From Vision to Victory ‘Glory’ Pushes The Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers Into Bold New Territory

Set to bright, punchy, turn-the-volume-up indie-rock, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers are taking brand new second album GLORY on the road. GLORY traverses confidence, disgust, infatuation and power and they have poured an incredible amount of time, talent, blood, sweat and tears into making the album, recorded over a five week lock-in at The Grove Studios with the help of legendary London-based, GRAMMY Award-winning producer Catherine Marks, known for her work with boygenius on The Record as well as with the likes of PJ Harvey, The Editors, Foals, The Killers, Wolf Alice and many, many others. Together with Marks they made an album they say is “completely us”, in part due to the creative environment she stoked, where the band felt empowered to say ‘no’, encouraged them to try new approaches, and, more importantly, to bin whatever they didn’t like with wild abandon, all in order to help them arrive at the truest distillation of their sound. Jaida Stephenson talks to Hi Fi Way about the album, tour and hanging out with Pearl Jam.

How exciting was the lead up to the release of your second album?
It was super exciting! We’re, like, so stoked. It’s been a very, very busy few months.

With your second album, was there ever talk about “second album blues,” or pressure to match what you did on the first album?
No, we didn’t really touch on that. Our second album is so different to our first album that it’s kind of incomparable. A big part of this album is we wanted it to be truly ourselves and be something we were really proud of and would listen to. Not that we don’t love our last album, we do, but with that one we were a bit more like, “Oh, what songs are going to do well? Which song will be good on radio?” With this album we were like, “These are the songs we like the most.” It feels more authentic. So even if this album can’t live up to the last one or gets received differently, we’re so happy with it that we don’t really mind how it gets received.

Do you think a lot of that comes from maturing, growing, evolving, getting better at writing and playing?
Our song writing’s gotten a lot more mature as well, I think. What the songs are about has deeper meanings. I just think it’s all a bit more mature. We had a really clear vision for this album, so it sounds more like a body of work.

When you say you had the vision, was that clear from the beginning, in terms of what you wanted to do sonically?
I would say it was pretty clear, but definitely some inspo came along the way. At the very start of the album recording, we went and saw Fontaines D.C. play live as a band and we were like, “Oh my gosh, we’re going to incorporate this.” But we all grew up together, so our music taste and artistic vision is pretty similar because we had very similar upbringings. That really helps as a band, being on the same page. The vision definitely changed as we wrote the album and as it developed, but it stayed pretty clear from the beginning.

Did anything particular, I know you mentioned Fontaines D.C., but were there any other bands or artists that were an inspiration or influence?
Yeah, I think Block Party, especially that first album Silent Alarm, was a huge inspiration for my bass playing and Niamh’s drumming in particular. We took a lot of inspiration from that. I remember talking to Niamh about parts and how cool it would be if someone referenced our parts in the future for the style of music they want to play, like if someone picked out the guitar, or the bass, or the drums and said, “I want to play bass like Jaida plays bass on this album.” We just wanted to make all the parts really interesting instead of dulling it down to make it more consumable.

Did you feel like Glory really challenged the band in a lot of ways?
I think so. Sonically it pushed us to be more creative with it. I think we all raised the bar a bit, so then we all wanted to match each other’s bar. We tried to make it really interesting. It challenged us creatively, for our past works, going back to the vision thing, we had a clear vision, but it was always like a general vibe. When the finished product happened, we’d be pretty happy with it, but it wasn’t exactly what we wanted because we didn’t have this clear image. But now, even with all the music videos, we had to sit down and figure out all the nitty‑gritty parts of it, which was really interesting.

Were there any difficult moments you had to get through while working on the album?
I don’t know, I guess because this was a very all‑consuming process. We recorded at The Grove, and you stay on site when you record there, so we were there for six weeks in the studio and the studio was where you sleep. It was very all‑encompassing. The trickiest parts were things like Catherine Marks, who is an incredible producer, being up until ten or eleven o’clock mixing the album, and you might be there for four hours playing the same small bass snippet just to get the right take or the right feel. A lot of this album was based on the best feel of the parts, so that repetitive playing to get the best possible take was pretty challenging. But I’m glad we stuck to it, you can really hear it in the album.

