Tegan and Sara: Studio Evolution & Production Insights

Tegan and Sara Quin released their first record, Under Feet Like Ours, in 1999, and in the decades that followed they've since touched on every pop sub-genre that excites them – punk, folk, EDM; sometimes all at once. The twin sisters started writing songs on their guitars as teenagers, but they've been recording themselves and their surroundings for far longer; first as toddlers with a Fisher-Price cassette recorder. "We'd walk around interviewing ourselves at three or four years old, and we became obsessed with the sounds of our own voices," laughs Sara. This escalated to boombox experimentation, as well as audio bootlegging of their then-favorite comedies, Full House and Home Improvement. "We'd spend a tremendous amount of time positioning ourselves in front of the TV. We'd use the radio antennae to prop it up so it was perfectly aimed at the speaker. We became obsessed with recording and listening back," Sara says.

While the two began working with Digidesign's Pro Tools in 1999, they've since tried their hands at just about every DAW on the market. This has served production for their own Juno-, Polaris-, and Grammy-nominated albums, as well as their collaborations and co-writes with wide-reaching artists including David Guetta, Tiësto, and Against Me. Despite their professional accomplishments, both Quins joke that they're shy about showing off their jobs. "We're like closeted musicians," deadpans Tegan. "We have gold records and plaques, and guitars and gear – and none of it is displayed in my apartment in Vancouver."

Crybaby, the Canadian duo's tenth album (and first for Mom + Pop Music), is a co-production with John Congleton [Tape Op #81]. Its sonic direction was sparked by Sara's experimentation in a sample-based recording app, Keezy Classic. In an effort to reconnect with the pleasures of performance, Tegan and Sara tried out a few new tricks on Crybaby – including rearranging one another's material, a change from their usual process. Favored technology and instruments have fluctuated over time for the duo, but some things remain static, like their playful dedication to uncovering new sounds. "When I think back on when we were recording ourselves on tape decks, there were so many different versions of the songs we wrote in high school," Sara tells me. "We'd see the evolution of how the song had changed. Being able to listen back became part of the method we'd use to write music."

Last August, Tegan and Sara had a lot on their plates. Of course, there was prep work for Crybaby's upcoming launch, like working with their musical director to get songs tour-ready. There was a literal cry baby to contend with too: the arrival of Sara's first child, who she'd recently shared news of publicly. Additionally, the Quins recently released a trailer for High School, the TV adaptation of their bestselling memoir, on which they executive produced. And Junior High, that memoir's prequel in graphic novel form, was formally announced during this time as well. Whew! Despite their hectic schedules, both found time to sit down with me over Zoom to talk songwriting, gear, and their work toward gender parity in recorded music.

You both demo separately in home studios. What do your individual setups look like these days?

Sara: I call it "my office." During the pandemic, I started trying to get myself to say "studio." People come over sometimes and ask, "Where's the room where you make music?" I was like, "Oh my god, I need to put guitars on the walls and keyboards out, so people don't think I'm a crazy person." I've always used Apple products. I record on a Mac. I've moved away from Pro Tools and now record exclusively in [Apple] Logic. I use a [Universal Audio] Apollo Twin interface. For all of my demos, I like an old Neumann microphone. That's it. I don't use outboard; I don't use crazy compressors, or equipment that would take up space. I do a ton of recording and demoing. And since The Con, a lot of demoing has ended up on our actual, official, squeaky-clean studio albums. You'd think that I'd be thinking, "Next time, there's a good chance a lot of my demos will be on the album. I'm going to record that better." [laughter] But I keep doing it the same way I've always done it.

Tegan: I use the same setup as Sara. I've been on Logic now since 2007. The other day I was in the studio and had to use Pro Tools. I felt pretty accomplished that I still remembered how to use it all these years later! I bought a cabin on an island off the coast of Vancouver a couple years ago. There's a little writer's shack – what they call a "bunkie" – on the property, which I'm sitting in right now. I have three guitars, an amp, and my computer set up to record if I want to. Which has proven to be confusing, because I'll bring my microphone with me somewhere, and I come back here and I'm like, "Why did I bring the microphone? I should just leave one in every place." So, I leave the microphone there, and I fly back to Vancouver. Then I don't have a Thunderbolt cable, so I can't use my interface. So, I order 42 new Thunderbolt cables. None of them are ever where I need to be! [laughter] I'm constantly calling my managers asking to postpone something because I don't have a Thunderbolt cable. I can hear them thinking, "Are you really a musician?"

For its great software, Mac has not made it easy to plug and play. I don't want any more dongles.

T: The dongles; it's so ugly! Our goal has always been simple. I remember one time I was in the studio with Carly Rae Jepsen, and she records everything on her phone. At the time, internally, I was like, "Come on, Carly." Now I think that's the way to go. Just make a voice memo on your phone.

There are some cool tools for phones these days. You used one in the writing of this album, right?

S: I used the Keezy app on my iPhone to make everything. It's fucking awesome. My partner, Stacy, her cousin was married to the guy who created it. He showed me Keezy almost ten years ago, and I was like, "This actually seems like something I could use." I don't have the patience to learn samplers; but this feels like it's built for children, so I felt I could use it. I fooled around with it a little bit and then I didn't think about it again. Then, when I started working on this album and writing songs, I had a folder on my phone with music-related things – a tuner, a metronome, and so on. I saw the Keezy app and opened it up, and I started making samples and sounds. My hard drives are filled with instrumentals, so sometimes I'd open an instrumental and sit with the Keezy app and make weird vocal loops. I didn't bother to figure out if I could hook my phone up to the computer and use it as a device; I'd hit record and I'd play the Keezy app into my microphone. On a lot of this album, I can hear my finger hitting the screen of my iPhone in certain samples. But at this point, it's all about capturing performance and excitement. Some of the technology I love is fabulous, but I get too in the weeds and it doesn't sound like anything. It loses whatever joy happens when I'm spontaneously writing. The thing I love about Keezy is there're not a lot of options. With less options, I find I have better, more robust, more creative ideas.

Tegan, am I right in thinking you worked in Reason, and that resulted in your first co-write with Sara?

Tegan and Sara: Keeping it Simple & Getting Weird

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