Hi!
Throughout the Pandemic, Sara and I spoke to writer, and producer Melody Lau multiple times for about a dozen hours about our career, music, each other, our lives, and the last twenty years. Melody was writing a book about us, which feels totally absurd to even say out loud, let alone type, but it happened so, let’s all just deal with it. I read the book, even though instinctively I wondered if I shouldn’t. And I loved it. I’m so glad I read it. I found it quite healing, to be honest. Our mom pre-ordered it and read it and she loved it too. In fact, she said “It felt so affirming to hear her perspective about the bias’ you dealt with over the course of your career.” So if you trust our mom, and you love us, you might want to check out Modern Heartthrobs.
Below is an interview I did with Melody! I recorded the audio of the recording of the interview myself, so give it a listen if you don’t want to read! Sometimes we all need a break from words on a screen! Enjoy the soundtrack of seagulls and cars and traffic and my ceiling fan! It’s hot! Happy summer!
-Modern Heartthrob aka Tegan
1 - In 150 words can you sum yourself up?
Hi! My name is Melody Lau, and I’m a music writer based in Toronto. I’ve written for Exclaim! Magazine, Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, and I am currently a producer at CBC Music. My first love in music was the Backstreet Boys followed by early 2000s Canadian indie-rock, which is where I discovered Tegan and Sara’s music. I had no idea how to translate my love of music into a career so naturally I started a blog as a teenager, which led me to journalism school. (You would think that, with a name like Melody, I would know how to play music, but alas I only know how to write about it.) I’m a Gemini/Cancer cusp, which apparently means that I am “loyal with lots of feelings.” I guess that’s what makes me such a devoted Tegan and Sara fan.
2 - I don't know if I ever asked you this, but how did this book come about? Why us? Why you?
You never asked, but I always appreciated the faith you had in me when it came to writing this book! My friend and old colleague at CBC, Del Cowie, took over as the editor of Invisible Publishing’s Bibliophonic series back in 2019 and he asked me to pitch a book. While the other titles in the series were great — I particularly loved Lorraine Carpenter’s book about the Dears — there was a lack of diversity in the artists being written about. I wouldn’t say I was a Tegan and Sara expert to begin with, but I had been a big fan since I was a teenager and I really liked the fact that there was room here to learn and grow, both as a writer and a Tegan and Sara fan.
“Why me?” was a question that really stumped me for a long time because: a) I have really terrible imposter syndrome and have a hard time believing that I am the best person for anything, but also, b) I wasn’t sure if I should have taken on this project as someone who is not a part of the LGBTQ+ community. Ultimately, I still believe that a queer writer should absolutely write a Tegan and Sara book because that person will be able to provide a different perspective on Tegan and Sara’s music and career — and I’ll be the first person to pre-order that book! But I ended up moving ahead with my pitch because your careers are so multifaceted and I felt like there were many ways to approach writing about you two. Of course, I still cover the topic of queerness in the book, and I’m really grateful for everyone in the LGBTQ+ community whom I spoke to for the book, but I instead examine it through the lens of the media and the way Tegan and Sara were written about and perceived over the years. I think that combination of using my experience in the world of journalism and my love of your band led to a book that I felt confident in writing.
3 - One of the biggest revelations I had reading your book was reading this section below. Mostly I just wanted to point it out and say thank you for putting this in. It articulated something I have wanted to say but never had the words for in relation to us being called folk and my knee-jerk reaction to reject it.
Tegan and Sara’s folk label later expanded to hyphenated descriptors, like indie-folk, folk-rock, and folk-pop. It took several years for Tegan and Sara to shake the folk identification altogether, even though fans like University of Southern California lecturer Chris Belcher felt it never fit in the first place. “I did not experience [Tegan and Sara] as folk because, even though they were playing acoustic guitars, they sounded so different to me than Ani DiFranco,” Belcher says. “To me, their sound was very different, and I also think that had to do with their subject matter... I didn’t experience Tegan and Sara as expressly feminist or political. They were more so capturing the feelings that come out of pop music around love and heartbreak.” After years of listening to Etheridge, Melissa Ferrick, and Dar Williams, Belcher says that Tegan and Sara broke open their idea of what constitutes lesbian music: “I think the folk genre was what I thought of as lesbian music, until I heard Tegan and Sara.”
