In preparing material for the new album, Tegan and Sara began
writing and recording demos in their respective bedrooms during the
fall of 2003. Hoping to transfer as much of their self-styled
home-recording sound as possible to the new album, these demos
would become the official blueprint for the production of the
studio album. With 26 new songs written, Tegan and Sara recruited
drummer Rob Chursinoff and bassist Chris Carlson for album
rehearsals at Vancouver's legendary Renegade Studios. In an
unorthodox move designed to stay true to the vision of the demos,
Rob was forced to rehearse his drum parts alone to the sound of
what became known as the bedroom demos. The resulting mental
duress for Rob was reminiscent of the Karate Kid movies, and he was
quoted as saying it was a stupid technique and that he had never
had to try such a thing in all his years of legitimate
rocking.
So after a month of stick throwing, yelling, and screaming (mostly
by Rob, age 32), the band anxiously headed into Mushroom Studios to
track the albums foundation: drums and bass. They were quickly
thrilled (translation: relieved) to discover that their strict
rehearsal regimen of dynamics exercises, Greek food, magazine
reading, and drumming to bedroom demo CDs had produced exciting
musical results. Tegan and Sara followed with three weeks of guitar
overdubs, vocals, organ, and Casio keyboards, and Matt Sharp
(ex-Weezer, The Rentals) flew in to make a sky-fisting guest
appearance on Moog and strings. The end result is a record that
everyone seems to think is their best yet, in a high-fi/low-fi
kind of way.
-myspace.com/teganandsara
