OK, you Dr. Who fans. Let it be known that the parents of Tegan and Sara Quin did not name their daughters after the good doctor's companions.
"We get that question at least once a week," Tegan Quin said during a phone call from Alberta, Canada. "It just happened that we were named those names."
Likewise, Quin said the name of the band is Tegan & Sara only because they couldn't think of a good name on the spot.
"We had to come up with a name when someone asked us what our band was called," she said. "We blurted out 'Tegan and Sara' without thinking about it."
Still, all that is stuff the Quin twins face every day. They are used to it.
"We just want to make music," Tegan Quin said. "And we want to make our albums different than the ones that came before."
Their new album, "So Jealous," is the group's fourth. And Quin said it was quite a project to make.
"Sara and I live very far apart," the Canadian native said. "If we lived in the United States, it would be like one of us would be living in New York and the other would be living in Los Angeles. But we would send the songs to each other through our computer and work on them that way.
"Then when we decided to go into the studio with the band, Sara moved closer to me for three months and we did the album with the band."
While Quin said the band is a full-fledged band — featuring drummer Rob Chursinoff and bassist Chris Carlson — she and her sister are the sole songwriters.
"We had about 40 songs we had written and winded up using 14 for the album," she said. "We even went so far as to arrange some of the percussion."
The twins knew what kind of sound they wanted and rehired John Collins, David Carswell and Howard Redekopp (of the New Pornographers) to help produce the album. The trio had produced Tegan & Sara's last album.
"They were pretty laid back," Quin said. "They just listened to us and let us do what we wanted. And they guided us gently but really didn't tell us to rewrite all the songs."
Being in control of their music is important to the sisters, Quin said. "One of the hardest parts of the music business is the fact that women are treated different. There are very few of us, and we're not so much competing against each other as much as we are competing against all the men and their old-fashioned ways."
However, the group has paved its own path throughout its career.
"We have opened for the Pretenders and Neil Young and have played Neil's Bridge School Benefit show," Quin said. "We've played with Ryan Adams, Hot Hot Heat and Rufus Wainwright. And now we're on the road with The Killers.
"We play music for a living," she said. "It's a good feeling to write that on our passports and customs forms.
"I would love to see us go more international. We just released 'So Jealous' in Europe and are looking to release the album in Australia soon. Things are going well for us now."
If you go . . .
What: The Killers; Tegan & Sara
Where: Kingsbury Hall
When: Monday, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $20
Phone: 467-8499 or 1-800-888-8499
Web: www.smithstix.com
E-mail: scott@desnews.com