Twin Towers

Once, Tegan And Sara struggled with the burden of all the labels attached to them: gay, female, Canadian, twins. Instead, they wanted to be known for making pop with an edge. So they changed tack and smashed through the glass ceiling. But how, though? Dorian Lynskey finds out in Manchester.

- Darian Lynskey

In autumn 2011, Tegan And Sara gave themselves a future. Twelve years into their career, the Canadian twin sisters were doing fine by indie-rock criteria but they felt stuck, like they might become “that heritage band that puts out the same record again and again,” says Tegan. Recording guest vocals for Tïësto and David Guetta and supporting Paramore had stoked their appetite for something new.

That autumn, Tegan met with the new top team at Warner Bros, including chairman Rob Cavallo, and told them all the reasons why the duo couldn’t get any bigger: the industry was homophobic and sexist, the label didn’t back them, and so on. “There’s not even a glass ceiling,” she said. “It’s a brick wall.” Cavallo told her she was wrong. He said Tegan And Sara could be anything they wanted to be.

OK, they said later, they wanted to make pop music: their own emotionally insightful version of proper on-the-radio, Top 40 pop music. “We knew it might alienate some fans and mess with our identity in the media but I guess we didn’t care,” says Tegan. “It was worth the risk.” They met with almost every top producer before choosing Greg Kurstin, known for his work with Pink, Sia and Lily Allen. “Within two hours of working on the first song it was like he’d injected steroids,” says Sara. “I could hear so clearly what the record needed to be.”