FEATURE: Spotlight: Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: James Morris for baked

Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers

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WITH a busy diary…

already in place that involves shows in Europe and the U.K., the Australian band, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, are getting this year off to a flyer. With a seriously cool name – that should be its own Daisy Jones & The Six-style show – and music that is impossible to forget, make sure that you are familiar with this quartet. They formed in Canberra in 2015. Consisting of vocalist Anna Ryan, guitarist Scarlett McKahey, drummer Neve van Boxsel and bass guitarist Jaida Stephenson, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers are a brilliant and tight-knit group that I cannot recommend highly enough. I am going to come to a few interviews with the band. Even though they have been on the scene a little while now, I think that this year is the one where they get worldwide recognition. The fact they are playing the U.K. next month means I will get a chance to catch them.

With a growing fanbase over here, I know this love will spread around the world the more music the band put out. One of last year’s most underrated albums came from Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. I Love You is a phenomenal release from the Australian four-piece. Talking about their debut album to Sydney Morning Herald, they were preparing to tour with Foo Fighters. A unique, lovable and hugely hard-working band who were embarking on a new stage in their career:

“Australian punk band Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers have just released their first album and are gearing up to support rock legends Foo Fighters on their upcoming Australian tour. But they’re already learning not to care what people think. And that includes each other.

Their debut album, I Love You, is the culmination of eight years together as a band – and even longer as friends. While they started playing music at 15, while in high school in Canberra, this record is the first time the punk rock band has written songs collaboratively.

“We’re at this point where I know everyone so well, and we’ve been together for so long and touring together for so long that I was like, ‘they’re not gonna think my ideas are shit and even if they do then I don’t really care’,” says Scarlett McKahey, Teen Jesus’ guitarist.

“I’ve pissed myself in front of you guys before, it’s not gonna be that embarrassing if you don’t like one of my melodies.”

Anna Ryan, the band’s singer, adds: “[In the past] if one of us has written a song, there’s been an element of like, ‘I wonder what they think or if it’s good enough’, but when we were writing together, there was no fear with it.”

The pair laugh often and easily as they talk to this masthead just before the album’s release – The band consists of McKahey, Ryan as well as drummer Neve van Boxell and bassist Jaida Stephenson.

Inspired by watching School of Rock at a sleepover at Ryan’s house, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers decided to start making music in 2015. It didn’t matter that at the time they didn’t all know how to play their instruments.

The intervening years have seen them do much more than simply learn how to play: they released an EP in May 2022, followed by I Love You this month, and have performed at major festivals at home and abroad, including Groovin the Moo, Laneway and The Great Escape in Brighton.

Currently on tour with DMA’s, they’re about to head out again to celebrate the new record, before a support slot for Foo Fighters in Melbourne in December. Then, in January, they’ll head back to Europe and the UK to support The Vaccines.

That people are finally going to be able to listen to their debut feels surreal to McKahey and Ryan. “Anna can’t stop crying,” says McKahey.

“It’s too much. Everything is setting me off,” Ryan adds with a laugh. “Everything” includes reviews, old photos and band montage TikToks made by van Boxsel. “With cheesy songs over the top,” Ryan explains. “I can’t do them any more. I’m too fragile.”

But the band aren’t worried about what the reviews say, McKahey says. “This is the first time ever that I truly just do not care at all if no one likes it because we love it.”

The album, produced by Oscar Dawson of Holy Holy, features riot grrrl-inspired garage-pop songs that tackle friendship, dysfunctional romantic relationships and sexuality. It drops as women-led punk rock is seemingly having a moment in Australia, with bands like Amyl and the Sniffers and Cable Ties making waves at home and overseas.

McKahey recalls how important it was to meet women that she looked up to when she was starting out, including Courtney Barnett. Now, young people approach her at shows to say they’ve started a band, too. “The more that people see non-male artists on big festival line-ups and being played on the radio, the more non-male bands pop up because they realise, ‘oh, I can actually do it’.”

At the same time as the band aims to encourage more women and non-binary people to enter the industry, they also want to make sure their live shows are safe and welcoming environments.

