Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers on their new single “Dull” with Softcult and upcoming deluxe album “I Love You Too”
Covering “Smells Like Teen Spirit” at their very first show - the school spring fair. Working with Chris Collins (Royel Otis) and writing music hungover (Uber Eats saved the day). Covering a Billie Eilish & Paramore cover on triple J’s Like A Version. Their love of Bloody Marys. Their first US shows including playing Ohana Festival and more.
Fuzzer: So how have you been? You guys seem like you’ve been pretty busy being just off the back of the tour and everything! How's that been?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: Yeah, really good. The tour with The Grogans was so fun. It was super wholesome and just so lovely. I feel like there's not many bands that you can be stuck in a bus for two full weeks with and then still come out other side really happy to see them (laughs). We're very lucky to have a relationship like that with them. So shout out The Grogans (laughs).
Fuzzer: Nice! And how did Teen Jesus all meet and start making music together?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: Well Anna and Neve met in kindergarten, and me and Jaida met in year three, and then we were in separate classes in the same school, and were best friends - the two little duos. Then when we went to high school, the classes all formed and we became the four of us which was really cute. We started the band in year nine, and our first show was at our school spring fair which was really good. It was flower crowns, we were 14. We played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” obviously (laughs) and went from there.
Fuzzer: Such an edgy start from a young age! (laughs) And you've always had the same band name?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: Yeah (laughs). We were about to call ourselves Dandelion & The Enigmas. It's so crazy (laughs). Imagine if we'd kept it, it would have been bizarre! But at the last minute before we went on stage at that spring fair, I ran up to the MC and I was like “No! It’s Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers” (laughs). So we stuck with it after that. It was pretty controversial though for a bunch of 14 year olds with that name. Bit sacrilegious, bit sexual, bit concerning.
Fuzzer: But so catchy, I love it! And who were your main musical influences growing up yourself and also as a group?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: Well personally my favorite bands ever are Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes - I love them so much. And as a group, we all do kind of have that influence. But there's a bit of Bloc Party in there, a bit of Missy Higgins, bit of Ke$ha - a whole mixed bag. I personally had like a big kind of grunge riot girl phase in year nine. So listened to a lot of L7 and Hole and stuff which was very formative. I think a lot of it as well is because we started touring so young, we kind of just took inspiration from the bands that we were playing with like Wax and Sweater Curse. You know that 2018 Australian rock? It was a good time for Australian indie music.
Fuzzer: For sure! And congrats on your new single “Dull” with Softcult. How did that collaboration come about?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: We've been fans of Softcult for a while but in a kind of far away way where you kind of don't realize that they're actually real people in a real band that you can just reach out to (laughs). Then we were because we’re doing the deluxe version of the album at the moment, our management was like “Well, what about Softcult?” and we were like “oh, perfect!”. Because I think they have a real kind of shoegazy thing happening that we kind of don't, so it was cool being able to use some of their assets and they can use some of ours. Hopefully we'll be able to play some shows together soon.
Fuzzer: Yeah, definitely. I love the collaboration between two artists because it's the first time you can really hear influences from each project combined, and it just creates a whole new sound but still has that familiar aspect of both artist projects.
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: Yeah for sure, I totally know what you mean. I feel it kind of also makes you identify each artist’s genre better than you could before, like hearing the contrast. It's nice being able to hear that song now and be like “I know that's Mercedes and Phoenix’s voices and not mine”. Yeah so, we're very, very lucky to have them on the song.
