Our Chat with There's A Tuesday

New Zealand, our long lost cousin, really doesn’t get enough credit from us Aussie’s. The amount of talent brewing over there is pretty astounding once you take a closer look. There’s A Tuesday are just one of the many brilliant, young bands that have caught our attention recently. We took some time last week to interview them about their EP, Boy Scout, which is out as of today. It’s a beautiful album full of heart which presents a new and more mature side of their sound.

The sense of friendship within the band is also super present in this EP. I hear that same sense of happiness and connection in ‘Middle Kids’ so if you’re already a fan of them then I can pretty much guarantee you’ll be a fan of Boy Scout. They capture that indie-rock/dreamy pop mix perfectly, but every one of their tracks is also 100% unique and distinctly theirs because they are so damn honest. They don’t hold back on writing about their personal, lived experiences, good and bad, which gives a real air of bravery to the EP. 

You can learn more about the behind the scenes stuff from Boy Scout in our interview below. Minnie and Nat talked all things writing-envy, sushi, band budgets and more with us. It’s safe to say we are big time fans. 

WANDERER: Congrats on the release of your EP, Boy Scout! How are you guys feeling about it? Are you nervous or just keen?

Nat: Excited?

Minnie: Yeah. I'm definitely on the keen side. It is nerve-wracking before releasing as well, but really exciting.

Is there any way that it's pushed you differently to the previous album?

N: Totally. I think there's the musicality of it, to even the topics that we’re writing about. It’s definitely our most sincere body of work yet and we feel like you can hear how we've matured, as people.

M: Even listening to our songs from a couple years back, it's like, ‘Oh, random, what's that about?’ haha. I think we feel really proud of this writing.

Where did you take inspiration from, for the songwriting of these? Was there anywhere specific?

M:Definitely from experience. Our experiences over the last couple years have led to a lot of the writing, which has been really special for us to get our feelings and experiences down onto a page and share it. But also listening to lots of music that’s important to us has been really inspirational as well. And there's just so many cool women doing cool things out there. So I guess we are very much watching them and being like, ‘Wow, I wanna do that.’ How about you Nat?

N: Yeah, the same thing. Our experiences and new things happening. A lot of our writing has always focused on super, super personal stuff to us and stuff that we feel like we can write about because we've experienced it. So a lot of the new album relates to mental health and homophobia and gnarly stuff we've experienced, and also nice stuff we've experienced!

You guys grew up in Christchurch, is that right? I feel like it's a pretty chill place with a small town feel to it. What was it like starting out there and trying to grow as a band and trying to get to where you are now?

M: Well, we met very spontaneously and we easily couldn't have met, so it was really lucky. I’d definitely heard of Nat just from around-the-block type of thing, and had always just been like, ‘Oh, cool music, chick’ haha. But we never hung out. And then we started hanging out and a lot of our friends were super supportive. So obviously that's always a great way to springboard a little bit. We definitely had a lot of help from people around us. We did this national competition here, ‘Rockquest’, they do a lot to support youth and music and they gave us a lot of help. So I feel like it's a sweet, wee scene here. It is pretty little and sometimes we've found it hard to navigate the New Zealand music industry, but that’s because there's so much amazing stuff going on and you kind of wanna find a nice wee spot. But I think we've been really lucky to have lots of people supporting us.

N: Yeah, I feel like Christchurch is so underrated. There is so much talent there and we were lucky to meet so much of it and get support from them. Like so many great artists have come out of Christchurch as well, like Marlon Williams, Anika Moa. So it is a really tight, close, supportive community. And that being the people in the music industry and also just like our mates and our friends and our siblings, like Minnie’s brother, Walt, is in a band called Butlers and he was definitely a huge mentor and role model. We've had lots of fun and have been really lucky.

So, it being a bit of a tighter knit community has been helpful, like it's not like you needed any more than that, really?

M: Yeah. I'd say it's very welcoming and warming, you know? It makes you wanna keep creating.

So you guys met spontaneously, you weren't friends before this or anything?

N: We weren't friends, we didn't know each other, so I always think about this: Minnie is my best friend in the whole world and the most important person to me. And if it wasn't for music, or me having that interest in music, it probably wouldn't have been the same, if not, even happened. So we met at our drummer, Gus's, birthday party and had a conversation about playing the guitar, something real lame, like, ‘I play the guitar!’  hahah. Then we met up to play the guitar and then started songwriting together, and then it just turned into a great friendship. 

