Issue 39: Teenage Joans
Welcome to The Band Bible! I’m truly glad to have you here. If you’re a new reader, purpose of this newsletter is to address, break down, and shine a light on the business of being in a band. Each issue, we do this by interviewing (and celebrating!) someone who is making waves through their incredible work with or for artists, or is an artist themselves. Learning the business of being in a band is something that is often inaccessible or shrouded in mystery, and it shouldn’t be, so I hope The Band Bible is able to play even a small role in helping to change that.
Five years ago, most people saw their worlds stand still. But, for Thalia Borg and Cahli Blakers, theirs begin to flip on its axis.
After meeting in 2018 and subsequently forming Teenage Joans, the Australian duo released their second single, “Three Leaf Clover,” in March 2020. Just six months later, the track would lead them to winning triple j’s Unearthed High contest.
From there, their world flipped further.
The next few years saw them support Foo Fighters, hit the road for national and international tours, and release their debut album (2023’s The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest) to ubiquitous acclaim — and those are just a few of their recent achievements.
The rapid rise of Teenage Joans is completely unsurprising. The sheer amount of fun that Borg and Blakers clearly have in creating and performing together is effortlessly infectious. Listening to their music cracks your heart open and forces the light to shine in, leading to moving results that can in part be boiled down to their writing style. Teenage Joans have described their sound as “juice box pop-punk,” with the “juice box” label referring to the lyrics they craft to call upon a sense of nostalgia and be consumable to younger listeners. For example, “Ruby Doomsday” invokes the imagery of a birthday present, “My Dentist Hates Me !!!” alludes to having braces, “Superglue” namechecks the Easter Bunny, and “moneymoneymoney” opts to reference a piggy bank rather than any number of the dull financial terminology we all know exists.
It’s important to note that this stylistic choice is not juvenile. Rather, it’s powerful. We so often digest art through the lens of who we are today, but Teenage Joans affords us a listening experience that we can also share with who we were. The past versions of ourselves — the child, the teenager, the younger adult — they never stop living inside of us. After all, before we had to get jobs and pay bills, we first marvelled over the mythical creatures that purportedly visited us on holidays or when we lost a tooth. We first knew our birthdays to be saccharine occasions of sticky fingers and primary colors. Big burdens could first present themselves in the form of the gnarled treadmill of orthodontics. These early happenings often lie closer to our heart’s core than we may knowingly or actively acknowledge. This keeps them fresh, this keeps them perennial. That said, what Borg and Blakers create is an occurrence where all versions of ourselves can join together. They can stand arm in arm and enjoy art that touches them all equally and fully, and one day, who you’ll become in the future will join the chain. Teenage Joans gifts us with music you can grow up with, no matter how old you are.
Teenage Joans has also notably excelled in the worldbuilding around their work in the form of their music videos, which are gorgeously shot, riddled with detail, and contain a clear narrative structure. This gives each music video the feeling of a short film, and in fact, a short film proper is exactly what the band created to accompany The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest. The film, which sees tracks from the album woven through an Alice in Wonderland-like tale, offers a delectable stylistic cocktail of Burton, Lynch, and a whole lot of joy. It serves as one of many examples of the extent to which Borg and Blakers are clever, thoughtful creators. A Teenage Joans song never feels like just a song — it is an experience, and it’s apparent that great care is taken in mapping out how that experience will translate to the ear, the eye, and the heart alike.
The band continues to carry this torch via their new single, “Sweet and Slow.” Listening to the track is like discovering a sliver of sun amidst the shade and feeling it dance upon your shoulders — cozy and bright, warm and wonderful. The earworm, which chronicles repeatedly choosing someone no matter what, finds its juice box lyrics in mentions of daisy chains and writing on hands. Of course, “Sweet and Slow” also brings us another merry music video that’s rich in skill and story. The single acts as an additional showcase for the band’s ability to hearten, charm, and entertain.
What “Sweet and Slow” continues to prove evident is that Thalia Borg and Cahli Blakers are one of the most sparkling creative duos working today. On top of being talented musicians, their ability to write in a manner that simultaneously conjures sentimentality and glee before then translating those songs into nuanced visual experiences is something special. Teenage Joans is the technicolor beating heart of contemporary pop-punk, and we are all better for it.
In the interview you’re about to read, Teenage Joans unpack what it was like to find success fast and young, “Sweet and Slow,” juggling the band’s rise with other commitments, the commandment they’re leaving in The Band Bible, and more. Enjoy.
Your next single, "Sweet and Slow," is set for release in a few weeks. What do you want people to know about it?
We wrote this song early 2023 in LA (the first time we ever went to America) with Jayden Seely, who was graciously letting us crash on his couch. The writing process felt so natural, it was kinda just like three besties hanging out writing a song. We really wanted to write a “cheesy” pop-punk song, taking influence from early 5sos and Jonas Brothers. The music video is set on The Joans Show, a fake TV show we created, with Teenage Joans (us) as the guests. Everything goes right until it doesn’t…
In past interviews, you've spoken about not putting yourselves in a box creatively. What have you enjoyed most about leaning into versatility?
Being a more versatile band, we’ve toured with acts on all ends of the spectrum. We’ve supported iconic rock legends Foo Fighters, the alt-pop queen Amy Shark, emo icons Sleeping With Sirens, we’ve really had so much fun playing shows with anyone we can. Not putting ourselves in a box has also given our music the opportunity to mature along with us, without the fear of trying to fulfil a specific expectation. It also means we can take creative risks, for example releasing a short film instead of music videos, and our fans love to come along for whatever ride we take them on.
Success found you not only quickly, but at a young age. What's the biggest lesson you've learned from experiencing this?
Having a good support system and a team who genuinely likes the art we create makes all the difference. Also making every decision for ourselves (it’s never too late to delete your most popular song from the internet if it doesn’t reflect the vision anymore!)
How have you balanced making time for other commitments and interests as Teenage Joans has grown?
Well, we’re certainly balancing… successfully is a different story. You kinda just have to love what you do and hope for the best! We try not to look at being in a band as work, it’s still just as fun when we hang out and jam together as it was when we started. We’re in it for fun first, anything else is just a bonus.
Lastly, which “commandment” would you like to leave behind in The Band Bible?
Make sure you believe in yourself and your art, there’s only one of you so be yourself!
Thank you to Teenage Joans for taking the time to share such thoughtful answers. To keep up with the band, head to their website — there, you’ll find links to socials and streaming, merch, tour information, and more. Special thanks to Logan Kramer.