And I think in some ways, that was those unresolved issues around experiencing Tegan's invasion of my privacy when I first began dating girls as her maybe shaming me or making me feel like I was doing something bad. Even after I had the conversation with my mother - and then had the conversation with my dad and my stepdad and other relatives, friends, whatever - Tegan and I, there was just always such a discomfort for me in discussing it. I was having another fairly significant relationship with another girl, and my mom - I think she just was at the end of her rope - she was like, OK, OK, how long is this is this going to go on?Īnd I didn't have one single conversation with Tegan. I mean, I was sort of dragged out by my mom when I was 18. Tegan: What this book and this record has done is made us have to talk about our sexuality in a way that we pretty much never had. On not talking to each other about being gay And I remember feeling a sort of resentment and fear about the fact that there was two gay people to protect, not just one. And I was afraid because I think I knew that that was going to happen to her too, that she was going to be gay, and then there was no way for me to control - like, I couldn't protect myself, because it wasn't just me who was gay, it was Tegan who was gay also. I had started to have romantic, sexual relationships with girls in secret, and Tegan scared me, because I knew she understood what was probably happening with me. And I remember in high school, that was the breaking point. I was really scared about what I started to understand about myself. I never shared this with Tegan or spoke about it with her. Sara: My questioning of my identity and sexuality started in elementary school. On Sara questioning her sexuality before Tegan did Tiny Desk Tegan And Sara: Tiny Desk Concert It was also, in some cases, like a terrible inconvenience. We share a common interest or common place in the world, and in some ways there was power in being twins. Our whole experience from birth until today has always been, OK, we are sisters and we share a face and we share a birthday. Tegan: I think that's one of the most significant through-lines for us in our life, not just in high school, but the experience of being twins. She got all the food and I got all the confidence. Tegan stole all our self-confidence in the womb. Sara: And I have the therapy bills to prove it. My takeaway from both the memoir and the album and that general time period is that I have a lot more self-loathing, insecurity and shame than Tegan does. Sara: When we were writing the memoir, Tegan was the initiator in finding some of our archival materials - like the audio recordings, the VHS tapes that we had from high school of ourselves hanging out with friends. On revisiting their past selves for the memoir High School and its companion album, Hey, I'm Just Like You Your purchase helps support NPR programming. "I was afraid that I would hear something that I would be embarrassed by or ashamed of," she says.Ĭlose overlay Buy Featured Book Title High School Author Tegan Quin and Sara Quin Sara was initially reluctant to listen to the songs they recorded in high school. The new record features songs they wrote as teenagers - but re-recorded as adults. Now, the sisters revisit their early years with the memoir High School, along with the companion record, Hey, I'm Just Like You. They've since won awards for their music, including three Juno Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy. In 1998, when were 18, they signed a contract with PolyGram Records, which eventually led to a tour with Neil Young. The music Tegan and Sara made in those early years helped jump-start their career. That was something that we had an instinct to do," Tegan says. "Almost right away, we started to weave our voices together. They both, separately, were coming to terms with their sexuality - and they were also beginning to write and record songs together. High school was a tumultuous time for Canadian identical twins Tegan and Sara Quin. Identical twins Sara (left) and Tegan Quin began making music together as teenagers.
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