BMA Bossman Allan Sko chats to TJ&TJT’s Scarlett McKahey
Rapidly-rising punk rock stars and pride of Canberra, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, have further affirmed the camaraderie with genre-diverse outfit The Grogans by taking on regional Australia for their FIX IT WITH SALT TOUR. Their team-up on punk-power ballad & heartstrings tugger single Salt made the groups realise they had something special. Salt is laden with harmonies, showing off the vocal chops of Anna Ryan and The Grogans’ Quin Grunden, their voices bouncing off each other, creating a memorably melancholic build up.
BMA ALLAN: Why not start at the beginning… Was the birth of your awesome foursome at the 2016 Girls Rock camp?
TJ&TJT SCARLETT: We started the band after a sleepover at Neve’s house in Year 9 after we watched School of Rock. We thought it looked stupidly easy to start a band, so we picked instruments and started learning covers first thing the following day.
We had our first-ever gig at our school’s Spring Fair (the setlist included a Nirvana cover, a Wombats cover, and an Angus and Julia Stone cover), and we went from there.
There’s a simple story behind such a mighty band name, eh?
It’s not that fun of a story—a family friend thought of it and said it as a joke when I was about 12. I do not know why it came back to me years later, but it’s served us very well.
Our alternate name was Dandelion and the Enigmas, so thank fuck we went with Teen Jesus instead.
How would you say your sound has evolved over the years?
We were caught in the crossfire of ‘90s grunge and indie pop when we started. We spent the first years trying to decide if we wanted to be more like L7 or San Cisco. A strange mix, especially when played by highly inexperienced and extremely nervous high schoolers who had to be chaperoned to shows by their parents.
Eventually, we landed somewhere in the middle in the “rock” category, but I love that we have an identifiable sound now. It’s taken almost a decade, but now we just want to sound like Teen Jesus!
And how has your songwriting content/focus changed?
Our songwriting topics have grown up with us. We’ve always had a lot of teenage angst, but these days, we’re writing more mature things to match our maturing lives.
Our album, I Love You, is very special to us for that reason. It has songs from 17-year-old Teen Jesus and songs from 23-year-old Teen Jesus. It hasn’t been a conscious shift, but our songs are sounding more mature all the time (minus Cayenne Pepper).
What have been the challenges and triumphs of reaching such fame and exposure at your ages?
Fame and exposure might be a stretch! But we are VERY proud of the work we’ve put in over the years. Seeing the years pay off and people receive our music so well has been amazing, so we are very grateful for everything!
Triumphs are meeting Dave Grohl and vodka cruisers; challenges are lack of sleep and white boys in mosh pits.
How did the collab with The Grogans come about!?
This one is embarrassing for us!
A year ago, we went on a tour with The Grogans, run by GUTS Touring, throughout Tasmania. We were all on a bus for the week, playing shows in Tassie’s most beautiful small towns, and we became absolute besties with The Grogans.
When the tour ended, we went straight to our producer Oscar’s house to start recording the album, but we missed The Grogans so much that we chucked them on a song so we could hang out more (we also thought they’d sound fantastic on the song, which they do).
But, honestly, it’s just because we are obsessed with them and want to hang out all day, every day, 4eva.
With the streaming/digital age seeing many declaring the concept of an album effectively dead, did you nevertheless find yourselves agonising over the LP track order?
Actually no! The track order was done and dusted in about ten minutes of messaging. We all knew that we wanted particular highs and lows throughout the album; we already knew that we wanted to open with I Used To Be Fun and close with Kissy Kissy, and the rest just fell into place.
The album also came about at the perfect time for us. While recording previous releases, we worried SO much about our sound being “right”, if people would like it, or if it would be played on the radio, etc.
When we started recording I Love You, it felt like it was only for us, and we couldn’t care less what anyone else thought. It was hugely empowering and a sign of significant growth for us babies.
Two quick BMA Profile stables here: a) what makes you laugh, and b) what pisses you off?
a) Jojo Siwa
b) Jojo Siwa
Proudest moments?
The obvious ones are releasing our debut album and opening for Foo Fighters, which are both absolutely ridiculous things to be able to do.
My favourites, though, were going on our first overseas tour last year in the UK and selling the whole frickin thing out, which was crazy—and then selling out the Metro Theatre in Sydney last year for our headline album tour, especially because my little brother’s band, Sonic Reducer, opened for us, which was highly emotional and wonderful for me.
Big wins all round!
What can folk expect from your upcoming August show? And what can we expect from TJ&TJT in the future?
Expect five hotties painting Belconnen red! We are the reigning kings of inner North-West Canberra and we will burn The Baso to the ground!
And we have our writing caps back on, so hopefully, there will be more music!! Everything is secret, but we have things cooking in the musical cauldron.
The Teen Jesus and the Jean Teaasers + The Grogans FIX IT WITH SALT TOUR rolls into The Baso on Sunday, 4 August, from 7:30pm. Tix $56.10 via Oztix.
Listen to I Love You here.
