make a show.
Jul 15, 2022·edited Jul 16, 2022Liked by Tegan and Sara
It’s funny I think we’ve all felt it in one way or another, in some ways so many things stopped because of the pandemic but in other ways, so many things happened for me and others because of it. Good and bad. So would I want to go back to how things were before March 2020, absolutely not. For starters I may never have even found your band because of it, which to some people may not seem like that big a thing, but it is to me, so there you are. How can I best sum this up for me, you are a positive thing and a force for good in a world that can sometimes seem quite dark.
But anyway Sara you just made me think, which is why I love this newsletter. Great post. 😊
PS - Also that’s interesting about the album titles, I wonder if you asked Tegan, whether she’d have any different titles for albums as well, and what they’d be.
I’m very thankful you two didn’t break up! If you had, let’s just say I would’ve taken a downward spiral (in the spiral I was already in a month or so ago, and am working my way out of). I like the title crybaby and I want to know more about why the album is called that? Is it about the whole concept when kids would use ‘you’re such a crybaby!’ As an insult? Or is it a reference to the songs on the album being about not quite getting over stuff? Or both?
I also already asked this but what type of blade is in the ice cream on the ground of the album? Kn!fe? R*zor of some kind? (I’m just weird and I’ll keep asking the question until I get an answer cause every time I look at that that question bugs me!).
If you do happen to see this, thanks for reading! Hopefully I can have some answers?
So many people have already commented on your tennis analogy and added some extra thoughts. It made me think when you asked whether there was anything left to learn if you always play against the same opponent.
To play devil's advocate, you can arguably learn more from playing the same opponent because you have to keep reinventing and improving your skills to stay competitive. Sometimes if you play against someone too often, you can become so familiar with each others game plan and strategies, that it pushes both of you to be extra creative in order to win.
But this assumes you are competing rather than trying to get the best out of each other and pushing each other to improve. To extend the analogy, maybe you should play doubles so that as well as learning more about your own game, you also learn about your partners and how to collaborate and complement each others strengths.
I'm not suggesting for one moment that you don't collaborate brilliantly but I totally agree with you that it is important to carry on learning and growing. The development of your music and branching out into new creative areas is very refreshing and exciting but please continue ... don't stop!
On another matter, I second 'TnSmom' in asking about a live stream? I've resigned myself to wait until you tour in the UK (too expensive to travel transatlantic) and hope it will be next year? A live stream would be brilliant though.......
When you say you wanted it to be your break up album do you mean you wanted it to be the last album you ever put out? Also I'm curious the reasons behind the alternate Heartthrob album name 'Gemini? It's a cool title!
How interesting that the pandemically-forced (relative) isolation you experienced came at a time in your life when the aspirations of your youthful years have seen their fruition, and you had ample time to ruminate on it. As a (much) older fan, I found my 40s also to be a time of reassessment and change. You don't usually want to same things as before, or, not in the same way. You're older, wiser, and much more experienced in life and its trials and joys. You may not know yet exactly how you want your future to unfold, but it sounds like you leave yourself open to the possibilities. That's awesome, even if it can be anxiety-provoking.
I have always been intrigued by the nature of your relationship, the battles and your ability to cope during what I imagine as one of the most stressful times of your career.
Yellow took my breathe away as I listened to the lyrics, took me back to White Knuckles and the same feeling of sadness that had washed over me as I listened.
I can feel the weight of the lyrics in both songs and I really am thankful for both songs that I adore.
Jul 15, 2022·edited Jul 15, 2022Liked by Tegan and Sara
When I was 9 years old, I built a sand castle by the sea..To me, it was so perfect, I thought the only thing missing was the name, and I called it Indestructible..I had seen it suddenly collapsed with the rising sea waves and I cried a lot at that moment..After I pulled myself together, I realized that the name didn't matter at all(what mattered was the quality and location)..
I know that human relationships are very difficult, also isn't it a success to be able to work together and produce something?.
