Canadian-based identical twin sister musical duo, Tegan and Sara, debuted their latest single “Don’t Believe the Things They Tell You (They Lie)” this past Friday, September 20. The duo’s indie pop/rock forthcoming ninth studio album, Hey, I’m Just Like You is slated for a September 27th release on Sire Records. This will coincide with Tegan and Sara’s first published memoir titled High School due out September 24th.

Being openly gay and starting their own foundation for LBGTQ equality advocacy, Tegan and Sara find themselves passionately empowering women, especially in the LBGTQ community, constantly conveyed in their music. As previously reported on mxdwn Tegan and Sara recently performed at “…Loveloud Music Festival, an event that advocates and raises money for LGBTQ+ youth empowerment. Tegan and Sara have always made an effort to advance the LGBTQ+ community which they demonstrated back in 2017 with their cover album The Con X: Covers.” The genesis of both forthcoming projects from Tegan and Sara stem from them resurfacing cassette tapes of demo songs created during their formative years of high school.

According to a press release the sisters, born Tegan and Sara Quin on September 19 1980 are “…revisiting their teen years for their first memoir, High School – which will be published on September 24 by MCD X FSG (USA) in hardcover, ebook and audiobook – Tegan and Sara discovered two cassette tapes containing their very first songs, written between the ages of 15 and 17. On Hey, I’m Just Like You, hailed as one of the most anticipated albums of the fall by Pitchfork, USA Today and Billboard, Tegan and Sara return to the songs contained on those 1990s cassettes with a contemporary production.”

Hey, I’m Just Like You‘s latest single “Don’t Believe the Things They Tell You (They Lie)” is a confessionally absolving ballad. The song delves deep into being true to the ones you love and more importantly to be true to one’s self. According to Rolling Stone, “… originally written when Tegan and Sara were in high school — examines the ways lies and deceit can cloud any relationship, whether they’re told by others or one’s self. Over a brooding stomp of drums, cut with synths and a prickly guitar, the duo sing in soft harmony, ‘The thing my mother told me was that everyone would love me/But in the dark I feel so lonely, I’m numb/She said it with so much conviction, but I feel like something’s missing, again/Oh, I don’t love me at all, I don’t love me.’”

The lyric video for “Don’t Believe the Things They Tell You (They Lie)” conveys a powerful visual of lyrics written, but redacted. To get to the honest candor of the message of the song, the video peels away from the redacted lyrics to reveal what’s beautifully sung and conveyed by Tegan and Sara.

Sara recalls a memory behind when she initially wrote the song saying “Our mother tells a story about watching the 1980s television show ‘Punky Brewster’ with us when we were four years old. The episode’s morality tale focused on lying, and near the end of the show, she describes one of us climbing onto her back, sobbing into her neck and confessing a lie we’d told her earlier in the day. At 15, we started telling lies again, and we absolved ourselves constantly in the lyrics of our songs.”

To listen to “Don’t Believe the Things They Tell You (They Lie)” stream below, via YouTube.

Photo Credit: April Siese