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Interview: teenagersintokyo

Sydney's teenagersintokyo are just about to embark on a short East Coast tour ahead of locking themselves away to commence work on their debut LP. We were lucky enough to sit down (inside an email) with Miska from the group to talk about the album, Beth Ditto and remembering Morgan Freeman.

What is the plan of attack for your debut record, are you going to re-record previously released tracks, or go in fresh?

We're planning to go in totally fresh with a whole bunch of newbies. That's what we're spending all our time doing at the moment. Just fleshing out ideas and making sure we have enough material that we're passionate enough to put on an album.

When people shorten your name to TiT do you get annoyed?

Yeah we used to get really annoyed about it. Even considered changing the name when the first person pointed it out to us (but were too lazy to come up with something else). Now we're kinda over it and don't respond negatively because most people use it affectionately rather than in an annoying or derogatory sense.

What, if any, were the rejected band names before you settled on Teenagers In Tokyo?

To reveal this would be to reveal just how truly lame we are. Lets just say we considered 'the lost boys' for a while. Genius.

What is your favourite venue in Australia to play at?

I think we all have different favourite venues... and there's stories to go along with each venue. To pick one would be to fart in the face of all the others.

What is the preferred formatting of your name? I have seen it written in so many different ways.

Ha! Um, we like it all one word and all in the same case - be it lower or capitals. As long as it's all even Steven.

As you may or not have heard, Morgan Freeman had a bit of a close call this week with a nasty car accident almost killing him. Do you think it's ok to call in sick the day that Morgan Freeman does die? Should it be an official day of mourning?

Morgan Freeman is pretty cool. He was in Kiss the Girls, and I thoroughly enjoyed that movie. On the other hand, he also did Bruce Almighty. So by that reasoning, as much as I would like to condone his death-day becoming a national day of mourning, I simply cannot. We must all pay for our trespasses.

What are your favourite album/s so far this year? Anything stand out as an inspiration of where you want to go with your debut record?

So many! And they change every week. I've been listening to lots of Hercules And Love Affair, which is bloody sensational. Then there's the in vogue albums like MGMT which everyone is going crazy over, and rightly so. Some of those songs are excellent. So I've been listening to a lot of that too. My friend played me the Lil Wayne album the other day and I had a good rofl at that (but secretly loved it). Other than that, I'm generally about 2 years behind everyone else in my music listening.

If you had one word to describe the current state of 'indie rock' in Australia, what would it be?

Potato.

Did you meet Beth Ditto when you played with The Gossip? If so, what is she like? Crazy party animal? Or is she really introspective and weird? Would you describe her as 'frisky'?

She's absolutely lovely. Very open and grounded and fun. And yes, I would certainly describe her as frisky. Will hump anything that moves. I'm pretty sure she was undressing me with her eyes. Yes now that I think about it, that's definitely how it went down.

What is your favourite Asian city to visit and/or live (other than Tokyo, of course)?

Ow! You just touched on a sore spot! We haven't toured Asia at all. I think Sam and Linda have gone to visit family before but we're never gone as a band. But hopefully soon. Hopefully we'll get to tour Japan at least and visit our friend Fumi at our label there, Rallye/Klee.

What is the strangest description of your music that you have heard? If I described it as 'a volcano of bright coloured heroin', would that be it?

Haahha you'd think that was it, but as sensational as your description is, NME wrote that our music was "peculiar but lovely, like a spherical cat." I don't really know what that means.. I like your heroin one well better.

Are there any bands (locally or from overseas) that you guys are currently into which you think are not getting the exposure they deserve and should be bigger than The Beatles, or at least Operator Please?

Definitely. There's a billion. The Lost Valentinos being at the top of that list along with Cut Off Your Hands and Pivot. But I have a feeling all those bands will be absolutely massive by next year if not sooner. Not quite sure if it'll be Beatles massive... but maybe Morgan Freeman massive. Yeah.