Canadian indie rockers Tegan and Sara will play at the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion tonight.

The group is led by the sisters of the title, Tegan and Sara Quin. The Quins have released six albums since 1999 and are currently touring in support of their most recent record “Sainthood.”

The sisters began playing the guitar and writing songs as high school students in their hometown of Calgary, Alberta. In 1998 they won a Calgary band competition and received a session at a local recording studio, where they recorded their first professional demos. After independently releasing their first full-length album in 1999, they signed to Neil Young’s label, Vapor Records, which has released all of their records since.

“Sainthood” peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 last year. The increasing popularity of Tegan and Sara’s music wasn’t entirely new to them, but the album represented a change in direction for the pair. The group has always recorded as a duo, but in the past, each sister would write her own songs, both lyrics and music, so that an album was a mixture of “Tegan songs” and “Sara songs.” The two would switch off on vocals, guitar and piano depending on who wrote the song. For “Sainthood,” they decided to work together.

“Tegan and I both enjoyed switching up the formula,” Sara told The Lantern. “It got us out of the pattern that I’d grown accustomed to.”

The collaboration idea was kick-started by the pair’s trip to New Orleans. Sara said the two had been sending instrumental recordings back and forth over the Internet but wanted to see what would happen if they “just sat in a room and actually tried to write together.” So they organized a trip to write and record together.

Sara said there were seven new songs written during that outing, and they might be included as part of a larger compilation but not on an individual album.

“They’re really rough demos. Basically Tegan on drums and me [on guitar], and we have a microphone,” she said. “We’re not going to force that on anybody.”

The songs might not have made the most recent album, but the songwriting process did. According to the group’s Web site, “‘Sainthood’ is about obsession with romantic ideals.” The theme, which Sara said was inspired by a Leonard Cohen song, is explored in the album’s singles “Hell” and “Alligator.”

“It’s about how you will devote yourself to one person emotionally and hope that they’ll reciprocate,” Sara explained. “People will practice sainthood with the hope that that person will adore them for it.”

The duo also released a trio of books in 2009 to go along with the album. “On” gives a backstage look at the group on tour. “In” details the twosome’s trip to New Orleans, and “At” follows the sisters on their Australian tour in support of their 2007 album “Con.”
Sara said the book gave them a chance to fill the time spent on the road.

“It gave us all a task,” she said of the compilations. “It seems really old-fashioned now to want to put it in a book. We tried to look at it as more of an art project.”

Sara said that she and Tegan would be interested in releasing a similar project in the future. She also said there was a possibility the two would release a recorded compilation of their onstage chats.

Tegan and Sara have become renowned for their banter in between songs at live shows. Sara said the habit was influenced by mix tapes their father would play during long drives to Vancouver when the Quins were children. The tapes would often feature recordings of artists telling stories to the audience. Sara said the storytelling could often “make the hair stick up on my arms.”

“That made a big impression on us,” she said. “People come to see you play, and they get that extra element. They get to hear who you are, what the song is about or whatever comes out.”

Although the sisters have helped produce albums for other musicians on the side, Sara doesn’t see the two doing solo work anytime soon.

“Honestly, we’ve been making music in this band for over 10 years. We definitely have our flare-ups, but I think we’ve found a way to make it work,” she said. “There’s something about knowing at the end of the day that I’m with Tegan. I can’t really imagine if she was a dentist or something.”