Did Tegan beg not to break up? Is she the Crybaby behind the title of the album? 😂
Please stop threatening us with this break up narrative. You have too many children and we would all be way too damaged to go on. Just write some books on your own so you can get this solitude dream out of your system. I don't care if you fight, we love it when you bicker. #staytogetherforeverandmakemoremusic
I feel like breaking up with yourself and who you have previously been is the hardest, but also the best breakup of all. Two days ago, I read a tweet about how without the pandemic, the person wouldn’t have been the same as they are now, and I couldn’t agree more. March 2020 fired up something personal in most of us, pushing us to be the new versions that we are today. Recently, I have decided to take a major decision of changing a life-long commitment I that I don’t agree with any longer. It was a major step that I knew taking it would get me hate or rejection. It was a sort of a breakup with the self, with my inner demons, with the girl I have wrestled with inside my mind for so long. Without the pandemic, isolation, grad school, and working three jobs all happening at the same time, I wouldn’t have been here; in this new refined version of me. I was my own opponent and I’m glad that I was. This is why I resonate with what you have said and with Yellow a lot. Though I don’t have a twin, I have an evil twin that I wrestle with often in my mind, and we just broke up, though I can’t live without her bugging my brain 24/7 about things I can or can’t do.
Hey Sara,
Thank you for that. I'm grateful you didn't break up the band while breaking up with so many other things in your lives. Did you like your yellow name sticker I sent you when you were here in Calgary?....perfect color for the impending song. I hope you use it somewhere special. So grateful for the pandemic because although its been tough, I found you and a world wide family that I never knew I needed as I began my journey of acceptance and coming out at 37. Your stories have changed so much for me and I am so appreciative. It kinda scares me to think where I would be if you had broken up in march of 2020. Although our lives are forever changed, I wouldn't change it for the world.
Do you think that its your personality differences that steer yourself and Tegan in different directions sometimes on projects? Similar to your coming out experiences in high school...just being in different mind frames and you being a bit more conservative. It's fascinating to me to learn about how different you both are given that you have identical genes and had essentially the same upbringing. Really makes me think about nature vs. nurture and how those affect a persons being. There is so much room for difference even in a world where, you two, are the only things that are identical biologically yet are so individual at the same time. I laugh when random peeps on the internet can't tell you apart...cuz its so easy (most of the time). Speaking of identical...one other question.... you have the scar on your bottom lip in the same place as Tegan's piercing hole. Can I ask how you ended up with a scar there, thus giving you and her another identifying feature that is so close?
I love that you recognize that space between each of your individual decisions is your collective decision. That's an amazing way to look at it. Appears to be that you balance eachother out from what you share with us in this little world. Loving Yellow and Crybaby and I can't wait to see what story the rest of the album tells. Also loved the live yesterday, I really hope you do more of them and truly enjoy them. Have a wonderful day!
Glad to see it’s not the band breakup album, and so that you won’t start your solo career as a wrestler.
Purely selfishly, I’m glad you didn’t break up the band and this isn’t your “swansong” You are really spoiling us with all these substack posts. I understand the smaller tour. Would you consider doing a substack of the logistical nightmare organising this tour during the pandemic will be. I think it would be very interesting and may give more of an insight to the fans upset that you’re not going to their areas as to how many hoops you have to jump through at the moment just to tour for a month. I hope this tour is amazing and you all have an absolute blast, I’ll be there i. Spirit and will be patiently waiting for U.K. dates next year. Love and support always. 💛💛💛💛 p.s. would you also consider live steaming a show for those of us who can make a show.
It’s funny I think we’ve all felt it in one way or another, in some ways so many things stopped because of the pandemic but in other ways, so many things happened for me and others because of it. Good and bad. So would I want to go back to how things were before March 2020, absolutely not. For starters I may never have even found your band because of it, which to some people may not seem like that big a thing, but it is to me, so there you are. How can I best sum this up for me, you are a positive thing and a force for good in a world that can sometimes seem quite dark.
