Q&A: Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers Claim Their GLORY
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photo Credit: Brianna Da Silva
GLORY ISN’T HERE TO PLAY NICE — It’s loud, messy, and gloriously self-assured. Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers have always thrived on attitude and honesty, but their second album takes it somewhere bigger: ten tracks of fearless, unfiltered indie rock that capture the chaos and confidence of being young, in love and a little bit unhinged.
Composed of Anna Ryan (vocals/guitar), Scarlett McKahey (guitar/vocals), Jaida Stephenson (bass), and Neve van Boxsel (drums), Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers have spent a decade creating a sound that’s unfiltered and unapologetic. On GLORY, they arrive fully formed with a project that pulses with the rush of walking home after a night out, your phone battery dying, your lipstick smudged, and your heart still beating loud in your ears.
“It’s completely us,” the band says — and it sounds like it.
Teen Jesus poured an incredible amount of time, talent, and raw energy into the making of GLORY, teaming up with legendary producer Catherine Marks to bring their vision to life. The five weeks they spent together at a remote studio in New South Wales became a space where the band could experiment freely, toss out what didn’t feel right and push themselves toward the truest version of their sound.
The result is an album that kicks down the door and demands to be heard. Opening track “WATCHING ME LEAVE” is a cathartic anthem that reclaims autonomy through razor-edged guitar lines and blistering attitude. “TURN AROUND” captures the duality of confidence and anxiety, shifting between feeling unstoppable one moment and tongue-tied the next. On “MINE,” the band revels in obsession. And lead single “BALCONY” is a high-voltage fever dream that’s flirty, chaotic, and bursting with energy, acting as the soundtrack to getting kicked out of the bar.
If their 2023 debut I Love You introduced the band’s raw power, GLORY is the glow-up that’s sharper, louder and drenched in confidence. Ten years into playing together, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers have evolved from Canberra high schoolers to one of the most magnetic indie acts in the scene. Their chemistry is undeniable, both on stage and in the studio, a decade-long friendship that bleeds into everything they create.
Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers aren’t just chasing glory, they’re defining it. And in doing so, they’ve made one of the most self-assured, exhilarating indie-rock records of the year.
Photo Credit: Brianna Da Silva
LUNA: Welcome back and thank you for talking to Luna again. It's super exciting to have you back since the last time we talked about the release of your “BALCONY” single. I would love to catch up and see how life has been treating you and what have you been up to since the last time we talked.
ANNA: I feel like so much has happened since “BALCONY” already, like we did the music video for that. We've released three other songs. It's all moving very quickly, but it's all really exciting as well.
LUNA: You released your second album GLORY and huge congratulations! What sparked the initial idea for GLORY? What themes or emotions did you set out to explore?
ANNA: With the last album, we wanted to get all of the music that we had out there. It was all written over different times and there's literally songs on that album that we wrote when we were 16. It was sort of like a big here's everything we've got and now we'll move on to the next thing. With GLORY, it was all very intentional and we were really planning it out quite a lot. I feel like you can hear that it's very cohesive as well and it's all meant to be together. It's like the songs are all best.
LUNA: You spent five intensive weeks at a remote studio in New South Wales to bring GLORY to life. How did being in that environment influence the creative energy or the dynamic between the four of you? What did the creative process look like?
ANNA: We've never done something like that before with recording. It was very intense during the first week to adjust to being here everyday, but it became everyday. We would wake up, have breakfast, go into the studio, work for the whole day, and then at the end of the day, we will watch “Married at First Sight” or “Ru Paul's Drag Race,” and it became normal very quickly, but we sunk into it very quickly as well. It was cool to be fully immersed into the album. We've never done that before where we literally are there, start to finish, and we're creating the album. What we've done before is going away for a weekend, recording a couple songs, going back to our everyday lives and that was it. But this was very much we were in it. All I'm thinking about is GLORY. I'm literally dreaming about our songs and everything was full on. We all had such a great time. I think we were expecting to get on each other's nerves heaps, but we were actually just vibing.
LUNA: Working with Catherine Marks — who’s produced for so many legendary rock acts — must have been such a formative experience. What was it like collaborating with her, and how did she help you unlock the “truest version” of your sound?
ANNA: She is literally just such an icon. When we thought we were in for a chance to work with her, we were like, as if that's crazy. Why does she want to record an album with us? I think for me, it was a little intimidating. She made us feel comfortable straight away. She's such a lovely person and we all clicked pretty quickly. I think we went into it, and we were just like whatever she wants to bring to the table, we're not going to shut down any ideas for anything with this album. We wanted to try everything and then see what works and see what doesn't. In the past, we've been very like, ‘we want to be like a punk band or a rock band.’ But with this album, the genre of it all doesn't really matter, it’s just whatever is working is what's going to be the best option. Watching her work was crazy. She was locked into her monitor all day.
LUNA: Did you take any creative risks or experiment with new approaches on GLORY compared to I Love You? What felt different this time around in how you expressed yourself?
ANNA: She was doing things that maybe we wouldn't think of straight away, so just experimenting with different sounds, using different pedals and different synths. She would literally be in there for hours just trying to find the right synth sound for one random part of one of the songs. She has the most amazing attention to detail.
LUNA: Do you have a personal favorite song on the album — one that feels closest to your heart or most revealing who Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers are right now?
ANNA: The one that feels closest to my heart right now is “WONDERFUL,” just because I did write it from personal experience. “MOTHER” is such an amazing song, like the journey from start to finish is just wild. I think that people maybe weren't expecting that from us. I love that song, but the more sentimental one is “WONDERFUL.”
LUNA: After pouring so much time, sweat, and emotion into GLORY, what do you want your listeners – especially femme listeners — to take away from the project? What messages do you hope will resonate?
ANNA: There's so many messages in GLORY. I think the main theme of GLORY is being very confident in yourself and that's why we called it GLORY, because it's about having so much confidence in yourself and what you're doing. It's a glorious feeling. I think just sticking to what you love and being confident while doing it and taking risks, it pays off.
LUNA: What is fueling your fire right now that’s pushing you into this new chapter in your career?
ANNA: Musically at the moment, I think we're all really excited for the release of GLORY, but to be playing all of the songs live, and seeing all the fans loving it. I think we're all just super stoked to be touring this album.
LUNA: How are you planning on celebrating the album release?
ANNA: We've talked about a very fancy dinner. I think there's a lot of celebration talks, because we're also coming up on our 10 years of being a band, which is another celebration in itself. I think it's going to be just a big year of celebrating.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would like to share with Luna?
ANNA: I feel like we're feeling pretty solid right now. We're very excited about all the new music we're releasing, and what opportunities are going to come from that. We just want to get it out there and tour and see how far we can go with it. But at the end of the day, the Teen Jesus motto is to just keep loving it. We're just going to keep doing that.
Photo Credit: Brianna Da Silva
