.

.

Interview with
TEENAGE JOANS

(13th November 2023)

Interview with Stephanie Tang

.

TEENAGE JOANS, The Gov, Adelaide, 9th November 2023 / Photo @elisedphoto

.

Steph: Hey everyone, I’m Steph with Amnplify, and today I’m interviewing Teenage Jones. Do you guys want to start by introducing yourselves to people maybe who don’t know who you are?
Cahli: So I’m Cahli, I play guitar and I sing.
Tahlia: And I’m Tahlia and I play drums and sing.
Cahli: And we’re two kids who make pop-punk music. Yeah, it’s pretty fun.

Steph: So your new album has just come out. How did you celebrate following the release of it?
Cahli: Well, we had a pretty hectic day with the album. We did like a pop-up store in Adelaide which was pretty fun. We went and sold some of our records at Clarity Records in Adelaide which is our local record store. And what else did we do?
Tahlia: We had a little acoustic set at Clarity Records just for friends and family kind of party as well.

Steph: I heard you guys did a signing event as well with fans.
Tahlia: Yeah, yeah.
Cahli: Yeah, that was like a pop-up. So we were selling merch and we were hanging out with all our fans. We had food and we had tattoos. It was really fun. It was a good day.

Steph: What was it like meeting all these new fans? With Covid, you couldn’t do much. So having your family there as well, what was that like?
Cahli: It was sick. It was so cool. Like heaps of people came through. It was a really good day.
Tahlia: People were like lining up as well before the doors even opened. I think there was like 500 people.

.

.

Steph: Wow.
Cahli: It was crazy. It was a great day. But it was awesome to hear our stories and everyone being like, I listened to the album on the way here. Just seeing all the support and stuff.

Steph: I’ve been listening to you guys non-stop. I love it. You guys have always done great stuff, but I think this one, just the quality of the whole album, I don’t think there was a single filler song.
Tahlia: Oh, thank you so much.
Cahli: That’s good to know. Yeah, thank you.

Steph: With the album, so the title is “The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest”, where did the idea of Decay, Candy Apple, Sugar, where did that all kind of come from? How did it all start?
Cahli: It wasn’t really intentional to be honest. I think like our first EP, Taste of Me, we write about things from a sort of a sweet perspective, like sweet point of view, writing about things like almost like sugar-coated, in a sugar-coated way. And then I think naturally the progression, it’s pretty ironic that like we started to talk about, I mean the instrumental on the album the interlude, is called “Sweet Things Rot” which was also a contender for album name as well.
And I think like the natural progression of us maturing as people and artists, it’s a really, it’s a cool metaphor for that. I think, I don’t know, we’re just kind of drawn to it a bit more now that we’re older. We love that sort of imagery and metaphors and stuff like that. Yeah, I think it was pretty natural.
Tahlia: Yeah.
Cahli: It sort of just fell out of us. Yeah, it’s a cool metaphor for like maturing and becoming older and not everything, like maturing doesn’t necessarily have to mean it’s a bad thing, you know.

.

.

Steph: Do you want to share some experiences, behind the tracks? So with “Candy Apple” it talks about someone that’s not very nice, who’s maybe hurt you. And we have “Moneymoneymoney” in there as well which is a really cool track. Could you share some inspo behind what’s your favourite track? Or one of the ones that stands out to you more.
Cahli: I think Money is a collective favourite track.
Tahlia: Yeah definitely. We draw from our own experiences, but we also try and make it as vague, so it can be as relatable as possible, I guess. So, yeah, I think, I mean they’re both like break up songs.
Cahli: Yeah.
Tahlia: We just try and draw from the inspiration in our own lives. And definitely from other artists as well, like their writing style as well. I think a big inspiration for “Moneymoneymoney” was the Scott Pilgrim on GBA with Mom Jeans, but like the trumpet and stuff as well, we kind of wanted to go down that route.
Cahli: It’s really honest, it’s kind of Mum Jeans mixed with Phoebe Bridgers, it’s like that really honest, like melancholic, like sort of writing style. But yeah, that was a fun one to write.

Steph: One thing I really liked was the use of strings throughout the album. I loved it when it came on and it was like this really symphonic sound. We don’t see it so much in pop punk We focus more on the guitar and the drums, with the strings and the trumpets, incorporating that into the album, it gives it a little bit more dimension
Tahlia & Cahli: Thank you so much.
Cahli: We’re taking inspiration from obviously Mum Jeans, but also Five Seconds of Summer as well. In their second album “Sounds Good, Feels Good” they had, I think it was some really iconic orchestra played on the album. We just think it’s so cool, that unlikely mix of guitars and strings and stuff. I feel like it’s, yeah, as you said, it makes it feel so much more fluid and it makes it way more emotional.

.

TEENAGE JOANS, The Gov, Adelaide, 9th November 2023 / Photo @elisedphoto

.

