She’s one half of an incredible indie-duo. She’s a twin, she’s a dykon, and she’s heaps of fun. Jonathan Duffy had a chat with Sara Quin (of Teagan and Sara) to talk music, success and being gay.

Q: Congratulations on the new album Sainthood. It seems as though the sound of Teagan and Sara has changed in this album. What inspired that change?

Sara: Well this is our sixth album and we’re always thinking about not repeating ourselves you want to sort of keep the best parts of what you do and what has kept people interested in the past, but you still also want to sort of pursue other challenges and different moods and themes. I think the biggest difference for us, especially coming off the heels of The Con, which was a much darker record, a much denser record. We wanted something that was in some ways the opposite. We still wanted it to have dark bits, a darker edge, but also to be a bit lighter. I feel that we’re always writing about the darker themes, the darker side of love but I also wanted to still feel like it was a live performance. We wanted it to still have the urgency of a live show. We wanted it to be really clean and clear. With The Con it was crazy, we had like fifty parts for every song with keyboards and base and all sorts of things. We focused on stripping sainthood down to the core elements of a rock band. We wanted really concise guitar parts, vocals, harmonies, drums and base. Using a lot of music we grew up listening to as an influence. We wanted to make music that five people on a stage could make. Thematically we were attacking some of the same ideas but we almost wanted to approach it from the other end of the spectrum.

Q: It seems to be a very playful album as well. I really love the video for Alligator. How much fun was it to make?

Sara: It was really fun although we aren’t the ones dancing in the video so I think they had more fun than we did.

Q: It definitely looked like it was a ball especially with all the confetti and the igloo made out of bags.

Sara: Yeah that was a great idea from the art director on the shoot. We were trying to figure out how to make an igloo and make it an interesting visual piece and there was this artist who had done an installation at a gallery using plastic bags filled with shredded paper. We thought that would be a good idea in lieu of actually using snow. We thought it would be an interesting visual.

Q: What was it like collaborating with DJ Tiesto?

Sara: It’s so interesting because the way that Teagan and I write generally is alone, in sort of solitary situations. We both need a lot of solitude to write and we usually record while we’re writing. A lot of the time I’ll record instrumentals and then I’ll write a song based on those instrumentals. In some strange way it was actually quite easy to collaborate with Tiesto. What he did was send us instrumentals, dance instrumentals and then Teagan and I wrote the melodies and hooks and lyrics. So we were able to do it long distance, still in solitude, still in our apartments alone. Even though the music was a different type of music it was a format I was very comfortable with. He was awesome. He really pushed us and challenged us. We took about three or four attempts at writing it. He would always give great feedback and I was really happy with the way it all turned out. It was really fun.

Q: Your following over here in Australia is just huge. I’m sure you’re aware of that. Your Brisbane show sold out and is it true that you had to book another gig?

Sara: Australia is a great market for us. We usually do really well whenever we come over. We knew the initial shows would probably sell out, Brisbane and Melbourne both did. So we’ve rolled over into second shows, which is great. We sort of expected it but it’s always a relief when it happens. It’s awesome and really cool for us because it means we spend a little bit more time in Australia. I really like playing two shows, instead of going to a really big venue where we may not be able to have the intimacy that we would have in a theatre or smaller room. So it’s exciting for us. They’re both cities and venues that we know well and we’re really excited about it. I love Brisbane though because we have family and friends there, some aunts and cousins.

Q: What kind of advice would you give to aspiring artists?

Sara: It’s tough. I think it’s different for each person. I think sometimes when people are asking your advice they’re asking you to tell them exactly how you achieved the success that you have. I think it’s important for me to tell people that everybody is really different. Every band and every situation is going to have a different trajectory. I think that for Teagan and I there were so many years where I definitely did not think we were successful. We were struggling and were very ambitious.

Q: And you’ve been working at it for a really long time haven’t you?

Sara: Yeah and we were so focused. We knew we wanted to have a music career and we just kind of stayed at it and I think knowing that it may take you a year and it may take you twenty years helps. Believe in it and keep working at it and aim to hit those goals and keep going.

Teagan and I set goals for ourselves and hitting those goals meant that I could say, “Ok now we can set more goals.” It kept giving us something to work towards. I think it’s important to be realistic. Being in a band is not just getting an article in a paper and selling a couple of records. We tour anywhere between 200 and 250 days on an album. We tour all over the world and a lot of what we do; touring, merchandise, all the travel and that kind of thing, Teagan and I pay for that. Record companies don’t pay for all of that stuff anymore. People sometimes think that all they need to do is get a record deal and then everything is going to be taken care of. That isn’t how it is anymore. People need to be realistic and understand the business, and know their business, and then just put your head down and work. It really is very rare that someone signs a record deal, suddenly can sell out 3000 person venues, sell lots of records and make lots of money. That just doesn’t happen.

My big thing is telling kids to be realistic about their career. You know lots of people aren’t meant to have a music career. It doesn’t mean that you get to just have one if you want one. You have to be realistic that you might be a musician but maybe being a producer or a sound engineer or working at a record label or a publicity firm is better. We have 12 people out on the road with us and they’re not all the front people in a band. They want to work in the music industry. A lot of them are musicians. You find other things you’re good at and in your down-time you make music.

Q: Both of you have received a lot media attention about your sexuality, which you have been known to say is disappointing when you just want to be known for your music. Do you feel that the fact that you are out may help others to realise that it doesn’t have to be a big issue?

Sara: Oh yes. We have never not been out. It was never something we contemplated and then were like, “ok, we’re going to come out.” We were so gay in the beginning I don’t know how people didn’t know. Aesthetically, we were so gay that I don’t know how anyone would have questioned it. It may be different now. I don’t know that we totally present as gay but I think it was really important for us. I’m a really genuine, honest, upfront person.

Teagan and I are pretty transparent. We have a public persona and a private persona and the reality is that we try to be very much like we are. We were always going to acknowledge that we were gay and I didn’t think that was an issue. I didn’t think that it should prevent anyone from listening to our music. There was always this tendency for people to say , “Do you think you’re a gay band?” I don’t even know what that means. I am gay and I make music. My mom is a therapist so is she a straight therapist or is she just a therapist who is straight.

If a doctor is gay, is he a gay doctor. Is his skill set only available to those who are homosexual? I never believed it was important to say that I was in a gay band. Am I gay? Yes. Am I writing music about my same-sex relationships? Yes. Do I pool my experience from the same fucking experience pool as everyone else, gay straight or whatever? Yes! To me a lot of who inspired me in my life and influenced who I am as a person and an artist, it’s not really relevant to me what their sexuality was.

Did I take a tonne of inspiration from people who were gay? Absolutely. In terms of what inspires me; my favourite artists or painters or authors, I very rarely think about in terms of sexuality, but there have been extremely important people to me who were out, or confident about being out and being gay. They talked eloquently about how there sexuality affected their career, which I think is much more interesting than how it affects my music.