“I’m really proud that we’ve created that at our shows,” says Ryan. “It’s pretty rare for us to see people being dickheads in the crowd”.

I wonder whether we spotlight enough music coming from Australia. Always a country that produces excellent and original music, I think there is still not enough awareness of the full range of talent in the country. Looking outside of obvious areas like Melbourne and Sydney. The Music spoke with Neve van Boxsel, Anna Ryan and Jaida Stephenson back in October:

“Listening to I Love You, replete with punching conviction, blistering beats, and an exciting post-grunge revival, may render just one pressing question – whom is it Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers love? “We’ve wanted to do an album forever,” van Boxsel says wistfully, “and I feel like writing it and recording it was overwhelming. So, I feel like this is for each other, but also, everyone that listens, everyone that’s supported us.”

“It felt like a really nice title,” says vocalist Ryan, taking the reins, “because it was a long haul writing the album, but it was also so much fun.” Stephenson says, “I also feel like anyone who contributed to the album, be it us, our fans, our parents or whatever, we genuinely do love them.” Her bandmates agree; so much love went into this album.

Indeed, music such as this doesn’t happen without a massive amount of support, guidance, and rallying from an absolute cohort of people – and that’s a fact Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers aren’t ashamed to admit.

In fact, it’s those influences that shape the I Love You sound, Stephenson humbly saying, “I guess all the help we’ve had from the industry in general, everyone’s been so kind, loving and supportive. We’ve learnt so much from everyone we can then put it into our music.” Ryan adds, “A lot of it was organic experiences; meeting [album collaborators] The Grogans on The Guts Tour and really getting along with them and then being like, ‘Oh my God, we have this song that you would be really great on.’ It just made a lot of sense as we were working through it.”

It's been said that Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers – by the band and those in the scene – comprise four very different personalities. That, they say, doesn’t apply to their approaches to the album’s writing, soundscape, and production. “I feel like where it differs is more in our personal lives rather than the band,” says Stephenson. “We all kind of have a similar idea of what we want the band to be like,” van Boxsel says. “Especially because we started it so young, we’ve grown as musicians together,” returns Stephenson.

“It’s a similar vision, and we’re so close that if people do have differences of opinions about how the creative content is going, it’s pretty comfortable talking about it.”

As a band, there are, of course, other areas in which they’ve felt a sense of growth. “Not being as hard on ourselves,” says van Boxsel, to the agreement of her bandmates. “I feel like it’s pretty difficult being a non-male in this industry. You constantly feel like you have to prove yourself.

“This album feels like a breaking point for that – we feel like we don’t have to prove anything; we’re just going to do what we want to do. And we love our album!”

As well as summoning their individuality and personal direction in the music they produce, the outfit, to some extent, they agree, take the opportunity to create music to share their political and sociopolitical leanings to share their views and opinions in the hopes of making a change”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Michelle Pitiris

Before wrapping up with a review of the superb I Love You, Guitar.com chatted with Scarlett McKahey last September. Among other things, she discussed her love of School of Rock, why she had to step back from touring, and the importance of family backing and supporting you:

“McKahey’s fingerprints are all over I Love You. Not only was she elemental in songwriting and the thrilling guitar parts, she also played cello throughout the album.

“I play cello all through the album, there’s so much cello on it! It was really fun, especially on Never Saw It Coming,” she recalls. “We had to hire one for a couple of days to get it all done. It had been a while, I was out of practice, and it was fun getting back into it.”

Unlike van Boxsel who had been playing drums since childhood, McKahey was not a child prodigy on the guitar. In fact, she was actually committed to the cello when Ryan first convinced her cohorts they could form a band during a sleepover in which the teen friends were watching Richard Linklater’s School of Rock. If Jack Black’s band reject Dewey Finn could wrangle a bunch of rowdy fourth-grade kids into a burgeoning rock band, surely four enthusiastic high schoolers in Australia’s capital city could have a hack at it?

PHOTO CREDIT: Harry Chalker

Once the teenage friends had committed to forming a band, transitioning from cello to guitar wasn’t tumultuous at all for McKahey.

