Twins peak

Tegan and Sara are playing sold-out shows at Massey Hall and Kool Haus

Tegan and Sara might be identical twins, but they don't share a brain or anything, so it would be totally wrong and probably even a little insulting to let one speak for the other.

That's the way it's gonna have to be today, though, because the amiable, Alberta-born Quin sisters don't like to do interviews together. They both like to talk, you see, but listening to each other? After 30 years of sisterhood ... not so much.

It thus falls to Tegan to enlighten us on the process of making the remarkable new album, Sainthood, one of 2009's finest records and without a doubt the most accomplished and flat-out rockin' thing Tegan and Sara have ever put out.

The pair - who had help on the album once again from Death Cab for Cutie guitarist-turned-producer Chris Walla, previously responsible for egging the girls on to new creative heights on 2007's The Con - will bust the new tunes out for Toronto audiences this week in two sold-out shows in two very different venues; a sit-down gig at Massey Hall on Tuesday night and a stand-up-and-drink gig at Kool Haus on Wednesday.

Q: The last few Tegan and Sara records have caught the band in different stages of very rapid evolution, it seems. They've all been quite different from one another. Was there some kind of overarching plan going into the studio for Sainthood? A: Ultimately, the vision was to make a rock record, a "band" record. Seeing us live, Chris realized we really are a band. When we made The Con, he hadn't seen us live. So after seeing us play, he was, like: "Let's make a band record. Let's the five of us stand in a room and make music together." And it was really fun. It was really good for us.