When you’re all in the same location for six weeks, did that test relationships a bit, not having space to walk away?
You’d think so more, because we’ve had issues in the past, — we’ve been best friends for twenty years, so obviously there are roadblocks along the way. But it was actually fine. I think we’ve really learned how to be around each other in a way that’s harmonious in a work environment. We’re all best friends, but because the band is our job as well, sometimes you have to switch off that friendship and go into work mode. We have to be super conscious, if someone’s not in a great mood or feeling down, it’s their responsibility to go be by themselves for a bit, and everyone else shouldn’t push them or prod them. If they’re snappy, they’re probably just having a bad morning, so just give them space. It ended up going pretty alright. We had weekends off as well, and for most weekends we’d go off and do our own thing, which was needed because you’re spending six days a week, twenty four hours together. Then you have Sunday off, so everyone would go to the beach or go for a walk.

Was it exciting seeing the songs come together in their finished form and thinking, “Wow, we’ve got something here”?
Yeah, one hundred percent. Very exciting. A lot of the synths on this album and new sounds we’ve never had before, our last stuff has been quite raw, and this one’s production is a lot higher. Being able to achieve sounds we didn’t know we could achieve was really cool. The fun part was adding these crazy parts and then being like, “Alright, how are we going to play this live?” Translating a crazy synth part to a guitar part, figuring out what pedal you need to make it sound like this robot‑synth thing, that’s been really fun to work out.

How was the vibe when you listened to it for the first time? Was that a moment of triumph?
It was a bit weird, because with recording you’re there for every step of the process, it’s not like you record it, don’t hear it, and then get it back. I was hearing it being built. But I listen to it once every couple of days. We recorded this in April, and I’ve probably listened to the whole album two or three times a week, and I’m still not sick of it yet, so that’s good.

Working with Catherine Marks, that’s a pretty big deal. Do you think she was a significant part of this, and that you might not have achieved what you did if you’d worked with someone else?
One hundred percent, she was incredible. Just an absolute inspiration of a person, so strong, so cool, and she knows what she’s doing. She’s so sure of herself, and she just knows a good sound. Like I said before, we’d be playing a song all together for six hours trying to get the right feel, and we were like, “What are you feeling for, Catherine? You’re crazy.” And then we’d play one take and she’d be like, “That’s it,” and we’d all be like, “That was it, you’re right.” She really made it better and bigger, and she gave me personally a lot of skills to take on for song writing, producing, and playing bass in the future.

On top of that, you’re touring, you’ve got your own tour booked for May this year. That’s exciting, playing some of the biggest venues you’ve played.
Yeah, so exciting. The Forum in Melbourne is genuinely my dream venue, so that’s pretty crazy to say we’re headlining it. Absolutely stoked and other places, like I remember Roundhouse, we supported Violent Soho there a couple years ago and I was like, “Holy crap, there’s so many people.” And now I’m like, well, there’s gonna be that many people at the show coming for us, which is insane. Also going to New Zealand for the first time. I’m such a big Lord of the Rings fan, so I’m going to try and squeeze in some Lord of the Rings tour.

Touring with Pearl Jam, one of my favourite bands. How was that experience?
It was absolutely crazy, as you’d expect. Just insane. They’re a household name, grew up listening to them, so it was wild. They’re all the loveliest people. The band, their entire crew, I feel like they have a no‑arsehole policy because everyone was so lovely and made us feel really welcome. It’s crazy how a band of that size can make you feel so welcome when we’ve played with bands that are much smaller and they won’t even talk to you. Then you’ve got one of the biggest bands in the world being genuinely incredible people. It really shows how you should be in music.

Did you get to have a moment with Ed at all?
Yeah, we’ve actually hung out with him a couple times. He’s awesome. In Australia he came and said hi a couple times, he introduced us on stage. We had this moment after the last show, we were leaving to go to karaoke and we were like, “Eddie, you should come to karaoke,” and he was like, “I’m not coming to karaoke.” We were like, “Come on!” And he said, “Just in case I do come, what’s the address?” So we gave him the address. We went to the karaoke place and it was shut. So we went to another one and we woke up in the morning to an Instagram DM from his security guard Jake, a video of him and Eddie at the front of the karaoke place saying, “We’re here, where are you guys?” So we stood Eddie up for karaoke! But in America we got to hang out with the whole band a couple times. Mike McCready would always come say hi, always watching our sets. Very, very supportive, which was awesome.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch the Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers on the following dates, tickets HERE…