Fuzzer: And with “Dull”, what was the inspiration behind that track and how did the song come about?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: To be totally honest with you, we wrote that actually the day after we played at Big Sound. We had a huge night, and then we rocked up to this studio the next day with Chris Collins, who's an absolute legend. He does all the Royel Otis stuff. He's so cool but we were all so hungover. It was just horrendous. We had to Uber Eats Lord Of The Fries and we were all just like “ugh I don’t want to be here” (laughs). We were so grumpy. But then we came away with this song and we were like “that's actually a really nice song, but we probably won't use it” because we all felt so terrible that day that it kind of tainted it for us. But then we rediscovered it a few months ago, and we’re like “this is actually really good”. And then kind of reworked it with our producer Oscar Dawson from Holy Holy, and that was really great. And now the negative connotations around it are gone! The hangover is very much gone so that's good (laughs). It was great working with Chris though - he was very patient with our weak brains that day. But he's so talented, like being able to pull a song like that out of us when we're at our weakest is quite a skill so very lucky to be able to work with him.
Fuzzer: Good work! Yeah, wonderful job. You would never have known that you were hungover listening to the track (laughs)
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: Thank you. I hope so (laughs)
Fuzzer: And I have to take a quick throwback to your debut album “I Love You” which you released last October. What were your main highlights working across that project?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: I mean, it's strange with “I Love You” because some of the songs on there are from so many years ago, and some of them are so recent. There’s songs on there that we wrote when we were 16, and then there's others that we wrote in the studio while we were recording it, kind of thing. That's also why we wanted to call it “I Love You” because it was all of these different periods of our early 20s / late teenage years put into one thing. And I feel like that's why it works. It sounds like a representation of all that time to me, which is really nice. That kind of sums it up with a little bow on it.
Fuzzer: And you’ve got “I Love You Too” coming out on 20 September - can you tell us about that?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: It's just the same album, but with three more songs in it, so a deluxe album.
Fuzzer: Nice! And what can listeners expect from these three new songs that are coming out?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: One of them I actually wrote like years and years ago, which I'm really excited to have come out. It's like a high school song. And then we're doing another cheeky little collab on one of them. I don't know if I can say that. I think I probably can, I’m sure it’s fine (laughs). I feel like these songs are ones that didn't quite make the album but we still really loved, and we didn't want to just throw away. Because making “I Love You”, there were so many years that went into that when you look the total amount of work put in, and so for whatever we do next, we do want to start kind of fresh and not have our old songs in it and have a new chapter because we've grown so much since writing “I Love You”. So we thought, “if we're going to put these songs out, it has to be with the rest of the album”. So yeah, it's nice that they get to see the light of day.
Fuzzer: Yeah that makes sense, leaving them all in the same era and starting a new chapter. And what’s your normal songwriting process? Are you always in the room together or do you go off on your own and bring your individual ideas once you’re in the studio together?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: Usually one person writes the song or has a demo and then sends it to the others, and we all kind of work on it from there. With “I Love You”, a lot of it we wrote all together in the same room which we hadn't really done before. But I feel like now we're kind of naturally gravitating towards doing it more solo again and then bringing it to everybody. Or I've been doing a lot of writing sessions lately with different producers and artists which has been really nice. I feel like that's always super fun. And Anna's been off doing a few of those as well. I think it's really nice when we share it between everyone and it's one person with someone else that’s not in the band. I feel that creates cool different approaches. Because if I just write 10 songs completely by myself, I feel like they all end up sounding the same.
Fuzzer: And obviously you've had quite an extensive career so far. What would you say is one of the biggest lessons you've learnt being in the music industry, playing these live shows and putting out music?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: Oh that's such a good question. My dad actually said this to me when we first started touring, that you have to really pinch yourself all the time or remind yourself, even when it's really hard and really shit, that it's crazy that you can do that. We're kind of so desensitized to it because we've been playing shows for almost 10 years which is crazy. It's a hard one because especially my band always slip into “Oh, we're so lucky to do this” when in reality, it's “no, we've worked so hard to be able to do this”. It's not luck, it's work.
