Folk-rock duo
Tegan and Sara first burst onto the Canadian music scene in 1998, when they earned the highest score in history at Calgary's "Garage Warz" competition; their quick rise didn't stop, for their melodic acoustics and charming stage personas led to a slew of dates with
Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair that same year and a record deal with
Neil Young's
Vapor Records in April 2000. Natives of Calgary, these twin sisters derived their music interests from the likings of their parents. Tegan and Sara began playing piano at age eight, and in their teens they were skanking around in their own punk bands. This Business of Art, which was produced by singer/songwriter
Hawksley Workman, marked their debut in mid-2000, and a summer tour with Neil Young and
the Pretenders followed in July. Two years later, Tegan and Sara released If It Was You, followed in 2004 by their commercial breakthrough, So Jealous. In 2005, the
White Stripes released a popular cover of If It Was You's "Walking with a Ghost." That same year saw the duo touring the U.S. with the
Killers and landing seven songs in the popular medical TV drama
Grey's Anatomy. In 2007, Tegan sang backup on a song on new
Sire labelmate
Against Me!'s album
New Wave, and the twins, who had by then moved far from the singer/songwriter mold and were more interested in exploring pop, punk, and indie rock, came out with The Con, produced by Christopher Walla of
Death Cab for Cutie. Working with Walla went well, and Tegan and Sara also utilized his production skills on their next album, 2009's
Sainthood. 2009 also found the duo collaborating with
Tiësto on the song "Feel It in My Bones" for his album
Kaleidoscope and with comedian
Margaret Cho on the track "Intervention" from her Cho Dependent release. 2011's live CD/DVD Get Along was paired with three short behind-the-scenes films called
States,
India, and
For the Most Part. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, Rovi