Track-by-Track: Tegan and Sara’s Heartthrob Part One
Tegan Quin on "Closer" and "Goodbye, Goodbye"
Jan 21, 2013 Web Exclusive
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.
Today, we’re posting Tegan’s commentary on “Closer” and “Goodbye, Goodbye.”
“Closer”
Tegan Quin: The first track on the record is “Closer.” I wrote the majority of the song, but Sara and Greg [Kurstin] collaborated with me on the chorus. By the time we’d gotten to the studio I’d rewritten the song, like, six times. The bridge, as it is right now, used to be the chorus. As the song got bigger and bigger, and more and more poppy, we all felt like the chorus seemed too mellow. I’d sort of been influenced by Erasure and Ace of Base when I wrote “Closer,” and that was sort of what I was trying to emulate: my favorite, mid-‘90s dance tracks. I felt “Closer” was more mellow than it needed to be, so we wound up co-writing.
I was influenced by the ideas of, you know, being romantic, and love before love: crushing on someone before the crushing blow of unrequited love and rejection.
“Goodbye, Goodbye”
“Goodbye, Goodbye” is a Sara track. It was one that we all loved almost immediately, but we also didn’t feel like it had a big enough chorus. All Greg did was change the chords underneath the chorus and all of a sudden it popped, it was insane. It was in my head for months after Sara wrote it.
I think it’s a really amazing song. Rather than feeling self-loathing and self-deprecating, I think she wrote some pretty empowered love songs. I think this one’s going to be another anthem.
(Check back tomorrow for commentary on “I Was a Fool” and “I’m Not Your Hero.”)
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February 28th 2018
7:44am
Tegan and Sara both are awesome
February 28th 2018
7:45am
http://9appsapp.in/
March 12th 2018
1:50pm
Goodness, those ladies are something else…
March 12th 2018
1:53pm
Okay…just listened to their music…they are REALLY talented.
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May 26th 2018
5:33pm
Great music ladies, my daughter and I absolutely love it.
May 29th 2019
9:43am
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August 28th 2019
5:21am
Love Tegan and Sara!
March 5th 2020
12:17am
Very informative post, thanks for sweet sharing.
August 20th 2020
6:40am
Great music! Would love to see them live sometime.
January 4th 2021
10:25am
Nice. We want part 2…. :)