Tegan and Sara recently released Love You to Death, a wide-ranging collection that has cemented them as real players in the Top 40 realm. With their recent appearance on Charlie Rose, they’ve cemented themselves as people who are willing to converse with Charlie Rose as he tries to talk about things that have nothing to do with them or their work, such as novels. But, also, they prove with two good performances that they’re still able to entertain pretty well with only some acoustic guitars, even if they’ve become big pop players.
The interview is actually pretty charming and enlightening, as Tegan and Sara talk of their early time on the road with Neil Young, and how his manager helped them decide to take the path of growth rather than the path of major labels. This forced the twins to play a bunch of late night shows to small crowds, and so they developed their habit of storytelling between songs as a way to flesh out those shows. The banter was also, interestingly, used as a way to create some kind of bond with the audience, as the two of them had set out on the road at a time when their peers had sought to further their education with college and all of the crowds of people and possible friends who come along with that experience.
Watch the interview and the performances (of “Boyfriend” and “Stop Desire”) below. Stick around for the moment when Charlie talks about older white men in their new audiences (which have exploded beyond their original, LGBT-heavy crowds), and the twins laugh and say, “ah, there are always old white dudes around.” Also, big beards. “Look at that guy! Look at his big beard,” Sara says. Ah, truth. So funny!