A CONVERSATION WITH... TEENAGE JOANS
At The Great Escape, Australian indie rock and punk rock duo Teenage Joans give us a colourful look into their lives as artists and as friends.
Photo by Imogen Mosley
We have Talia, she's the short, pocket rocket, fiery drummer of Teenage Jones, and she also sings. She's purple. And we have Carly, she is a guitarist and singer of Teenage Jonas, and she loves Dr. Pepper. She’s red. We’re besties.
When people are getting introduced to your music, some people might see the label you talked about a while ago: ‘juicebox pop’. Is that still a label you’re rocking with?
We don't really use it these days, but in the early days it was sort of a metaphor for the fun lyric style and playful energy that we brought. These days our music is maturing a bit more, so I don't know if it's juicebox now. It's probably like a wine or Diet Coke. We just grew up a little bit. It’s cool, edgy, classy.
You also talk about how the eras between your albums or releases is a time for fun and experimentation. So with your latest single, ‘Coming Up From Hell’, what was the process of creating that song like?
Usually our song process starts with Carly writing a guitar riff, and then Talia joins in with a little line or a chorus, and we get together and smash out the rest. We bounce off of each other and throw out ideas and we see what sticks. So our new single was kind of like that. We started with the chorus and then fleshed out the verses. We had a sort of rough drum pattern, but Talia will always refine it to the way that she plays.
Is there any line or part in the single that you are really proud of?
Some favourite lyrics are ‘flip phone, nails done, stone cold vengeance.’ It's so fun. It's very diva chic and it rolls off the tongue. It's very Paris Hilton. And ‘tell TMZ that I'm coming up from hell’. We thought it was so funny because TMZ does not know who we are. What a funny line for a small band to put in a song.
Photo by Imogen Mosley
Got major Slayyyter vibes from that. So we're here at Great Escape, enjoying ice cream, hopefully getting more people to know who you are. How are you guys feeling about being at Great Escape and performing?
We're so excited. We've been trying to jump on The Great Escape for years, so we’re so glad it's finally lined up. It's so crazy. We love the UK, so it's a dream come true, that's for sure.
We've been having the best time, and even though this isn’t part of the festival, we’ve been loving the Sainsbury’s meal deals. We've been getting one a day, at least. Sometimes we'll get it for lunch and for dinner. It's such a good idea, because we don't have that stuff in Australia.
It’s a banging deal, honestly. Are there any other artists performing here, whether from Australia, uk, or from anywhere else, you guys want to see or would want to collaborate with one day?
Well, we're actually a bit sad because we're missing this artist called Big Wet, who's from Australia. But we're missing it in good company. We're missing it for this interview, which we're very happy to be doing! We've seen Big Wet, so it's fine. It would make no sense, but it would be really fun to work with her because she’s really fun. She makes weird pop music and she holds dildos on stage. Maybe we could put a rock beat behind her horny lyrics.
Speaking of interviews, is there a question you wish you got asked in interviews but you haven't?
We love Adam Sandler. People always say ‘You like Adam Sandler.’ But we never get asked what our favourite Adam Sandler movie is. We love The Wedding Singer because it's a classic with a great soundtrack and great costuming and love 50 First Dates. Drew and Adam, the best chemistry. He always ends up with baddies as well, which fits because his wife in real life is gorgeous as well. You've got to be funny to pull the funniest man ever.
and going back to your career, What’s something that you guys are really proud of that you've done so far in your music making career?
The first thought would be our debut album, The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest. We were extremely proud of that. Also we’re extremely proud of this short film we created with it, which is also called The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest. It's on YouTube.
It's kind of underrated, to be honest. No one really talks about it or asks us about it. A lot of work went into that as well. We did all the costumes, all the props, all the everything. We do all of our music videos: we source everything, style ourselves, and make it ourselves. We’re really proud of that.
You absolutely should be. Do you guys want to make more short films to go on the releases?
100%. The dream is a piece of long-form content. A full album's worth of music videos that goes alongside the album, like an hour-long kind of feature. It'd be awesome to create a world and characters, which we kind of did with our short film. Obviously, it kind of came down to budget, which is the reason for its length. For a short film, I think we did really well.
Do you have any inspirations when it comes to film, whether it be from other film/filmmakers, art, or music?
We love horror movies. We watch a lot of horror movies, and you can probably see that throughout the films as well. Especially campy horror. Jennifer's Body is a big inspiration. It’s very chic and girly, but still has the gore and the scare with it. All those fun costumes and that 90s style of horror, and we love Scream and Slasher films too. If there’s any reason we can bring a special effects artist on set? We will. We've done some pretty crazy stuff with SFX. It's a lot of fake blood. There was one for our music video for our song ‘Terrible’, where Carly was decapitated and Talia had drumsticks coming out of her eyes. It was wild. The prosthetics had to stay on for hours, and since we filmed in a basement, we dressed Talia upstairs and held her hands to walk downstairs. She had this massive camera contraption on her too. It was a big ‘trust the process’ moment.
We do anything for the bit. Dedication to the bit is really what matters at the end of the day, music is just basically a side quest.
Is there anything creative-wise you also want to venture into more or venture to at all?
We would love to have custom outfits eventually. One day when we have the budget, we'd love to employ someone to make outfits for us and tailor our costumes. That's the dream.
We want to be like Hayley Williams: rock stars with a pop star budget basically. But right now, we try to style ourselves. We go to a lot of vintage stores and make what we can ourselves, and always try to support indie brands. Like this brand Almost Ghosts, they do horror t-shirts like mine, so I’ve been buying from them a lot.
We’ve been looking ahead a lot, but what’s something that’s happened in the past that’s been a really happy moment for you two?
The first one that comes to mind is the other night after our London show. We played at the Blackheart, to a packed out room, and it was so much fun. And then when we got home, we showered and we were in bed. We share a bed because we're poor and we can't afford to have our own bed. But it's okay, we’re like sisters, so it was like a sleepover!
We were giggling our little heads off about some funny videos we’ve seen. You know when you're a kid and you're having a sleepover and you just can't get to sleep? It was like that. An hour before that we were playing a sold-out London show for the first time ever and then we're just in bed giggling. It’s the little moments like that for us.