Welcome to Coachella Chatz, in which we ask musicians at Coachella to
answer our version of the Proust questionnaire. (That is, if Proust had
fallen asleep in the sun for five hours outside the Gobi tent, wearing a tie-dyed onesie and holding a beer.) Below, we chat with Tegan and Sara.What song reminds you of high school?
Tegan: UB40's "Red Red Wine" and anything off of Ace of Base's record, The Sign.
Sara: For me, it's anything from A Tribe Called Quest because we used to drive around in our friend Mitch's car listening to it so whenever I hear it, I'm just like, "I want to go to a rave and call my ex-girlfriend."
What was the first concert you ever attended?
T&S [in unison]: New Kids On the Block
T: And we just met them a week ago. It was so cool -- we got to meet our childhood heroes.
What song makes you want to go cruising in a car, sunroof down, windows open?
S: Björk. I love the pink record, Post? Why am I forgetting? That record is also a high school record and I swear to you, every time I hear that record, I think about driving in cars, listening to music, summer crushes.
T: I was gonna say that the last time I had a serious crush, I was listening to a lot of Band of Horses. Every time I hear -- not this new record but the one before -- I get really nostalgic. But I'm with the girl that I had that feeling about so it's fine...I don't know why it's so nostalgic.
What's the best song to make out to?
S: Oh boy. I would say that the last time I was listening to music and making out on a regular basis -- you know when you get into a relationship with someone and you stop making out to music cause you're just like, "turn off the stereo, it's time for bed!" But when I was still making out to music, Matthew Dear -- I love Matthew Dear. There's something about his voice and his records that I'm into for making out.
What was the first CD/cassette/vinyl you bought?
S: Our parents were major, major music people so we had a lot of music. For some reason I remember R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People, which would have been when we were in 7th grade so that was the time we were starting to save our allowance and buy music. At that point, we were just relying on our parents to buy records.
T: I remember we went to this old record store by our house and we bought the Sublime record [40oz. to Freedom] that has the sun on the front. We bought it purely because we thought the cover was really cool and then we got into music around that surfer rock, laid back, California music scene. A lot of it was probably over our heads, what they were singing about, but we didn't know.
What's your favorite one-hit wonder song?
T: You know what, if you'd asked me seven years ago, I would've said that Robyn song ["Show Me Love"] -- "remember that Swedish pop star?" -- and now she's amazing. But I still think in a strange way, it's a whole other era of Robyn and I'd still pick that song. I saw her play it acoustically and it's still amazing -- "Show Me Love." Still a fantastic song.
Who do you think is the best-dressed musician of all time?
S: Prince.
What is your least-favorite song? What's song is like nails on a chalkboard?
T: I feel like every summer there's the "party song" and generally it's sexist and glorifies terrible behavior and someone who's a terrible person would get drunk and do terrible things to another person -- that song. Party anthem. If they're calling it a party anthem, I'm like, "Noooo! Stop it!"
What are your go-to karaoke songs?
T: I'd say Bon Jovi is a safe bet. And Cyndi Lauper. Go with something old and something you know really well. Don't go with that song you really liked last year, because guess what part you don't know: The bridge. And then you lose people.
Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift?
S: Bieber.
T: Taylor Swift. I do love Justin though.
Here's something we asked bands in our April issue: If Weird Al covered one of your songs, what would he cover and what would he change the title to?
S: He would do "Closer" and instead he would call it --
T: "Poseur!"
S: I was gonna say he'd do "The Closer" and do a spoof on that show The Closer. Love that show.
Would you rather tour with denim suit Justin Timberlake or "Suit and Tie" Justin Timberlake?
S: "Suit and Tie," obviously.
T: Obviously. I will say that era [denim suit] was pretty awesome. He was still dating Britney Spears, right?
I had to photoshop Britney out.
T: Actually I want to change my answer. I'd go with the all-denim 'cause I wanna hang with Brit.
Coachella Chatz: IO Echo
