Twins Tegan and Sara's fiery relationship helps forge hot punk-pop, writes Michael Dwyer.

Tegan Quin's intimidating reputation as a conversationalist precedes her. Her twin sister and partner in rock, Sara, has posted this brief character profile on the Canadian duo's website: "Tegan enjoys long talks about things that happened 10 years ago that she 'has gotten over', but still talks about them endlessly in this voice that is sort of like metal scraping against bone that is showing through your ripped flesh."

It's actually not that painful on the telephone, although even the simplest queries tend to attract a fulsome answer, delivered at a breakneck pace that would have most courtroom stenographers in tears.

A few years of shared tour buses would probably account for the sisters' reputation as feisty stage partners, let alone 22 years in each other's pockets and faces.

Reports ahead of their first Australia tour suggest a kind of female equivalent of the Gallagher brothers.

"We are like the Gallagher brothers, but in the Canadian sense," Tegan responds. "That means we don't hit each other, we just passive-aggressively hate each other inside and psychologically hurt each other.