The credit in that section totally belongs to Chris Belcher for articulating how they felt about your music! I talked to a lot of people about that folk label Tegan and Sara had, and I think Chris nailed the difference in subject matter and the idea that you and Sara didn’t start off as a political act. Politics get projected onto artists, especially queer and POC artists, and back in the days before artists had more autonomy with social media, it was hard to control your own narrative. So if someone picked up a newspaper or magazine and saw your band described as folk, then that’s all the reader knew. There are lots of ways in which social media has changed things for the worse, but I think it’s a very powerful tool for musicians to articulate what kind of artist they are, or want to be.
4 - You have spent more time studying and researching Tegan and Sara than anyone else on the planet. Do you really feel like we've been left out of the historical records of popular culture? When I read this in your introduction I was once again struck, but differently than above. I worried you were right. But some part of me wondered if there's a chance we haven't been left out, just overlooked and that there was still time for us to take our rightful place in the historical record, whatever that place may be?
I think that the introduction reflects where my head was at when I first started this project. It was the first chapter I finished and while I changed some things in subsequent drafts, I kept that sentiment of me thinking that your band was left out of the historical records of pop culture. But it’s my hope that, by the end of the book, you’ll notice that my way of thinking was too connected to the idea of old school publications being the definitive record. The reality of course is that the media only tells part of the story, and that Tegan and Sara have always had a place in pop culture history because of the fanbase you built and the impact you had on them, which includes a long list of musicians who grew up listening to your music and became inspired to make music because of you and Sara. In a lot of ways, that part matters more than some grumpy critic who didn’t know how to write about your music in 2002.
So overlooked is a more accurate way of looking at it, but that doesn’t mean that a part of me doesn’t still get a little indignant when I see Tegan and Sara omitted from conversations about pop music or when I see someone say that a new pop artist sounds like another contemporary pop artist like Charli XCX when they genuinely sound more like Tegan and Sara. (That was just a recent example I saw; I’m a big Charli stan.) The fan part of me will always want more awards and more recognition for the artists I love the most. Like, it’s time to get you two into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame!
5 - I really appreciate your candidness in the book. Even when it was critical. Probably because most often I agreed. Specifically, I wanted to ask about your analysis of our 6th album, Sainthood. This, in particular, stands out to me:
When I first revisited the album for this project, the high-octane energy of the songs gave me a rush similar to my first discovery of 2002’s If It Was You. Songs like “On Directing” and the buoyantly versatile “Alligator” show the level of growth and confidence the duo gained from The Con. But the parts don’t necessarily add up to a perfect sum, and the pleasure of feeling an entire Tegan and Sara record click into place is missing here.
I am curious if it made you nervous or apprehensive to write critically at times in the book about us? The larger question here is, do you worry that as a journalist and writer if you are critical, or fair, the subject might be upset with something you wrote, and if so does it affect what you write or decide to include?
That’s a great question, and a fair one to bring up when a writer spends a lot of time with its subjects. I wouldn’t say I was apprehensive to write critically about your music; it was my job to be honest and analyze your music. In that sense, I think it’s clear that I personally didn’t think This Business of Art or Sainthood were as cohesive or representative of Tegan and Sara at its best, and I think some of our conversations about the recording process reaffirmed my thoughts on why they didn’t work as well. (Sorry to fans who love those albums; I still believe those albums had some great songs!) But also, the point of the book was never to review each album, but rather build a narrative that illustrated the band’s evolution over the years, as well as the critical consensus over time. Tackling both those perspectives required an honest, clear-eyed point of view that didn’t try to please too many different perceived audiences (you and Sara, T&S fans or anyone else who may pick up this book).
6 - If you could write another book, on another artist, who would you choose?
That’s a tough one! My brain always goes to Broken Social Scene, but there’s already a book on them, so I’ll say Metric. They’re a band that I was equally as obsessed with in my teens, and I’ve had the great pleasure of interviewing them a few times so I just know that it would be lots of fun to spend time with them and dive into songs and albums that mean a lot to me. But also, I’m just going to put it out there: if anyone can get me in touch with Shawn Mendes, I will happily write a book about him.
Modern Heartthrobs