From there you obviously grew and you signed with Olive Records, which is BENEE's label. How did that come about?

M: We met Stella at Rhythm and Alps, which is a wee festival down near Queenstown in Wanaka. And it's a really cool spot in the Hills, so it's epic. And she was playing it as well and we just kind of started chatting away and she was really sweet and nice. And then she had shown us quite a lot of support over the next few months until she just asked us if we wanted to join her label. We were waaay excited.

N: Yeah. We said no… hahah.

M: It happened pretty organically and it was really special for us. 

And then you toured with her as well, right?

N: Yes. Well, we were playing on her New Zealand tour and then COVID struck sadly, twice. So, it's still happening, but it's been postponed. But we did go over to Australia with her. Did a show at Sydney Luna park which was really fun, definitely one of our top five epic moments.

M: Did you have any favourite memories of Australia, aside from Luna park? 

N: The first day we went there—I don't know if the sushi was actually that good or if I was just really hungry…

M: Oh my gosh.

N: But we arrived that day and we were just so hungry, so hangry. And we went to this really old, fancy building, it’s a mall in Sydney and it's got all the real Gucci and stuff. 

And, I'm not even trying to be poetic, but we got to the bottom and it was literally like this glowing light at the end of the tunnel.

M: It really was.

N: It was a huge pick your own sushi thing with tofu and pumpkin rolls and stuff, and a lot of us are vegan and veggie so it was epic. I've never been happier in my life.

Do you have any dream cities to play at or dream venues?

M: I'd like to play in Amsterdam, I think it would be an amazing thing to be able to just say ‘We went!’ haha.

N: It’d be an extra ten seconds of something to talk about while we're tuning on stage. We could be like, ‘We have been. We did it.’

Being friends and being in a band, it must create some pretty fun dynamics. Do you find that there's a natural leader or a Mum or a Dad of the band?

N: Gus is the dad. We were actually talking about this the other day, we were saying how Gus is the most mature and then Minnie, Joel and I are kind of on this…

M: Silly level.

N: But Gus is the one that will make a budget when we go play a show and make sure we don't spend over $14.76 each on whatever it is. Joel's…what's Joel?

M: He's really relaxed.

N: Very relaxed, especially because Minnie and I, we're just quite anxious people, so it's great having Joel. It makes the dynamic so awesome because he does not care about anything, like he'll miss a flight and be like, ‘Oh, damn.’

Do you have any favourite songs for the EP?

M: My favourite is probably ‘Half Bad’. I think it’s a real powerful one. The second I listened to it, I started crying. It was just a super emotional moment for me, probably one of my favourite moments of this year so far. 

N: Yeah, that song is definitely the most vulnerable one on the EP, I would say. But my favourite song that's coming out is called ‘To:Amy’. And it's one that Minnie wrote, I think it's like the best lyric writing I've ever heard. I wish I wrote it.

M: Thank you, Nat.

I know that feeling when you hear something that's just so great. And you're like, ‘Oh, I wish I wrote that. Like, I could never do it, but I wish I could.’

M: Yeah, I get that a lot with like, I don't know, Phoebe Bridgers. Just writing envy.

N: Writing envy is a thing.

M: Let’s talk about that.

N: I get cooking envy when my flatmates make some heaps good noodle dish.

I think I might be the cooking envy roommate. I'm the one that’s always feeding them.

M: Oh, that's good. I love that flat mate. That's my mum for me.

Mum’s are Pretty good for that haha. How did it feel to be tapping into that more vulnerable side? Because some of those tracks are definitely pretty powerful and there's heavy topics that you touch on in there. How was it to get into that?

N: I think songwriting is the best, best, best, best form of self expression. And being super vulnerable within our songwriting is something that Minnie and I both have always wanted to do. And we've been working at throwing in little personal statements and stuff, but with this body of work, we're just like a big open book. We talk about all the things we care about, all the people we love and it's really, really special to us. It feels good to be honest in our song writing because we wanna be honest with ourselves.

INTERVIEW BY: MATILDA REID