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Jan 23, 2013 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

For our new feature Track-by-Track we go in-depth with an artist about each song on their new album. This week we are featuring Tegan and Sara’s Heartthrob and each day this week we’ll post commentary by Tegan Quin on two of the album’s songs.

Heartthrob, the seventh studio album from Tegan and Sara, comes out next week, on January 29th. For their newest record, the twin sisters (Tegan and Sara Quin) sent demos to a variety of producers as a way of choosing which ones they would collaborate with on the album. Based on their reactions to the songs, Tegan and Sara narrowed the selection down to producers Greg Kurstin, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and Mike Elizondo, and the resulting Heartthrob is easily their slickest, poppiest record yet.

In advance of its release, Tegan Quin walked Under the Radar through all 10 tracks of the new album with a full behind-the-scenes commentary on each song’s approach, inspiration, and production techniques. Please continue to check back throughout the week as we post Tegan’s notes on the full album.

On Monday we featured “Closer” and “Goodbye, Goodbye” and yesterday we featured “I Was a Fool” and “I’m Not Your Hero.”

Today, we’re posting Tegan’s commentary on “Drove Me Wild” and “How Come You Don’t Want Me.”

“Drove Me Wild”

Tegan Quin: “Drove Me Wild” was produced by JMJ [Justin Meldal-Johnsen] and I co-wrote it with Sultan & Ned Shepard, who are dance producers I’ve been working with on other songs. When they sent me the track for “Drove Me Wild,” it sounded, to me, like The Killers. I loved it.

I was really trying, at that point, not to write anything really self-deprecating or self-loathing. I went back into the depths of my memory, sort of pressed the nostalgia button, and thought about finding every romantic, incredibly repressed moment and tried to draw some very simple imagery so that people would listen and be, like, “Oh my god, that’s so romantic!” The song is really all about someone holding back from being with you, but in this really romantic way. Again, I was trying not to be sad.

Because the song was quite long and vocal-heavy, I felt it could really use a brief break from me. So, Sara wrote the bridge on that one and sang it. I’m really happy with how that one turned out.

“How Come You Don’t Want Me”

This was the last song that we wrote. Sara wrote it with Jack Antonoff who is in [the band] fun. In the studio, Justin Meldal-Johnsen and I downloaded and listened to it, and I was just like, “Holy shit.” We got approval right away to use it on our record.

I just love it. Sara wasn’t writing it for herself, but she was writing about herself. She wrote a progressively vulnerable depiction of her life, but didn’t edit it because it wasn’t going to be her singing it. And then it ended up being her singing it, so it just feels so intimate and really intense. The bridge on that song is probably one of the highlights of the record, to me. It’s a foot-stomper.

(Check back tomorrow for commentary on “I Couldn’t Be Your Friend” and “Love They Say.”)

www.teganandsara.com