Fuzzer: Totally! And I did want to talk to you about your Triple J Like A Version cover of Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever”. So amazing! I was just so in awe of you guys watching that - the vocal ability and musicality in that performance and I love the hints of Paramore. What was it like to do that performance for triple J?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: It was crazy surreal. It was so ridiculous just being in that room. We were all like “whoa, this room is real?” (laughs). Just being actually in the studio, that was really weird. And Anna with those high notes, fucking crushed it. It was amazing! It was actually Neve's idea to put the Paramore song in there, because we decided on “Happier Than Ever” and then one day I remember Neve messaging the band group chat, being like “Fuck, I wish we'd done All I Wanted instead because Anna would kill the high notes more”. But we'd already committed to doing this one and then we were like “wait, they can totally work together”. And then Neve put together this demo of the mash up kind of thing. And triple J don't usually like mashups I think but they made an exception for us which is nice. So thank you triple J.
Fuzzer: Yes thank you triple J, because it sounds amazing when you’re singing both songs at once towards the end. I would have never thought those songs go together but hearing it makes so much sense!
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: It’s so strange hey because I didn’t think that either but like hearing them both together, it almost changes the meanings of both songs. I guess they’re both really sad anyway, but they kind of compliment each other in this kind of weird, longing kind of way. I wish that Billie and Paramore would perform it together live. I could die happy. I mean, Billy and Charlie is already pretty damn good, though, I'm not complaining (laughs).
Fuzzer: Yes exactly! So what we're doing for each of our interviews is we're going to customize a cocktail recipe in relation to the project we're talking about. So if “I Love You” the album was a cocktail, what would it be and what flavours do you think you’d go for?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: Awesome, hell yeah! I was gonna go down the Bloody Mary path because we all LOVE Bloody Marys. But I feel Bloody Mary is more the vibe of our EP rather than the album. Maybe the album could be like a kind of, based on the colour scheme, like a martini. Maybe like a Porn Star Martini. I feel it should kind of have some kind of fruity flavour, but then I also want it to be really strong, and maybe with an olive? I don’t know (laughs).
Fuzzer: No, I love that idea. I think that's perfect.
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: But if we could do courses, I reckon we start with a beautiful super strong Alizé lemonade. We had a massive Alizé phase a while ago, all of us were just drinking Alizé all the time. And then you knock back a guava cruiser after that, and then you start dipping on your little dirty gin martini. And then at the end, you've had a nap when the slow songs come in, and then you wake up with a hangover - Bloody Mary, right? Boom (laughs)
Fuzzer: So good! Okay, we'll put a recipe together and share it! And what are you listening to at the moment? Are there any new artists that you recommend, or anyone from Australia?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: Yeah, I've been listening to a lot of Genesis Owusu lately, as I always do, though, because he's just the best. His most recent album “STRUGGLER” has been on rotation for me a lot lately. There's never a bad time to listen to him really. I’ve been listening to The Linda Lindas a lot lately as well. The Belair Lip Bombs’ album is great - I’ve been rinsing it, it’s a good one. My brother's band who I've also been listening to, shout out to them - Sonic Reducer.
Fuzzer: Amazing! And for my last question, I’d normally ask what's next for you in 2024 but you guys have so much on! You have your first ever US shows in New York, LA and Ohana Festival as well as Big Pineapple Festival and NYE On The Hill to name a few. What are you looking forward to most about those performances?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: Well there's actually a few that haven't been announced yet that we are EXTREMELY excited for. I’m really, really keen for New Years On The Hill, I think that'll be so nice. I feel like we'll have a really good time of day which is awesome. Actually a few years ago, we did a list of goals with our management, like things we wanted to do, and one of them was we wanted to play a festival after 12pm because we would always get book for slots at like 11am and we’d be like “nooo!” (laughs).
Fuzzer: (Laughs) Well those are all my questions for you! Is there anything else you want to mention before we wrap up?
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: I think just maybe don't actually in real life ever consume the “I Love You” cocktail list back to back (laughs)
Fuzzer: Yeah, we can put a little warning next to it (laughs)
Scarlett from TJ&TJT: Drink responsibly! (laughs)
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