“I was so determined [to master it] that I forced guitar to feel natural. I played cello for so long, and it’s all about feeling where the note is because there are no frets, so going to guitar it was like ‘oh my god, this is easy’, and looking at tabs made sense to me because I’d already been reading music for so many years. Tabs were logical to me, it all clicked.”

She laughs as she adds, “I refused to learn anything other than The Strokes or Arctic Monkeys for years. I played the first Arctic Monkeys album start to finish, which drives my boyfriend crazy because I still do it to this day. Plus, I learned The Strokes’ You Only Live Once in my first guitar lesson. They’re still my favourite bands, I love them so much.”

Permission To Land

The melodic, distorted, bittersweet romance of early noughties rock weaves its way through I Love You, amplified by the synth-pop smarts of producer Oscar Dawson (half of Holy Holy and producer for Alex Lahey, amongst others)

“Oscar is one of the best guitarists I’ve ever met. He produced the whole album, so coming up with guitar parts with him was so good, he understood what I wanted,” she explains. “We had the best time. We stayed at his house for months and ate a kilo of smoked salmon every week.”

During the writing and recording of this album, the band moved into Dawson’s home in the Victorian beach town of Rye.

“His wife Ali Barter is also an amazing musician,” adds McKahey. “They have this beautiful big house and a separate studio with enough spare rooms that we can stay there comfortably without being on top of each other.”

For those familiar with Holy Holy, they’ll know that the Australian duo have a distinctive synth-based, electronic sound akin to Rufus Du Sol or The xx rather than obvious roots in indie rock.

McKahey says, “It’s funny because Holy Holy is definitely pop to me, almost synth-pop, but Oscar plays guitar like he’s in a metal band! It’s so intricate, elaborate and that’s what gives the edge to Holy Holy. Guitar like that isn’t normally seen in pop music, and it meant he worked really well for us because he’s able to cross between genres. His solos remind me of The Darkness, sometimes”.

I will finish with a review for the phenomenal I Love You. The Arts Desk shared their opinions about a riotously fun album. Even though they note one or two slightly weaker spots, there is a lot of love for I Love You and the brilliance of Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. If you have not connected with the band then you really need to. They are on the road and taking their new album to new faces and places:

“Canberra band Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers continue the recent tradition of Australian indie bands having unwieldy comedy names. However, their music, as laid out on their debut album, has higher aspirations, bridging their scuzzy punkin’ roots and a larger sound, loosely somewhere between The Breeders and Foo Fighters, yet very much their own thing.

Sometimes they sail too far into mainstream rock for this writer but, overall, they win the day. The best of I Love You tends towards either catchy new wavey power pop guitar or snarling, sneering numbers vehemently raging at mistreatment in love/sex. Often a combination of both. There’s also a sweet sideline in acoustic songs, notably the broken “Never Saw It Coming” (“Since you took a piece of me I haven’t felt good again… I’d leave your bedroom with half of me still left in there”) and the delicious, girl-ish harmonies of “Your House My House”.

Mostly, though, the vocals of frontperson Anna Ryan are all about righteous stridency, as on the whopping singles “AHHHH!” and “Lights Out, and, especially, the closing fury of “Kissy Kissy, which starts, “I know your type, overconfident arsehole…”. While these have snifters of Green Day in their genes, Teen Jesus are also capable of chunky rock riffing, as on the stonkin’ “Treat Me Better”, or toning things to a funkier, less in-your-face groove, as on “I Don’t Want It”.

There are certainly unloveable moments, notably the plodding single “Salt”, featuring Melbourne surf-punks The Grrogans, which comes across as an over-calculated attempt to create a grunge-goes-stadium anthem. But, for the most part, Teen Jesus’ music emanates an unforced exhilaration at singing out their truth, and has the tunes to carry it off. I can also attest to the fact that they’re great live, so catch them if you can, when they come to the UK at the start of next year”.

I am excited to see Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers in the U.K. There is a lot of love for them here. I know that this year is going to be a very busy one. With fresh singles likely, they will follow up on the amazing I Love You. We very much love this incredible quartet. One of Australia’s finest, make sure you follow Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. They are already coming through and tipped for longevity and amazing things. In a few years from now, they will be established…