“People sometimes say that we’re cold, or cagey and hard to get to know,” says Sara Quin of the Canadian singer/songwriter duo Tegan and Sara, “We don’t try to be that way, but because Tegan and I are twins, we kinda live in our own insulated world.” But over the course of our conversation, Quin is anything but cold.

I finally get a hold of Howie Payne as his band, The Stands, is en route to a gig in Cleveland. This is only the second time the Liverpool natives have played in America, but Payne is cautiously optimistic.