WE ARE MAKING SOMETHING!!!
The first music video ever broadcast on MTV when it launched on August 1, 1981, was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.
Happy Saturday, loners.
It’s been a busy week over here.
As I’ve been teasing for the last few months, Sara and I are releasing a new song in September—just in time for our birthday. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone. Only you know that right now.
We’re making a music video this month, and it’s the first time we’ve done something like that in years. Our last album came out in 2021. Remember Crybaby? Holy shit, that feels like forever ago. I guess it kind of was.
It feels both really exciting and incredibly nerve-wracking to put something new out into the world. We’re working on a new Tegan and Sara album, but we had this song that we kept coming back to that’s sort of an ode to the West Coast, and Vancouver, and the struggles people feel living here, but also the undeniable draw of this place. I’ll tell you a lot more about the song in the coming weeks, but for now, this is just a post about music videos.
Ever since our first music video, I’ve kind of always had a knot in my stomach about making them. It sounds strange to say because I’m the front person of a band, but I don’t really love being on camera. Like most people on this planet, I don’t love looking at myself in photos or on video. Which I guess isn’t entirely true. I do, often when I’m the one filming or picking the photos. But a lot of times with music videos, you get what you get.
There’s also just something ridiculously humiliating to me about lip-syncing. I have to kind of suspend myself—or maybe dissociate—to avoid feeling silly on set, singing in front of a lot of strangers, trying to act, be emotional, and sell a song.
Inevitably, at least half the time, directors struggle with trying to get more energy out of us. They want us to dance and flail around, to ham it up for the cameras, to really perform the way rock stars do. But I’ve just never felt like that person, honestly.
Every time we come up with a new video concept, I convince myself this one won’t make me feel that way on set. But I have no doubt that, just like every other music video, I’ll eventually hit that moment of, Oh God, why are we doing this?, when we make our next music video in a few weeks.
But we’ll be surrounded by friends in our new video. More on that soon. Our collaborators are so excited. More on that soon too. And so I’m sure it’ll be a lot of fun.
Every time we put out something new, I try to turn over a new leaf. “Don’t be so stressed out,” I tell myself. “Don’t dread doing the work around it.” Making things is so fun, can marketing them and putting them out into the world be fun too? I guess that’s the question I’m hoping to answer this time around.
Anyway, here’s a link to our YouTube. Go watch some of our old music videos. It’s kind of shocking, actually, how many music videos we have. Thirty-two! I think? The First, I Hear Noises, Monday Monday Monday, Living Room, Walking with a Ghost, Speak Slow, Back in Your Head, The Con, Call It Off, Hell, Alligator, On Directing, Northshore, Closer, I Was a Fool, Goodbye, Goodbye, Boyfriend, U-turn, 100x, BWU, Faint of Heart, Hang On to the Night, White Knuckles, Stop Desire, Dying to Know, That Girl, I’ll Be Back Someday, Yellow, Faded Like a Feeling, I Can’t Grow Up, Smoking Weed Alone, and Fucking Up What Matters.
Did I forget any? Tell me your favorite Tegan and Sara music video in the comments.
-Tegan
Don’t forget FEEL IT IN MY BONES 🪩
NEW SONG NEW SONG NEW SONG!!!!!!! (sorry I wasn’t able to read past that part I was too excited)