Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers on their 'empowering' new single Never Saw It Coming and The Foo Fighters tour announcement

On Monday it was announced the Canberra band would be supporting The Foo Fighters on their Australian stadium tour. Last week the four-piece was nominated for two AIR Awards alongside the likes of fellow Aussie bands Ball Park Music, Daniel Johns, Vance Joy and The Wiggles. And on Thursday, Teen Jesus announced the release of its upcoming debut album, I Love You, due out on September 8, alongside their latest single Never Saw It Coming.

For drummer Neve van Boxsel, the single in particular is also a personal win. It's the first time she has written and sung solo on a Teen Jesus track before. But more than that, it's a way for the musician to take back control following a sexual assault.

Never Saw It Coming took van Boxsel over a year to write, because she wanted to articulate exactly how her own sexual assault affected her emotionally.

"It was never really my plan to bring it to the band. But we were at a writing retreat, it was just us four, and I had just finished the song by myself, and I showed Anna, the lead singer, a recording of it. And Anna instantly broke down and was like, we have to record this," van Boxsel said.

"I had never sung by myself in the studio before, I had never done my own song with the band - it was all a lot of firsts. It was a very overwhelming experience.

"It is quite a sad song. But I think there is still a lot of empowerment in the lyrics. And hopefully, it makes someone feel a bit more in control. Because I know that was a big thing for me - not having control."

Never Saw It Coming is a new sound for the band. Led by van Boxsel's vulnerable vocals and accompanied by guitars, strings and some backing vocals, it's a far cry from the punk-driven sounds of the band's EP Pretty Good for a Girl Band.

And according to van Boxsel, it's a taste of what's to come with I Love You.

The album is set to be the band's most diverse release yet and a representation of the whole band.

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"We all love all the music that we've already put out, but this feels so much more of a representation of all of us and all of our music tastes because this is the first body of work, we've all collaborated on it," van Boxsel said.

"Usually, we just get one person that would write the song, and bring it to the band and we'd add our parts. But this album we all sat down, and for the bulk of it, we all wrote the words. And you can hear that.

"Never Saw It Coming is not at all, like anything that we've done. And there's a lot more of that in the album. Songs that are a lot quieter, with even a bit of strings. It's very exciting."

The album, of course, will be out in time before the Canberra band takes to the stage with the Foo Fighters in December.

Teen Jesus will join the rock legends for the Melbourne performance of the stadium - the second time the Canberra musicians have been asked to perform alongside the Foo Fighters. They were due to perform with the band last year before it was cancelled when the Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died.

"We never really thought that it would happen. And to get this offer again, we're like, what? They had two chances and they picked us both times, which is even crazier," van Boxsel said.

"I feel like I need to knuckle down and practice so much. Because apparently, Dave Grohl watches all the supports, and he comes up and introduces himself to everyone, which makes me so much more nervous. But it's crazy that we get this opportunity and just being able to see them live. It's just going to be surreal."

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