Tegan & Sara ready to face the future

CANADIAN twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin make sticky, controlled pop that radiates fragile emotions, such as the worries signaling the end of a relationship or the awkward fears that can sometimes thwart our best intentions. On their fourth album, 2004’s “So Jealous,” the Quins, 26, shellacked the high-anxiety-meets-New Wave formula, garnering a cover by the White Stripes (“Walking With a Ghost”) and a Juno Award nomination alongside Broken Social Scene and the New Pornographers.

For their new album, “The Con,” Tegan tried to break old habits, even those good ones that kept them touring for 18 months. “I’m a bit of a past addict,” the older twin said from a Vancouver club, where the sisters and their three-piece band were about to perform, all sporting their trademark asymmetrical haircuts. “I usually write about old relationships. For the first time, I said, ‘Forget that, write something new.’ ”

After ending a five-year romance 1 1/2 years ago, Tegan, who lives in Vancouver, went through “a second teenage run. I was partying, drinking, flying around and DJing parties.” But she was also writing songs about her emotional state, trying to look inward. She swapped demos with Sara, who was recording her own songs in a humid closet in her Montreal apartment.

When Tegan and Sara started to record “The Con” in January with producer Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie), Tegan stopped drinking, started running and stayed out of love.

“It’s my social science experiment,” she laughed. “I haven’t had a drink for seven months.... It feels so clear to not be indulging in anything that’s intoxicating me, be it love or obsessive thought or alcohol.”

For all of Tegan’s efforts, “The Con” still sounds obsessive, like a good book that envelops you in its world. The difference is that the tensions about love and identity are matched by their most complex musical landscape yet. “The Con,” built from many of the original demos, is knotty pop, gorgeous and sometimes alien with abandoned-arcade synth pulses and tremulous slabs, plus tonal harmonies that are so close, they almost collapse.

“The Con” is about contradictions, familiar territory for Tegan and Sara. Both are extreme introverts who have to summon courage to make a phone call, Tegan said, but it’s not evident in the sisters’ animated live shows. In conversation, Tegan happily chatters away.

Perhaps good counsel helps them cope. Unlike many bands, Tegan and Sara have been properly nurtured. Their first album, recorded when they were 18, caught the attention of Vapor Records, Neil Young’s label. Mentored by the great flannelled one himself, as well as label president and Young’s longtime manager Elliot Roberts, the twins have grown up in a family of Canadian musical royalty. Young doesn’t give too much feedback, Tegan said, except: “Don’t worry about what Canada or America wants. Just keep making music the way you want to.”

But Young’s approach has rubbed off, resulting in a mature work ethic and an unshakeable sense of purpose. “It’s not our intention to blow up and be a huge band,” Tegan said. “We’re in a place in our career and our lives where we think it’s important to take time off between records so we don’t burn out.

“Looking back on ‘So Jealous,’ we were ready for that attention. This record is no different. We’re ready for the next level and so it will happen.”

In the meantime, the twins maintain their stylish shags with a fierce dedication.

“It’s kind of an obsession,” Tegan admitted, describing the band’s latest cut with long bangs and shaved sides as the “flop-hawk.” “We refuse to let just anyone touch our hair. It becomes this thing: How do we route our tour so we can get back for a haircut?”

margaret.wappler@latimes.com

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Tegan & Sara

Where: Malibu Performing Arts Center, 23825 Stuart Ranch Road, Malibu

When: 8 p.m. today and Friday

Cost: $25 (sold out)

Info: (310) 456-6722, www.malibuperformingartscenter.com