Interview: Scarlett McKahey (Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers)

If you’ve been anywhere near Australia’s alt-rock scene lately, you’ve probably heard the name Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers—and if you haven’t, it’s time to catch up. With a sound that’s equal parts riot grrrl grit and polished pop-punk swagger, the band has been turning heads and tearing up stages across the country. At the heart of their infectious energy and no-nonsense attitude is guitarist and songwriter Scarlett McKahey, whose sharp wit and unfiltered voice help shape the band’s bold identity. We caught up with Scarlett to talk tour chaos, creative freedom, and what it’s like to challenge expectations in an industry that’s still catching up.

Following a run of shows opening for legendary rock act Pearl Jam in Australia, the group is heading to the United States to do more of the same! McKahey checked in with CleveRock ahead of the tour to give us the scoop on the band and talk about their upcoming US shows.

McKahey, dealing with a relatively serious health issue with POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), has scaled back on extensive touring with the group (although she remains 100% active in writing and recording). As for the Pearl Jam shows? This is a limited run, and, frankly, a darn near impossible of an opportunity to pass up.

“Yeah, I’ll be there for these ones,” she confirmed. “I do as much as I can, so I’ll do a few tours a year and then all the kind of behind the scenes. We’ve been in the studio lately, so I’ve been in with the band for the past five weeks, recording some new music, which is exciting. I don’t do that many of the live shows anymore. It’s too tiring. But then, everything else I still do.”

The excitement is building to rejoin Pearl Jam and make their mark Stateside.

“We just toured with them in Australia as well, and it was pretty massive here as well, so we’re very excited,” McKahey said.

Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers are supporting their debut album, ‘I Love You,’ (2023), which recently saw a deluxe issue, ‘I Love You Too,’ (2024), which was issued by Mom + Pop Music in the US.

“That was obviously our first ever album, so it’s very special to us. We feel like it kind of summed up our whole, I don’t know, time in the band so far. We started the band 10 years ago this year when we were 14. And so all of the songs that are on ‘I Love You,” McKahey said. “There are some that were really written really recently, and some that we’d written in high school. And so it was kind of this nice melting pot of all of these different chapters of our lives. So it was really great being able to release a longer body of work and then explore more of the softer side. And there didn’t all have to be singles or big rock songs, and that was really fun. And then the deluxe edition, it was funny, those songs didn’t quite make the album. We didn’t think that they were right for the rest of the songs. And then, when we got these amazing features on them, The Linda Lindas from the US featured on one of the songs, which was amazing. We’ve been massive fans for so long. I don’t know, it’s just really nice being able to break into the US a little bit more through those bands.“

‘I Love You’ was preceded by an EP, ‘Pretty Good for a Girl Band’ (2022). The title references the way the band is pigeonholeled into the “girl band” / “angry chick” genre. (Which is entirely unfair, not to mention inaccurate on several levels.) Asked about her thoughts on having that label bestowed upon them and if it bothers her:

“Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. It’s ridiculous,” McKahey confirmed. “We’ve been getting that since the dawn of time, and it’s just stupid. It’s so stupid. The least interesting thing about us is that none of us are men. It makes no difference at all. And for so many years, even just interviews and stuff, people would be like, ‘So you’re not a man. What’s that in music?’ And I’m like, ‘I’ve never not been, I don’t know anything different.’ I don’t know, it’s just silly. People would just use that as, I think we felt like a kind of bit of a token act for a long time, and people would actually come up to us and be like, ‘You guys are pretty good for a girl band.’ And we were like, ‘What the fuck? Rude!’ So we’re like, let’s reclaim it and make it the title of our EP. But we’re not even a girl band at all because Anna [Lunoe], our lead singer, is non-binary, so we’re not even a girl band. We just three girls in it. It’s so silly. Anyway, you wouldn’t call Sonic Youth a girl band!”

Opening for Pearl Jam is both thrilling and challenging for a young act. On the one hand, they get to play to their largest audiences yet and gain exposure to a new audience. On the other hand, most in attendance are initiated into Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. The guitarist was asked if the band approaches these shows in the States with rock royalty any differently than from a headlining gig in Australia.

“Oh, totally. Yeah. I think at our own show, we know that no matter what, the people will like it. And I feel like this playing such a big support, like this also because people who are going to Pearl Jam shows are not going to discover a new band. They’re going to see Pearl Jam. They’re not there to see the support and that’s totally fine. I completely understand that. And I would do the same if I was going to that show,” McKahey said. “But I think that we kind of see it as a bit of a challenge where they’re not there for us. They probably don’t give a shit about us at all, which is fair enough. And then we have to try and get them on side in half an hour. I think that’s the challenge that we have, where we’ll do the set list, where we play all of our fun songs, and then keep talking to a minimum, and then when we do talk, it has to be funny, and that kind of thing. Just make people like us who are not there for us at all, who’ve never heard of us before. Because it is really different because our headline shows now in Australia are quite big, and the people there… there’s a lot of people there who all really like us already and we could do anything and they’ll love it. But at a support, then these people most likely will go into it not wanting to like you. It helps in Australia, though, because Eddie [Vedder] insisted on coming up and introducing us before every show. So that helped. I feel like people liked us more after that because he would walk out on stage and be like, ‘I love this band.’ We were like, ‘Oh, awesome!’ So people were more inclined to like us after that.”

Teen Jesus has found a boatload of success at a young age. McKahey is 24 years young and already has award-winning records, large crowds in her native land, and an opening spot with Pearl Jam in two different countries.

“I feel like the biggest mind fuck for us isn’t even how quickly it’s happened, but more that it actually is happening at all,” she reflects. “Because we started the band just to be like, we’ll do something fun with our friends on the weekends. I remember being in high school and being like, ‘Whoa, they give you beer if you play a show.’ We’re like, ‘Fuck yeah, let’s go to a pub.’ It was really exciting, and it was just for fun. And then over the years, obviously, it’s become our jobs, which is so crazy. I feel like the fact that we can do any of this at all is the crazy bit. We didn’t expect it to go far at all. We obviously wanted to do it. It was fun, but we never had any expectations of getting anywhere or doing big tours or supporting big bands. Obviously, you hope for it, but you don’t think it’ll actually happen. And then now that it is, it’s pretty crazy.”

While this interviewer had an Australian on the phone, I had to question how their citizens view the United States population, and how they feel the rest of the world views them.

“Well, growing up, I guess I’ve heard Americans ask if we ride kangaroos to school or that kind of thing, which I’m like, ‘No, obviously not,” she said with a laugh. “But then I, as a kid, just imagined everyone in America with a gun at all times. That’s what you know about. It’s like these little things that kind of stick with you. But yeah, I hope it’s not actually like that!”

Lastly, McKhaey was asked why fans should get their asses to the venue early for the upcoming shows and check out Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers.

“We had to spend a lot of money to get here. Pay up! Come watch us play,” she encouraged. “We’ve traveled far and wide to come here for people, and Eddie is a fan. So basically, if you’re saying that we’re not good, you’re saying that Eddie has bad music taste, and you can’t say that, but those are pretty compelling reasons also. Yeah, he did introduce us to every set in Australia. So if you want a potential early sighting of him before the set, then I mean, I actually dunno if he’s going to do that again, but it was really nice that he did in Australia, so there’s always a chance, might as well get there early just to see!”