There is something unique about seeing an artist in their hometown. Whether the familiarity, the feeling of civic pride, or just being a fan when someone plays at home it is something special. When Jann Arden plays Calgary she comments that, "it is so weird to see so many people I've slept with." Fortunately for Sara Quin of the duo Tegan & Sara, that awkwardness should be avoided this week when they return home.

"I don't think anybody I have had romantic relationships with still lives in Calgary, so I think I am fairly safe there! It is kind of weird to play Calgary, I love playing there but it is strange. Because we left really quickly after we graduated high school there is still something about me as a teenager suspended there. I didn't become an adult in Calgary I became an adult in the world and then came back. Sometimes I feel like I fall very quickly back into a nostalgic childhood place when I am there. We always do the high school/middle school/elementary school tour where we drive around and see how different everything looks. We just want to go back to the places we remember from the 90's. We don't go to the cool new hip spot it is let's go to Peter's Drive In then the 7-11 by Grandmas then I want to go sit in the field of our high school. I just want to relive it every time I go back."

The twins play a pair of shows February 28^th & March 1^st at MacEwan Hall and head up to Edmonton for a show March 3^rd at the Shaw Conference Centre. The March 1^st show is sold out, tickets are still available for the other two shows. Playing venues that she saw concerts in remains surreal, Quin said.

"It is kind of surreal. I knew that I loved music and writing songs and was good enough at it that people paid attention, but I had no idea we would have a career at it. I had no example of that growing up, I had no idea you could go to school for music outside of classical music. I didn't know that there would be an opportunity to build a career and have a small business and make a living at it. I had no perspective on what it could take and how it could happen. It isn't that I don't feel accomplished but it has been so unexpected. Even though we are working so hard, I can't believe that I graduated when I was 17 and decided to take a year off. We thought we would play some shows around town and make a demo and see how that went. It has been almost 14 years of doing that. When I am back in Calgary at the Jubilee or the UofC it seems like yesterday that we were thinking to ourselves 'let’s see how this goes, maybe something will come out of it.'"

GayCalgary.com chatted with Sara on the phone from LA, where she was for a few days on a break from her home in New York. Their new album Heartthrob debuted at #2 on Niesan Soundscan charts and is their most successful ever. After a lengthy media promo tour, she is excited to get on the road in front of fans.

"I am excited about it. Sometimes promo is more deeply fatiguing than anything else we do, It seems like the easy part but for whatever reason I feel completely exhausted. Something about trying to find interesting ways to talk about yourself over and over again. We were just in Europe and one day we started at 8am and weren't done until 11pm. I hated us by the end of the day, I actually hated our guts. The relentlessness of having to listen to each other say the same things is even more painful than just having to say it yourself. I am deeply excited about getting back on the road and just playing music. I will say that I enjoyed doing press so much more on this record than ever in our career. I don't know if it is the long history and rapport with journalists and having more of a back story to talk about but it has been much more enjoyable then in the past."

Heartthrob sees Tegan and Sara go in a more pop-oriented direction, and they have focused on making sure that the transition throughout the concert doesn't come across as weird.

"We spend a ton of time working on that, it was important that it is cohesive. When you take the same 6 people playing the same material and a narrow selection of instruments it is much easier then it seems. We are using backing tracks on some of the new songs but there are limitations so you create a bridge between the older and newer material. I think we have a good set going, we have made a few adjustments here and there so things work well. I didn't want to be afraid to show how different the new songs are. Some of my favorite moments in the set are the really intense juxtaposition of a bare bones acoustic song from 8 years ago into a big anthemic song like Closer. I really like showing the huge development and change but the songs are still ultimately tied together by the same DNA, literally."

Heartfelt lyrics about love and life blend with a wicked sense of humor. The onstage banter between the twins is as much part of the joy of a Tegan & Sara concert as the music itself. It seems like a trend as many other Canadians like Arden, Michael Buble, and Dallas Green are also hilarious.

"I don't know what it is. I do think you're right. I have always used humor as a way to disarm people and also win them over. For me, and I am not speaking on behalf of any other funny Canadians, that is about being inherently insecure and feeling like I was a little bit invisible growing up. I thought humor was a way to make myself more likeable to other people, and a lot of my humor is putting myself down not other people down. It was interesting because we are twins and growing up people would approach us and talk to us and it was very disarming because it didn't follow socialized norms of privacy. As kids it is very hard to tell twins don't talk to strangers because strangers are always talking to you. It weirdly prepared us for a career in the public eye. So I use humor as a defense mechanism I really do. That isn't to say we aren't funny people, it runs in our family but we've used it as a tool against other people."

A few years ago they toured extensively with City and Colour, which unfortunately did not come to Alberta.

"Dallas is such a sweetie. It was a fantastic tour, it was a fun time we were touring The Con and had taken a big jump in the US. We were playing lots of cool venues. We love City and Colour and Dallas was doing really well in the States with that project and we were so delighted that he joined us on that tour. It was a really creative and fun time. He is such a sweet guy. Sometimes you tour with bands you really like but you don't get on with each other. The thing that is so great about Dal is that you want to be his friend. From day 1 you are like "oh cool we're best friends now.' There is no I wonder if he and I are going to be friends. We are totally on now this is great."

On the song I'm Not Your Hero on Hearthrob she sings I'm not their hero but that doesn't mean that I wasn't brave. I never walked the party line doesn't mean that I was never afraid I'm not your hero
But that doesn't mean we're not one and the same. The sisters have struggled at times to deal with being high profile, but she admits that being able to influence kids is important.

"The big thing for me growing up that I lacked was visibility for careers or lifestyle outside of what is fairly 'normal.' Growing up and having aspirations to be a doctor or teacher or social worker is fantastic. There was a discrepancy between how I felt internally and what was expected of me as a suburban Canadian kid. I felt since I was in elementary school that I didn't belong in the traditional model of education or lifestyle. That isn't just about being gay, I was a really creative but strange person but I was very charismatic and was at ease performing in front of people. I just had no idea how to turn that into something I would do for the rest of my life. I really didn't. I feel so grateful that we happened upon music as an outlet to channel my creativity. It is a way to take my creative energy and focus it on something. So often people come up and ask us how to become a musician and make a career. I think that what is important to always do your dream, if you have the time and energy and stamina to put up with this industry you just have to keep working at it and go for it. There are so many jobs and opportunities for people like me that I feel like I am drawing attention to them for people who are creative and can't find a job or a focus that makes sense to them. There are so many opportunities within the creative arts that don't involve being the lead singer – lighting directors, technicians, people who work at labels or agencies, I didn't know these jobs existed and you could work in the world. When I meet creative people who desperately want to get in the music business I try and highlight there are dozens of opportunities. If you can't be a lead singer doesn't mean you have to work at a job that doesn't inspire you."

For years Tegan and Sara fought to be considered more than "the twin lesbian artists.' Finally it seems that they can rightly claim to be artists without the labels.

"I think that we have seen things really change and the emphasis on the signifiers you just mentioned has shifted. We are not embarrassed or ashamed of being gay or twins or the way we look. A lot of times those things were used to reduce our value or the idea that anyone besides gay people could like us. That always bothered me because if we bought into it and fought against it, it meant we were ashamed of who we were but if we didn't it meant we were agreeing we should be marginalized and only be a niche band. It has been tricky to be proud and out and confident while maintaining we are truly just a band and it is not about us being gay. We have come a long way, the media and the press and the way they handle it has improved and we don't feel that people are constantly spinning those things into the story. It isn't the story but it is part of the story and it is important to talk about those things but there is a bigger and more important broader narrative and that makes us feel very relieved."