INTERVIEW: TEEN JESUS AND THE JEAN TEASERS DISCUSS THIER LATEST SINGLE, 'MISS YOUR BIRTHDAY'
Despite being stuck in lockdown for a huge chunk of 2021, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers have established themselves as one of the most exciting up and coming rock acts in Australia. Their catchy 2021 releases, “AHHHH!” and, “Miss Your Birthday” have become instant radio hits and 2022 is set to be a year full of festivals and tours for the band that is creating a new generation of rock music fans. Their satisfying mix of relatable pop lyrics and heavy guitars, drums and bass define them as a band that can cross genres while still reminding true to their indie-rock roots.
Isolated Nation caught up with all four members of the Canberra raised band (Anna Ryan; vocals and guitar, Scarlett McKahey; lead guitar, Neve van Boxsel; Drums, Jaida Stephenson; Bass) to discuss; their latest release, working with Australian rock legend James Tidswell (Violent Soho) and their hilarious Tik Toks.
IN: Your last single, “AHHHH!” Is a phenomenal song. it’s been getting’s lots of airplay, it’s been added to dozens of editorial playlists and overall, I think it’s increased the profile of your band more so than any previous releases. While writing and recording this song, did you sense there was something special about it or has the reaction to this song taken you by surprise a bit?
Anna: I was honestly a bit surprised. I thought people would like it, but I didn’t think it would get such a response.
Jaida: I think it was our favourite out of all the ones we recorded but we didn’t know if it would be everyone else’s favourite. It’s so much fun to play but I didn’t know if everyone else would like it.
IN: Particularly as a rock band like yourselves, the flipside of having a successful song at the moment is that there hasn’t been a lot of live music recently. How has the experience compared with previous releases when your interaction with fans has been purely digital/online?
Scarlett: I think we’re pretty lucky to be at an age where everything is so accessible online. As much as we missed gigs, we did all the live stream stuff and whatnot. It’s really good to be able to reach out to people on Instagram and stuff. Our fans are really cute and loyal and want to be friends with us still which is really nice. It’s pretty easy to communicate online with people these days but obviously, it will never compare to in-person shows but I think we’re really lucky to have such a good way of reaching out to people virtually, but I do want to drink and play again.
IN: When I was listening to your latest release, “Miss Your Birthday” premiere on Triple J there was a person who called in to say that all the other music, they listen to is from bigger acts like Harry Styles and Taylor Swift. How does it feel to be bringing a new audience to your genre of music?
Jaida: It’s super exciting. Our fans are across so many genres. It’s not just Pop Punk fans or Triple J fans, it’s so many people from so many different walks of life.
IN: I’ve also noticed that there’s been a consistent creative direction with your band recently, with all the recent single artwork having a style. Has that been something that’s come from the band or have you been working with a team to develop this?
Scarlett: Since we’ve gone from being 18 to 20-year old’s in this band and we’ve all grown up a lot and realised how we want to present as. I do all the album artwork and the merch. Everything you see now is so genuinely us. As much as we have a bigger team now with management and booking agents and stuff, in a way we’ve never been more DIY than we are now because we are presenting exactly how we are to everybody.
IN: You have a couple of festivals slots booked in for early next year. One that I’m particularly interested in is the Unify Gathering. This is traditionally a more heavy music festival and I personally think you’re a rock band but how does it feel to get recognition from that community and are you excited to play?
Anna: I think it’s awesome, I feel honoured.
Jaida: I was a bit shocked when they asked us though. I feel like it’s really cool because again, we are quite across genres and I feel we have some heavier songs, especially more in our (live) set but then we are also quite poppy. It’s going to be cool dabbling in that heavier hard rock genre.
Scarlett: We’ll just give Neve a double kick and hope for the best.
IN: You also had someone from Violent Soho (one of the acts headlining Unify) assist with producing your new song. Violent Soho are obviously quite a legendary band in the Australian rock scene so what was it like working with James Tidswell?
Anna: I think it was freaking awesome. We spent the entire of our teen being huge Violent Soho fans. It was quite surreal to be in the studio with one of them.
Neve: Like bouncing off ideas with James Tidswell, it was really surreal.
Jaida: So now we’ve signed Domestic La La which is owned by James Tidwell. We all went to Groove in the Moo in 2015 to see Violent Soho.
Scarlett: I’m pretty sure we went just to see Violent Soho.
Jaida: It was so cool to bounce ideas off with.
IN: Aside from the heavy influences who are some of the more “Poppy” influences for your band?
Scarlett: We’re all thinking it.
Neve: Taylor Swift.
Scarlett: Expect Jaida actually said she doesn’t like Taylor Swift the other day and she’s been pretending for years.
Jaida: Well, I pretend to like her for the band.
Anna: (Covering Jaida’s face with their hand) Ignore her.
Jaida: I can belt, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Love Story”. I can belt, “Wildest Dream”, I can do it. I don’t enjoy doing it, but I will.
Scarlett: Yeah, Taylor Swift is great. I won’t compare ourselves, but I would say we have a Spice Girls influence. The whole four girl thing, the outfits. That vibe is definitely in there.