Steph: What’s the journey been like winning Triple J Unearthed High 2020, to now where you’ve done a whole bunch of stuff. You released “Terrible”, and now you’ve gone into a huge album. What’s it been like for you guys?
Tahlia: It’s been very chaotic, but in the best way possible, we’ve just been doing heaps of cool stuff, touring non-stop and getting to see the world as well. We went to America, so yes, that’s really cool as well. It’s been crazy.
Cahli: Yeah, it feels like we went from zero to 100. It’s really cool. We were already playing so many shows before we won Unearthed High. In 2019, we played over 60 shows. So before we won in 2020. So I think the only reason it feels like it jumpstarted again was COVID, sort of not being as prominent in the world and stuff. And then we could just get right back into touring, which was fun.

Steph: You played Unify last year, which is known for more of that heavier music. And you guys definitely have more of a pop-punk sound to you. Like it varies from all the fun stuff up to, I guess, more gritty stuff on this new album. What was that experience like going into that lineup where it is more of those heavier bands?
Tahlia: It was a bit scary, not going to lie.
Cahli: Yeah, a bit intimidating. I think it’s interesting because the heavier scene is very vocal when they don’t like something. And we did get a couple of hate comments for headlining the festival. Someone said that we were… he called us an atrocity, and then he said that we should never headline anything ever. So we screenshotted the comment and used it as our backdrop for the show.
That’s like the one bad apple in the field of, the thorn in the field of roses or whatever it is. All the people who came were so lovely and so supportive. It was good fun, though.
It was really cool to play on a heavier lineup. We played Good Things last year as well, which was again, cool to dip our toes into that side of the scene as well.

Steph: I love you just turned it on, and you were like, we can use that. Any marketing is good marketing. You know what they say it’s like… what is it? Imitationary? If someone imitates you, then it’s meant to be the highest praise. When you get hate comments, people are noticing.
Tahlia: Yeah, and we’re going under their skin.
Cahli: Jimmy our booking agent said something about that. What did he say? Do you remember? He was like, you haven’t made it until you get hate comments. Yeah. That’s how you know.

Steph: Yeah, because people are like, damn they’re doing something big out there.
Cahli: Yeah, exactly.

.

TEENAGE JOANS, The Gov, Adelaide, 9th November 2023 / Photo @elisedphoto

.

Steph: How does the album fit in with where the band wants to go? In terms of the sound, the direction. Love the album art by the way. It was so cool. I loved the deep reds and the blues. And it definitely… when I saw it, I was like, ooh, this looks deliciously evil. I love that. How does this album mark where you guys are going next?
Tahlia: That’s a good question.
Cahli: I think… yeah, that is a good question. I think it’s cool because it’s got so many… there’s a song… Cahli was saying the other day, there’s a song for everyone on there. And I think it’s got so many different avenues and directions on it, that we could dip our toes into and it wouldn’t seem unnatural for us to do so.
We have talked about making some heavier, tougher music in the future, but we also love songs like… for example “Yoke” is a bit more of a pop song. And we’d love to dip our toes into the more pop world of stuff. So I think the best thing about it is that it’s so chaotic that it just opens heaps of doors for us.
But we don’t really know where we want to go. I think it’s just going to be a thing where we write and find out. We definitely want to explore heavier things, in terms of more sonically more hardcore stuff. Maybe, we’ll see though We’ll see what happens.

Steph: Anything is possible. And to close, do you have a message for your fans?
Cahli: Thank you for supporting us.
Tahlia: Yeah, thanks for always supporting us and coming to our shows, buying our merch.
Cahli: Coming on the journey, it’s very fun. We think of everyone as our big family. We just want everyone to be having a good time and hanging out and making friends and stuff. So, yeah, thank you. Thank you so much.

Steph: So you heard that from Amplify. That’s Teenage Jones. They’re currently touring Australia now for their latest album. And yeah, it’s out everywhere, go listen to it.
Tahlia & Cahli: Thank you

.

TEENAGE JOANS, The Gov, Adelaide, 9th November 2023 / Photo @elisedphoto

.

Check out Elise De Simoni’s (@elisedphoto) full gallery of the Adelaide event HERE

Check out Stephanie Tang’s review of the album HERE

Check out Stephanie Tang’s live review of the Melbourne show HERE

.

TEENAGE JOANS, The Gov, Adelaide, 9th November 2023 / Photo @elisedphoto

.

Follow TEENAGE JOANS
Website – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter

.

TEENAGE JOANS, The Gov, Adelaide, 9th November 2023 / Photo @elisedphoto

.

Press Release 24th August 2023 (below) HERE

TEENAGE JOANS
announce
THE ROT THAT GROWS INSIDE MY CHEST

+ Album tour with special guests
BELLA AMOR
DULCIE
ALEKSIAH

.

.

AMNPLIFY – DB