Tag: Woroni Artist Series

• INTERVIEW WITH TEENAGE DADS – WORONI ARTIST SERIES

  August 7, 2023 7:46 pm Comments Off on INTERVIEW WITH TEENAGE DADS – WORONI ARTIST SERIES

  Rather than brave the chilly walk to Civic or the daunting descent down the stairs at one22, head out to Belconnen and enjoy the musical delight of something that isn’t a poorly done remix of Rush or Padam. 
  As part of our Artists Series, Woroni Content Editor Lizzie sat down with Teenage Dads to chat about life on tour, crowd culture, and the big scary P word (pop!).
  Thank you guys so much for taking the time to chat with me.
  That’s okay, we’re not doing much.
  That’s surprising because you guys have been busy!
  Yeah, I mean, we actually are doing certain things, getting ready for Splendour in the Grass, but the whole point of the next few days is to rest after our US run and then get ready for the festival. 
  Yeah, absolutely. So you guys have been touring all across Europe, are you guys excited to tour in Australia? Do you find it different to being on the road in Europe, versus you know, being on home turf?
  Yeah everyone’s pretty different. It’s kinda weird…we skipped winter this year.
  That’s one benefit I’d say. I feel like in our experiences so far overseas, overseas is just set up far better for touring. We were joking with Lime Cordiale a lot how you do a weekend in Australia, you would feel absolutely ruined. Whereas you do two weeks in the UK or Europe and you’ll be fine. 
  Why is that?
  I think partly the distance stuff but also, you don’t really have to fly anywhere. I think the whole process of finishing a gig in Australia, you go to the hotel room, you sleep for a couple of hours, get up, airport, fly, and just that whole process kills you.
  Whereas you can just take trains and stuff around Europe and it’s much quicker, much easier on your bodies, I guess?
  Yeah. It’s just that’s the way it’s kind of felt anyway, but we’re still really looking forward to being back home. I think it’ll give us a new perspective. 
  The water is better in Australia. 
  That I don’t doubt. What are the crowds like over there? Are they different to your  home base fans here, who maybe have known you guys for a while? 
  It’s a little bit different, in different areas the crowd is more cool than other areas, and  some places are more inclined to dance and sing, and some places it’s more of like a ‘hands on hips, just watch’. But I feel like people still will come up everywhere and say how much they enjoyed the set. It’s just very, very different in some areas, people don’t show it during the set as much.
  I imagined in Australia crowds kind of go a bit more wild. But that might be a stereotype. 
  I think the big part of it, particularly for us, is you kind of just can’t really compare the two just yet because, like you said we’re an Australian band and we played in Australia for years. So people kind of definitely know who we are, so there’s a more likely chance of fans being really big fans. Whereas overseas they’re seeing us or hearing us for the first time, so they’re not going to be absolutely losing their mind or anything like that.
  Having said that, Dublin particularly popped off. They’re really loose people there. 
  Maybe they have something in the water?
  Yeah or just the Guinness, maybe.  
  All those sorts of cultural differences, like when we did the first Dublin gig, instead of a one more song chant they’ve got “Olé, Olé, Olé!”. 
  You never get that here. Then you get the odd Australian that’s there being a dickhead going “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!”
  That’s so good. Maybe for some of our readers who aren’t super familiar with your stuff, how would you guys describe your sound to our readers and listeners? 
  Do we get like, ‘describe your sound in three words or less’?
  I’ll be generous. I’ll give you five. 
  Too many!
  2
  First word is alright. Yeah. Alright . 
  Allright…Let me see. That’s four!
  What’s the closer?
  Rock! Indie rock. We just tell everybody it’s indie rock, indie pop. 
  I was in a record store the other day in Toronto. It was massive and I was just looking at the way they categorise things. Most of the bands and artists that I listen to were all in indie pop. So I was kinda like,’ all right, I can see us being in the indie pop category, if that’s what this classifies’.
  For ages we were scared of those words, we’d go, “yeah, we’re a psychedelic rock band”. You didn’t want to use the word pop, or indie.

  I would say we probably describe our band more so now as not psychedelic. Just to kind of really reaffirm that we don’t think that’s what we are. Maybe to all the Woroni readers out there: Teenage Dads are not a psychedelic band!
  And they’re not a surf band!
  If you guys could have your way, no strings attached, no limits, who would you love to go on tour with, supporting?
  Abba! If they’re free…probably hit them up. 
  Queen. That would be a good one. Kinda sick. 
  Prodigy. 
  Dolly Parton. 
  Dolly Parton would be sick, do you think her fans would like your stuff?
  I think Dolly and I would really get along well. 
  That’s all that matters. 
  So true, it’s about the vibes. Great answer. If you guys were to make it really big, which I feel is not too far off, who would you bring on tour to support you, what upcoming artists? 
  There’s a really cool indie folk artist in Nashville…. Dolly Parton? 
  Um….. that’s tough. 
  Let’s plug all the bands that are supporting us on the next tour. We’ve got the Moving Stills, Death by Denim, Betty Taylor, Aleksiah, Siena Rebelo, Bocce in Tassie. I think that’s everyone! It’s always really cool picking support, sometimes you want to… you feel like you need to do it on a strategic basis to help pull more people to the tour and that sort of thing. But it’s also just really fun if you can set that aside and bring your friends along
  So what’s next for you guys? I mean, I’m sure you’re exhausted and this is the last thing you want to think about, but the people want to know – are you thinking about another album, less touring, a break maybe? What are you feeling?
  We’ve got a new song that we just got back from a master, but apart from that nothing’s really ready to go. 
  Yeah on the music front, we are working away, but we don’t know when things will be… we don’t have much information to divulge… 
  That’s all right. Keep your secrets. 
  We do have this big Australian tour coming up, which will, I think, bring us to nearly 100 shows this year, which will warrant some rest. We don’t have a whole lot planned for the November/ December period, but who knows, things might pop up. 
  Sounds like you guys are overdue for a little vacation. 
  Want to stay on campus? Check out the Kambri website to get tickets performances like the DMAs and Safia!

