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Jan 21, 2013 By Austin Trunick Tegan and Sara

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.”)

www.teganandsara.com