New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Tegan and Sara have shared another new track from their forthcoming 10th studio album, Crybaby, due Oct. 21 via Mom+Pop Music. "I Can't Grow Up" is a self-described "snotty nosed pop song about not being able to grow out of bad habits in relationships." The official video, directed by Mark Myers, matches the song's playfulness and the duo's charisma.
The new song "was musically inspired by
Chicago band Dehd and their album Flower of Devotion," according to Sara Quin. "The song started on bass, an instrument I'd never written with until Crybaby, and I was channeling a little bit of Emily Kempf from Dehd, and
Peter Hook from New Order. My partner had traveled back to the U.S., after a year of being stuck in Canada during the pandemic, and I was enjoying late nights alone writing music and singing full tilt in the basement."
"I Can't Grow Up" follows previously released singles "Faded Like a Feeling," "fing Up What Matters" and the sweet, anthemic "Yellow."
Tegan and Sara's Amazon Freevee series High School, which is based on the twins' critically acclaimed, New York Times-bestselling memoir of the same name, recently debuted its first three episodes at the Toronto International Film Festival, ahead of its Oct. 14 debut on Amazon Freevee.
The show was co-created and executive produced by Tegan and Sara Quin and Clea DuVall, who also features as a director on select episodes. Shot in Calgary and produced by
Plan B Entertainment and Amazon Studios, High School stars TikTok creators and TV newcomers Railey and Seazynn Gilliland, portraying the high school versions of Tegan and Sara. Special guest stars Cobie Smulders and Kyle Bornheimer play the twins' parents.
Crybaby was produced by John Congleton (Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten), Sara Quin and Tegan Quin and recorded at Studio Litho in Seattle and Sargent Recorders in Los Angeles. "This was the first time where, while we were still drafting our demos, we were thinking about how the songs were going to work together," says Tegan.
"It wasn't even just that Sara was making lyric changes or reorganizing the parts to my songs, it was that she was also saying to me, 'This song is going to be faster,' or 'It's going to be in a different key.' But Sara effectively improves everything of mine that she works on." Sara adds with a laugh, "Maybe I am the renovator. I'm the house-flipper of the Tegan and Sara band."
With nine studio albums to their credit and millions of records sold, Tegan and Sara have used music as a way of storytelling throughout their 20-year career. With that storytelling at the core, they have built a multi-faceted media empire that stretches into TV, books, newsletter and public service, but always deeply rooted in music. T
egan and Sara recently launched "I Think We're Alone Now," a Substack newsletter that includes both free and paid-tier content, spanning audio and text-message conversations as well as essays, lyric annotations and behind-the-scenes looks about their upcoming projects.
Tegan and Sara have received three Juno Awards, a Grammy nomination, a Governor General's Performing Arts Award and the 2018 New York Civil Liberties Union Award. Outspoken advocates for equality, the duo in 2016 created the Tegan and Sara Foundation, which fights for health, economic justice and representation for LGBTQ girls and women.
Also on the horizon is the middle-grade graphic novel duology Tegan & Sara:
Junior High and Tegan & Sara: Crush, written by the twins and illustrated by Eisner Award-winner Tillie Walden. The contemporary story is about identical twins growing up and growing apart, coming to terms with their queerness and falling in love with music over the course of junior high. The first volume is due for release in spring 2023.
Tegan and Sara's fall tour dates (w/Tomberlin)
Oct. 26: Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Oct. 28: Boston, MA @ Royale
Oct. 29: New York, NY @ Pier 17
Oct. 30: Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club SOLD OUT
Nov. 1: Toronto, ON @ Danforth
Music Hall
Nov. 2: Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
Nov. 4: Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
Nov. 5: Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
Nov. 6: Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
Nov. 8: Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre
Nov. 9: Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
Nov. 11: Ventura, CA @ Majestic Ventura Theater
Nov. 12: San Diego, CA @ The Observatory
Nov. 13: Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
Nov. 15: Los Angeles, CA @ Fonda Theatre
Nov. 16: San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Nov. 18: Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre SOLD OUT
Nov. 19: Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
Nov. 20: Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
Dec. 3-4: Phoenix, AZ @ Zona
Music Festival