  Interview with Teenage Dads – Woroni Artists Series. Live Show at University of Canberra Saturday August 12.

  Elizabeth Fewster

• Interview with Chri$tian Gate$ – Woroni Artist Series

  June 26, 2023 7:00 pm Comments Off on Interview with Chri$tian Gate$ – Woroni Artist Series

  Chri$tian Gate$ is an up-and-coming alternative rock and pop artist from California, USA who has recently released his debut Extended Play (EP); Why Do I Hear Breathing?. The 20 year old musician boasts an impressive social media presence and is slated to perform at Lollapalooza 2023. We sat down with Chri$tian Gate$ to discuss his debut EP, his creative process, and the importance of social media for young musicians. 
   
  Let’s start with our first question. You’ve recently released Why Do I Hear Breathing?. We just want to know what’s the song that you’re proudest of on the album? 
  I think Never with You Again is probably my favourite. When I first wrote it, we made the acoustic. My friend, Sarcastic Sounds, played the acoustic while we were all on a writing camp together and I had a feeling, I was like, “I feel like if I get my heart broken, I want to use this”, and then my heart got broken. So then I immediately drove to my producer friend’s house and I was like, “hey, I need to write something to this, let’s record something”, and I sat in the car for like 30 minutes. I wrote the song and I was like, “hey, can we record?” He’s like, “no people are sleeping in my house”. And I’m like, “well, what can we do?” and he’s like, “we can try recording at the park”. So then we went to the park and we recorded the whole song and somehow it sounds like it was recorded in the studio and I think it came out really, really dope. 
   
  That’s amazing. What was the hardest song to create on Why Do I Hear Breathing?? Obviously you recorded in a park for one of your songs. But was that the hardest song or were there other songs on it that you were like, wow, this is really difficult, but you’re glad that you got it done. 
  Most of them came together pretty smoothly. [The song] Why Do I Hear Breathing? had some issues with putting it out. Some people were not letting it happen, like holding it back, but then it finally came out. So maybe that, but everything else seemed to work out fine. 
   
  You’ve mentioned that getting your heart broken, I’m very sorry about that, was sort of your main source of inspiration. Is that sort of the whole main inspiration for Why Do I Hear Breathing? or is it just what you were feeling at the time of writing each song? 
  If you go in order, the EP is the different insecure thoughts you can get throughout a relationship until it inevitably ends. So each song in order are just my thoughts. And then the final song [BREATHE] is just like a bonus song about me having a twin and then murdering him and dressing in his clothes to reap his fame.
   
  You’ve released songs before Why Do I Hear Breathing?. Did the EP have a different source of inspiration or was this just like continuing on from what you’ve started with? 
  I think it was pretty similar, but I’m making a new EP and that is coming out pretty soon, in the next few months. And that one has a very different inspiration. I can’t say what it is yet, but it is totally different, but it’s really cool. 
   
  So tell me a little bit more about your creative process just in general. What is your starting point when you are making a song? 
  I would say I start with someone who knows how to play guitar or piano really well and we just go through a bunch of different chords. Once we find a chord progression that fits the vibe I’m in, we go from there and then kind of figure out what we want to write about. Most of the time it’s true experiences that I’ve been through or those of people close to me. It’s like I’m telling other people stories who wouldn’t really be able to tell the stories themselves. And that’s pretty much it. 
   
  I’m excited to listen to it when it comes out then! So moving to more about you as a musician. We’ve seen that you are performing at Lollapalooza this year, but you’ve also performed live before. What is your most memorable live performance so far? 
  I did a show in Chicago and there were two fans that wanted me to sign their chest with a Sharpie. I had to sign everybody really fast and I signed both of them and they said “we’re gonna go get this tattooed” and I was like, “no, please don’t”. It was like a big giant ugly signature on their chest. I told them, “please don’t, just send me a picture of you with a tattoo artist and then I’ll come back and I’ll do it better and then you can get that tattooed”. I was gonna do it like way smaller, but they went and they sent me videos of them just getting those tatted. It’s cool that somebody would do that, but it sucks that they did it. 
   
  Are you looking forward to performing at Lollapalooza? I’ve sort of seen who you’re performing with and it’s quite a big show with big names.
  I’m excited. There’s a lot of people there that I’d love to see and I got a lot of friends performing there. It’s gonna be really cool. It’s my first festival. I’ve never been to a festival before, so I can’t wait. 
   
  You found your footing in the music industry and popularity through TikTok and other social media. Do you think the value of platforms like TikTok is for young emerging artists like yourself and other people? 
  I think it is priceless. There’s no other way that I know of to get a similar result within a similar amount of time. It’s probably the best tool that you could ask for.
   
  Do you have any advice for young people looking to get into the music scene? 
  Only do it if you really, really want to do it and you don’t care about money. A lot of the time the money won’t come for a while. If you’re motivated by the wrong reasons, your music is gonna suffer and your mental health will suffer as well.
   
  Finally, do you have anything that you would want people to know about you?
  I’m making a new EP and I’m excited about it. It’s a folk, borderline country-but-not EP and it’s way different but way different in a cool way. And I’m just, I’m so excited for this to come out. 
  Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time.
   
  Chri$tian Gate$’s debut EP Why Do I Hear Breathing? is available to stream on all major platforms. The music video for Never With You Again is out now on YouTube.

  Woroni Radio