There are some days where you just need to scream.
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Canberra band Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers know that. So much so, it's the basis of their new song.
With that in mind, the aptly named track AHHHH! was released on Friday, not only bringing Teen Jesus' riot grrrl-era energy back to the airwaves but introducing them as a band under their new label, Domestic La La.
Led by Violent Soho guitarist James Tidswell, the indie label is home to bands such as Dear Seattle, West Thebarton and LOSER and comes under the UNIFIED Artists Management.
"The label is a community and a support network," bassist Jaida Stephenson says.
"It just feels like we have people who have your back and a team around you so you can be guided. We know a bit about the music scene but we don't know about everything. So it's nice to have this whole crew supporting us."
For Teen Jesus - comprising vocalist Anna Ryan, guitarist/vocalist Scarlett McKahey, Stephenson and drummer Neve van Boxsel - the label is more than a support network. It's a chance to work with one of their idols, Tidswell.
It wasn't that long ago that they were listening (and loving) Violent Soho while attending classes at Canberra College. So when their management asked if the band wanted to work with Tidswell on their track AHHHH! the answer was a resounding yes.
"Us being these stupid little fangirls, we were like, 'Oh my god!' We've been listening to them, fangirling over them since we were like 15-16," Ryan says.
"For me, they were my favourite band and I was listening to them all the time. After recording with him, we meshed just so well. And from that, we were like we want to keep working with you. We don't want there to ever be a time when we're not working with you."
And so an email was sent - the very next day, in fact - seeing what could be done to make that happen. The rest, as they say, is history.
"It's just awesome being able to have James as a mentor," Ryan says.
"Earlier this week, we were on the phone to him and he was like, 'If you ever need anything, if you want to talk about content, or stuff coming up or ideas or anything [I'm here]'. He's just made it such a nice open space for us to just be like, 'Hey James, I'm worried about this one thing', or 'How can I do this better?' He always wants to talk."
It's been about 18 months since Teen Jesus released their previous track, Desk Chair - a song that came sixth in Happy Mag's Australia-wide Needle in the Hay competition in June.
Of course, like a lot of other artists, Covid put a dampener on plans to perform that song live in the time since. However, what the time did provide was a chance to write more music.
"I feel like we've all felt stuck, because, obviously we kept getting booked for shows and they kept getting cancelled," Stephenson says.
"The band is such a massive part of our lives and not being able to do it for the past year is not a great feeling. But just getting music out there and starting to get the ball rolling again is just so exciting."
The band went into the pandemic with the plan to write as many tracks as they possibly could. The first result of that is AHHHH!.
"It's loosely about navigating a relationship with someone that you've had for a long time - maybe it's like a friendship or whatever - and their character sort of changes along the way," Ryan says.
"You come to the realisation that you should probably just kick them out of your life and move on. You can't keep all your relationships, you've got to keep moving.
"That's a very loose description of the song. The words don't really like correlate with that. But it's a feeling. It's more like a scream."