Pop stars Tegan and Sara take centre stage in Melody Lau's book Modern Heartthrobs
Music fans know Tegan and Sara as the wisecracking twin-sister duo with the catchy tunes who are committed to LGBTQ representation in the music industry and pop culture at large.
But a new book by Toronto music writer Melody Lau delves deeper into the indie-pop pair's nearly 25-year career, interrogating the sometimes sexist and homophobic media coverage in their early days before their rise to becoming fan favourites who carved out a path to musical success purely on their own terms.
Part of the Bibliophonic imprint of music books from Invisible Publishing, Modern Heartthrobs is an unauthorized biography but is based on interviews with Tegan and Sara themselves, as well as their collaborators, music journalists and fans.
The result is an in-depth look at how the Calgary-born Quin sisters went from starting out as acoustic-guitar-slinging folkies signed to Neil Young's label, to breaking into the pop mainstream (not to mention the time Sara Quin championed Jeff Lamire's graphic novel Essex County on Canada Reads 2011).
Modern Heartthrobs comes at a time when Tegan and Sara are busier than ever — they just released their 10th album, Crybaby, the TV adaptation of their memoir High School also premiered this month and they recently started their own Substack newsletter.
Lau, a writer and producer with CBC Music, has been covering Canadian music since 2009, first on her own music blog The Singing Lamb, and later as an online writer for MUCH and a contributor to Exclaim! Magazine. Her work has also been featured in Pitchfork, Billboard and Nylon Magazine.
Lau spoke with CBC Books about the process of writing her first book, navigating the line between fan and critic, and how Tegan and Sara's perspectives on their own career have evolved.
Career overview
"Some of the writing about Tegan and Sara was really what stood out for me when I thought about them and how they were received critically over the years. I love their music, and I thought their albums were great, but I think if you're a diehard Tegan and Sara fan, you think about the 'tampon rock' line — it just didn't feel like that lined up with how much their fans loved them, and how big of a fan base they had.
It was both a joy and challenge to distil all these different parts of them into one book.
"At first, I had pitched the book as every chapter would look at a different facet of their career — I originally had a chapter about them being like documentarians, and another with the idea of them as comedians. And eventually, that all got blended into the overall structure of the book.
"That was really a sticking point — I wanted to build a fully formed portrait of who they are beyond simply being pop musicians, or what it is that some people might know about them. I think that was both the joy and the challenge of how to distil all these different parts of them into one book."
Interviewing the artists
"We went in knowing they were the biggest artists being covered in a Bibliophonic book to date, so the chances of us getting them were looking slim, and I was prepared to write the book without them. But I reached out anyway to see if they would want to be interviewed for the project, and I think it might have helped that I had interviewed them about High School just before that pitch, and we spent almost an hour talking about their book.
It was a bit of a silver lining from the pandemic that I ended up spending much more time with them than I would have in person.
"They did get back to me — at first, it was pretty much through their management, and they said yes to spending one day with me in Vancouver. And then the pandemic happened, and they said, "We'll both spend two hours with you on the phone if you want."
"Luckily those conversations went well enough that they just kept saying yes to more interviews. I just had more and more questions, and could have talked to them forever. I think it worked out really well in that it was a bit of a silver lining from the pandemic that I ended up spending much more time with them than I would have in person.
"I really don't think the book would be what it is without them. It would have been a maybe a much more abstract kind of look at their career, using the tons of press they have done. But the interesting thing with talking to them was that over time, they've changed their opinion so much about things. I'd bring up things they've said in the press, and they'd respond that they didn't feel that way anymore. So it was good to get that perspective — maybe in 10 years, they won't agree with anything they said for my book!" [laughs]
LISTEN | Melody Lau discusses Modern Heartthrobs on CBC Radio's q:
Queer trailblazers
"They talk a lot in interviews about how they didn't have much queer representation growing up. And because this was obviously a time before the internet, it was harder to build communities like that. So a lot of what Tegan and Sara saw was mostly k.d. lang or Melissa Etheridge and older musicians.
"For a lot of people of their generation, Tegan and Sara were the first visibly queer musicians they saw who were their age. And I think that was really important in terms of building those queer spaces at their shows, and also really inspiring an incredible generation of artists who they took with on tour and mentored. And even nowadays, when they see an artist they love, they'll just message them and offer up advice or help.
For a lot of people of their generation, Tegan and Sara were the first visibly queer musicians they saw who were their age.
"I obviously love the band and have knowledge about them, but I immediately questioned whether or not I was the right person to write a book about them. It took me a few months to think about, and I kind of came to a place of peace with that, because their queerness is only a part of who they are — it's obviously a huge part of who they are, but I think the book tries to cover a lot of different things beyond that."
Critical assessment
"The book was never meant to be an authorized biography — Tegan and Sara didn't really have a lot of control over it. They didn't read any of my drafts. As a huge fan, obviously I have my favourite albums, but I also think that other albums of theirs don't work as well.
My job was to be honest about what their music was like — no one's career arc is just a straight line upwards.
"There are some really great songs off Sainthood, and even This Business of Art, but I don't think those two albums are the ones I'd recommend as the gateway to their music. And I think what really helped in being able to write critically is that we were actually on the same page when I brought up Sainthood — there were a lot of complicated feelings about how that album came together and where they were at as a band. So it reinforced my own personal feelings about how that record didn't work.
"My job was to be honest about what their music was like — no one's career arc is just a straight line upwards. To have gone through so much, I think that's sometimes reflected in how well they work on an album, and sometimes it just didn't gel, like on Sainthood or other records."
Watch | Tegan and Sara on the small-screen adaptation of their memoir High School:
Melody Lau's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
