Sara -
You and I went to New York in February 2018 to talk about podcast ideas with some companies there. We wanted a new creative venture, something we could do at home; we were tired of touring so much. We stopped by Marc Gerald’s office, our book agent, to talk about writing a book. We wondered if it might be the right time to do it. He thought it was, and suggested we write about our careers. Everyone was always telling us to write about our time in the music industry. But we felt it was too soon. People want to know your origin story, Marc or one of our managers suggested. You replied, That’s not our origin story, our origin story started in high school. That’s when we started to play music together.
On the spot we pitched a book about high school, that would be called High School. It would be the origin story of our band, but also us, as queers, creatives, and people really. That’s when we found ourselves. High School. If you were interested in us, we said, you might be interested in knowing that version of us. It felt worth exploring. Everyone in that room agreed that day— Marc, our managers, and me and you. We went home to write.
At that same meeting, I joked that it would make a great movie. Someone else in the room said, Why not a TV show? Maybe it was you? When you and I weren’t yet teenagers. I remember going with Bruce and Mom to get Slurpees from 7-11 one evening. A special treat on a school night.
We went for a drive with the Slurpees after, and drove down what was then called Suicide Hill, a very steep and terrifying street near our house where cars often bottomed out. You took your life into your own hands driving down it. Which is how it got its name, or so we were told. Is that what you remember? You and I loved going down the hill. Dad had taken us a million times. Anyway that day, Bruce gunned it as we raced down the incline and we all cheered and howled in the mini van, our Slurpees freezing our hands. Halfway down the street, our mini-van rose up, causing our Slurpees to fly into the air and splash across the ceiling of the van and then back down into our laps. Our laughter was cut short by this unfortunate case of gravity. A hubcap from the van rolled noisily away. Bruce stopped the van halfway down and ran into the street to collect it. When he got back in the van we all took in the damage in silence, and then we laughed. We laughed until we cried.
Driving home, the sugary drinks we’d not got the chance to drink dripped into our hair and soaked our clothes. But we all kept giggling and laughing. Pulling up at a red light, I noticed the people around us in their cars were silent, unhappy, and disconnected. I remember thinking we were different, our family. And oddly, I remember thinking our family would make an interesting movie. I don’t know why I thought that. I never aspired to act or be famous as a young person. There was no reality TV yet, no concept of such a thing in my head. But I remember thinking people might find us entertaining to watch. I remember that as vividly as standing in Marc Gerald’s office five years ago pitching our book and joking that it would make a great movie.
Five years flew by. And now the book is a TV show. Wild. I feel so lucky to have spent the last five years mining that time, remembering it, writing about it, watching it get made into another piece of art for TV. Throughout this five-year journey, I’ve lost count of how many times people have said, but why High School? For us, it was when we found ourselves; when we became the people we are today and when we met the people who’d influence the people we turned into.
You’ve pointed this out a number of times, but a lot of people don’t relate. For most people, they find themselves in college, but we never went to college. The way people romanticize their college experience, we romanticize our high school experience. We were lucky to figure out so much of ourselves in those three years. To find music. To start our band. To figure out we were gay. I wouldn’t go back to high school for any amount of money but being back in our high school world for the last five years has been a gift. I just hope other people find it, relate to it, see themselves in it.
Coming of age, coming out, falling in love, having your heart broken, losing friends, finding friends, falling in love with your friends, and living in an adult world when you’re not quite an adult is what I tell people the show is about. Plus, it’s got a fucking killer soundtrack. There’s something there for everyone to connect to. I’m confident - overconfident even - that it will find its audience. And that audience will love it. But look either way, it was a great ride, not unlike the one we made down Suicide Hill.
-Tegan
High School