IN: Talking of festivals and shows, a lot of bands I’ve been speaking to recently are looking at opportunities to go overseas next year. I know you’ve just announced an east coast tour but is overseas touring in the pipeline for your band or are more interested in strengthening your relationship with all your Australian fans over the next 12 months?
Jaida: I reckon we’d hope to go overseas one day but next year it’s going to be more focusing on the Australian scene.
Anna: I think we’ve been pretty disconnected from our fans so it would be good to get back out there and we can work our way out (of Australia) if we feel like that’s something we want to do.
Jaida: Even our streams on Spotify at the moment more than half of our listeners are in America so one day it would be cool to get over there, but I still think it will be a year or two until that happens.
Scarlett: We don’t have any solid plans to do that it’s more of a dream.
IN: I know your band was also booked in to come to Perth earlier this year with Hockey Dad but unfortunately that wasn’t able to happen.
Neve: I broke my ankle around that time, so we missed many shows with me which was sad.
Scarlett: But it was worth it for the recovery because now she’s fine.
IN: This is probably amplified in Perth compared to the rest of the country but I’m seeing that the music scenes in induvial cities/regions has become very localised in the last 18 months because of travel restrictions. Who are some bands in your local scene who you think are going to have their year in 2022?
Scarlett: From Canberra, none of us live there anymore but we lived there for a long time. Sesame Girl are going to blow up.
Anna: I think they're playing Yours and Owls as well.
Scarlett: Kitschen Boy from Melbourne are like our bestest friends. They're so nice. We went on tour with them at the start of 2020 and it was the best time ever.
IN: Speaking of festivals, you did play Yours and Owls festival which had quite a different stage set up with the spinning stage and it being majorly seated. How do you think that will compare to your festival next year with bigger capacities with more traditional formats? I know some people mentioned they were a bit dizzy after playing Yours and Owls.
Scarlett: Yeah, we were a bit dizzy after. It was a pretty weird festival for us anyway because Neve had broken her ankle at that point, so we had a different drummer filling in. Our friend Dan did an amazing job, but it felt weird not being all together.
Jaida: Our set also got cut short because the gates opening got delayed so we are looking forward to doing a regular festival with Neve. No shade to Yours and Owls though we had the best time.
IN: Something else I wanted to talk to you about was your band’s Tik Tok’s. I’ve had a really good laugh going through them earlier, it’s a fun way to engage with your fans and show the personality of the band.
What's been your favourite you have put together?
What are your thoughts on how Tik Tok has become such a massive part of music promotion for this generation?
Anna: I think it’s a really good tool that a lot of musicians have picked up on. I know we get a bit slack at it but.
Scarlett: We do love it though. I really like Anna and Jaida’s, “Rock Lock” Tik Tok, which was really good. We a actually did a few that we thought were really good and were fully blowing up but Tik Tok took them down because they were about smoking and rolling cigarettes. Tik Tok thought we were underage and took them down!
Neve: We look underage.
Scarlett: We look so young. I guess we’re only two years off. That was so sad, they were on 16,000 views before they got taken down.
Anna: I really like the one that you two (Scarlett and Neve) did to get rid of gross guys at clubs.
IN: I imagine it must be harder for bands of a different generation to get into Tik Tok. Have you had anyone reach out to you to ask for advice?
Anna: One of our managers actually called me the other day to ask me, “how do I put all these videos together to make one Tik Tok I want to be famous”, and I just said I don’t know how to show you.
Neve: She called me as well
Jaida: It’s funny but I don’t think we’re that good with Tik Tok, like we’re really bad at posting all the time.
Scarlett: Yeah, we’re pretty slack.
Jaida: I think the key ingredient is trends.
Scarlett: I think everyone who follows up on Tik Tok knows we’re just a band, were not like a hype house. Well not yet.
IN: With your band releasing a couple of new songs this year and with all the festivals and shows you’re playing early next year, should fans be expecting a “larger body of work” in the near future?
Scarlett: I’m not sure if we’ll get in trouble for saying anything but we’ve got some more tricks up our sleeve is all I can say.
IN: In terms of the genre of music you’ll be releasing in the future do you think you’ll be expanding on your sound in the future or just refining the current Indie-Rock sound you work within?
Scarlett: I think there is quite a difference between, “AHHHH!” and, “Miss Your Birthday” as our two most recent releases. I think, “AHHHH!” shows more of our rock side whereas Miss Your Birthday is more on the Pop side of things because I wrote it with Alex Lahely. I think we’ll probably stay between those two walls with a bit of spice here and there. I don’t think we’ll be a band all of the sudden. We’ll always be Indie-Rock.
IN: As a band what are your hopes, goals and dreams for 2022?
Scarlett: I want to have a free beer on stage with my friends.
Neve: I want to be at a festival with a lanyard on.
Anna: That’s a pretty achievable one.
Jaida: We can do these on New Year’s Day.
Anna: I want to go on a plane again.
Jaida: I want to get silver on my Virgin frequent flyers card! I think we’d also like to play an afternoon/night-time slot at a festival.
Scarlett: I don’t want to play at 12 pm anymore, I want to play when the sun is going down.
Jaida: I’d like to sell out a 500-capacity venue.
Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers latest single, “Miss Your Birthday” is available to stream now!
