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Sep 27, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Tegan and Sara

Tegan and Sara (sisters Tegan and Sara Quin) have released a new album, Hey, I’m Just Like You, today via Sire. Now that the album is out, you can stream the whole thing below. Also below are the band’s upcoming tour dates. (And tonight they are performing on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.)

Previously Tegan and Sara shared the album’s first single, “I’ll Be Back Someday,” via a lyric video for the track directed by Sara (it was one of our Songs of the Week). Then they shared a full on video for “I’ll Be Back Someday” that featured the Quin sisters waiting for the phone to ring, as in an old school corded phone mounted to the wall. Then they shared the album’s title track, “Hey, I’m Just Like You,” via a Sarah M Worden-directed lyric video featuring old VHS footage of the Quins. Then they shared another song from the album, “Don’t Believe the Things They Tell You (They Lie),” via a lyric video for the track (it was one of our Songs of the Week).

Hey, I’m Just Like You features Tegan and Sara reworking old unreleased songs they originally wrote in high school and were thought lost for over 20 years. It is due out only three days after the release of their first memoir, High School, which is being released on September 24 via MCD, a division of Farrar, Straus & Giroux (and Simon & Schuster in Canada and Virago in the UK). The shows in their upcoming tour will include readings from their memoir. $1.00 from every ticket will be donated to the Tegan and Sara Foundation.

In a previous press release, Sara had this childhood memory to offer about the period in which “I’ll Be Back Someday” was written: “We had been begging for an electric guitar, and on our 16th birthday, we got one. Of course, we had to share it, so it became a weapon that we stole from each other’s rooms, barricading ourselves behind locked doors with guitar in hand. Screaming over the small amplifier, we tested our voices by writing punk songs, shredding our thumbs on the strings.”

The band discovered 40 songs they wrote in high school, which led to Hey, I’m Just Like You. “While working on our memoir, we discovered lost cassette tapes that had been unheard for over 20 years,” said Tegan in a previous press release. “They contained dozens of our first songs, written between the ages of 15 and 17…we immediately recognized the songs as an essential part of our high school story.”

“With only minor tweaks to lyrics and structure, we tried to remain true to the original essence of each song,” added Sara.

Hey, I’m Just Like You was recorded in Vancouver, Canada in April and May 2019. The previous press release pointed out that it is “the first Tegan and Sara album created with a team of all women.” This includes producer Alex Hope (Troye Sivan, Broods), Rachael Findlen (engineer), Beatriz Artola (mixing), Emily Lazar (mastering), Annie Kennedy (assistant engineer), Carla Azar (drums), and Catherine Hiltz (bass).

Tegan and Sara summed up Hey, I’m Just Like You with this previous press release statement: “This is the record we never could have made as teenagers, full of songs we never could have written as adults.”

When High School was announced it was dubbed “the origin story of Tegan and Sara.” It recounts their high school years, with alternating chapters written by each sister.

Tegan and Sara previously offered this joint statement about the book: “How did you start your band? When did you know that you were gay? What were you like before Tegan and Sara? We have spent 20 years answering those complicated questions with simple answers. Writing High School gives us the opportunity to tell the intricate stories that shaped our relationship as sisters, musicians, and queer girls.”

Tegan and Sara Tour Dates:

September 28 - Los Angeles, CA @ Orpheum Theatre
September 30 - San Diego, CA @ Balboa Theatre
October 1 - San Francisco, CA @ Sydney Goldstein Theater
October 3 - Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
October 4 - Seattle, WA @ Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroyal Hall (early and late show)
October 5 - Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre
October 9 - Edmonton, AB @ Myer Horowitz Theatre
October 10 - Calgary, AB @ Bella Concert Hall (early and late show)
October 12 - Winnipeg, MB @ The Garrick
October 13 - Saint Paul, MN @ Fitzgerald Theatre
October 15 - Evanston, IL @ Northwestern University - Cahn Auditorium
October 16 - Columbus, OH @ Lincoln Theatre
October 17 - Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
October 19 - Toronto, ON @ Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre
October 22 - Ottawa, ON @ Algonquin Commons Theatre
October 23 - Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre
October 25 - Boston, MA @ Wilbur Theatre
October 26 - Glenside, PA @ Keswick Theatre
October 27 - Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre
October 29 - Nashville, TN @ CMA Theater
October 30 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
November 1 - Austin, TX @ State Theatre (early and late show)
November 16 - Brighton, UK @ Theatre Royal
November 17 - London, UK @ Shepherds Bush Empire
November 19 - Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall

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