Twin-sister pop duo Tegan and Sara (Tegan's on the left).
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They had problems of their own. The next few years brought opening spots for indie rockers the Killers, dates at megafestival Coachella and their most successful album to date, 2007's The Con, which showcased skittering electronic beats and increasingly complicated vocal arrangements alongside radio-ready gems like "Back in Your Head." But sales remained moderate. Tegan and Sara had stalled as a critically respected opening act, filling small venues in college towns, waiting for the stars to align. "There have been so many points," Tegan says, "when you think, Should we just accept that we're an underground, cult-status-type band and just be happy with it? Do what we love and something else on the side? Open a convenience store? I don't know."
They did none of the above. Instead, they went all in on branding. They put their logo on pencil cases and sweatpants. They partnered with Macbeth Footwear, run by Blink-182's Tom DeLonge, to sell vegan sneakers. For Heartthrob, they wrote superpolished, made-for-the-dance-club-or-the-elliptical anthems ("Goodbye, Goodbye," "Drove Me Wild") and some deceptively simple sing-along accounts of heartbreak ("Now I'm All Messed Up," "How Come You Don't Want Me"). Each one sounds equally at home in food courts and locavore coffee shops.
The change worked. Tegan shakes her head in wonder as she describes playing "Closer" to a deliriously receptive crowd at a huge outdoor theater in California--albeit still as an opening act, this time for fellow indie heroes the Shins. "When someone asks if we feel like we're selling out, I just say yes!" Tegan says merrily. "Because I want to change the way the pop mainstream looks. I want a girl like me there." In other words, they're making their own mythology, winning true believers one summer at a time.