But anyway Sara you just made me think, which is why I love this newsletter. Great post. 😊
PS - Also that’s interesting about the album titles, I wonder if you asked Tegan, whether she’d have any different titles for albums as well, and what they’d be.
Hey Sara,
You probably won’t see this either but hi anyway.
I’m very thankful you two didn’t break up! If you had, let’s just say I would’ve taken a downward spiral (in the spiral I was already in a month or so ago, and am working my way out of). I like the title crybaby and I want to know more about why the album is called that? Is it about the whole concept when kids would use ‘you’re such a crybaby!’ As an insult? Or is it a reference to the songs on the album being about not quite getting over stuff? Or both?
I also already asked this but what type of blade is in the ice cream on the ground of the album? Kn!fe? R*zor of some kind? (I’m just weird and I’ll keep asking the question until I get an answer cause every time I look at that that question bugs me!).
If you do happen to see this, thanks for reading! Hopefully I can have some answers?
Phoenix, he/they/ri/it, 15, Australia
So many people have already commented on your tennis analogy and added some extra thoughts. It made me think when you asked whether there was anything left to learn if you always play against the same opponent.
To play devil's advocate, you can arguably learn more from playing the same opponent because you have to keep reinventing and improving your skills to stay competitive. Sometimes if you play against someone too often, you can become so familiar with each others game plan and strategies, that it pushes both of you to be extra creative in order to win.
But this assumes you are competing rather than trying to get the best out of each other and pushing each other to improve. To extend the analogy, maybe you should play doubles so that as well as learning more about your own game, you also learn about your partners and how to collaborate and complement each others strengths.
I'm not suggesting for one moment that you don't collaborate brilliantly but I totally agree with you that it is important to carry on learning and growing. The development of your music and branching out into new creative areas is very refreshing and exciting but please continue ... don't stop!
On another matter, I second 'TnSmom' in asking about a live stream? I've resigned myself to wait until you tour in the UK (too expensive to travel transatlantic) and hope it will be next year? A live stream would be brilliant though.......
When you say you wanted it to be your break up album do you mean you wanted it to be the last album you ever put out? Also I'm curious the reasons behind the alternate Heartthrob album name 'Gemini? It's a cool title!
How interesting that the pandemically-forced (relative) isolation you experienced came at a time in your life when the aspirations of your youthful years have seen their fruition, and you had ample time to ruminate on it. As a (much) older fan, I found my 40s also to be a time of reassessment and change. You don't usually want to same things as before, or, not in the same way. You're older, wiser, and much more experienced in life and its trials and joys. You may not know yet exactly how you want your future to unfold, but it sounds like you leave yourself open to the possibilities. That's awesome, even if it can be anxiety-provoking.
It would be awful if you broke up but I was just telling my mom the other day you could take to comedy if the whole band thing didn't work out lmao
I feel like I just came home from vacation cause there’s a lot to unpack here.
I have always been intrigued by the nature of your relationship, the battles and your ability to cope during what I imagine as one of the most stressful times of your career.
Yellow took my breathe away as I listened to the lyrics, took me back to White Knuckles and the same feeling of sadness that had washed over me as I listened.
I can feel the weight of the lyrics in both songs and I really am thankful for both songs that I adore.
I am ready for the next song!
Sara. When it comes to debates. Not necessarily related to this discussion but when you both have debates on topics; who wins? Just curious.
When I was 9 years old, I built a sand castle by the sea..To me, it was so perfect, I thought the only thing missing was the name, and I called it Indestructible..I had seen it suddenly collapsed with the rising sea waves and I cried a lot at that moment..After I pulled myself together, I realized that the name didn't matter at all(what mattered was the quality and location)..
I know that human relationships are very difficult, also isn't it a success to be able to work together and produce something?.
love you all❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