TEGAN WITHOUT SARA HELPS HOUSING WORKS

Tegan, without Sara, helped out Housing Works through a performance at the Bookstore Cafe and co-host author Augusten Burroughs.

Tegan Quin, one half of the twin sister group Tegan and Sara, co-headlined an event at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in lower Manhattan on September 4. The event also featured Colin of Circa Survive and readings by Anberlin’s Stephen Christian and Elizabeth Seward. Author Augusten Burroughs also headlined the event.

Tegan talked about how she got involved.

“Well, I joined the Spin book club probably a year-and-a-half ago,and I read a couple of books with the book club and participated in the forum and then we put out a record last August or July and I got real busy and sort of moved away from the book club for a while. We had a separation. It was on friendly terms, and Emily who got me into the book club to begin with came to a show I did in New York with Peter. Both of them work with Spin and Spin online and asked me if I’d be interested in doing an event that they do every year where they get authors and charities to perform together for this amazing charity, blah, blah, blah. I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I say ‘yes’ to everything and I let my people deal with it and see if it was really going to happen.”

She also talked about getting Burroughs involved and the cause aimed at getting people with HIV situated with housing.

“I was actually really genuinely interested in this one and they mentioned, because I had just written a song for Augusten Burroughs new book Wolf At The Table, that maybe I could ask him. I was like, ‘Yeah, I actually know him so I’ll totally ask him.’ So, I did. It’s a great cause. Both of my parents worked at AIDS Vancouver and volunteered at AIDS Calgary when we was growing up and were really involved in that. I think this is an amazing bookstore, the idea that they’re helping people get housing with HIV and AIDS I think is really great. I’m also an avid reader, and although I’m not participating in the club this month, I think it’s really a great thing. As we can see sometimes it takes celebrity or artists or musicians or actors joining up with a cause to spread the word. I’m happy to do my part, and Sara and I are both big book collectors and readers, so it’s a culmination of everything I care about all in one. So, here I am.”

In other Tegan and Sara news, they just finished filming a video for their new single “Call It Off” from their latest release, The Con. It should be hitting airwaves any day.