INTERVIEW: There's A Tuesday release new EP 'Boy Scout': "This project reflects all we’ve experienced in the last couple years and our take on life."
New Zealand four piece indie band There’s A Tuesday, fronted by Nat Hutton and Minnie Robberds, recently released their second EP Boy Scout on fellow Kiwi superstar BENEE’s label Olive.
The six track EP features previous singles - ‘Baby Blue’, ‘Bus Stop’ and ‘Girl At Night’ - as well as three new tracks and is written from personal experience as well as exploring human experiences including mental health, sexuality and bodily autonomy.
The EP has a foundation in guitar based, indie pop but also explores elements of folk, jangle pop and rock. Opener ‘To:Amy’ is a gorgeous song that tells a moving story of struggling with anxiety. Third single ‘Girl At Night’ has some subtle pop vibes and is a powerful song that doesn't hold back on the injustices and danger faced by women in society. “I wish Harry didn't have to walk me home / I don’t wanna be a girl at night”.
‘Half Bad’ is a lush semi-acoustic guitar track that again powerfully confronts the subject of a patriarchal society that subjects women to shame and judgement for their life choices or just being themselves. “The men on the street have been there all week…I tried to argue but they told me that / I’d go to hell for aborting a baby that I can’t afford because I’m only twenty…I said I’m with a girl / They said that’s even worse.” It is an incredibly moving and important song. A challenging but necessary listen.
‘Dyed Your Hair’ closes the EP and it is a dreamy, almost otherworldly song. It is a gorgeous way to end the EP with lilting vocals and romantic, nostalgic lyrics that look back on a relationship that dominated ‘last summer’.
Boy Scout is a compelling listen that does what all great music should do - it combines beautiful melodies, harmonies and beats with important lyrics that tell meaningful, relatable stories. Ever since first releasing music in 2019, There’s A Tuesday have been becoming more and more assured and confident in their art and Boy Scout is their most accomplished work to date and a highly recommended listen.
We recently caught up with Nat and Minnie to chat more about the band and the creation of Boy Scout.
Hi Minnie and Nat! So lovely to chat to you. How is everything in your world right now?
Kia ora! Thank you for having us! Our world is pretty fun at the moment thank you! We hope that your world is just as good.
Congratulations on the release of your new EP Boy Scout. It’s such a great EP! What was your intention, or what was the a message you wanted to get across, when you pulled the EP together?
Thank you very much! The EP covers a range of topics that we feel really sentimental about and believe are super, super important. Some of these include: our involvement in the LGBTQIA+ community, the right to bodily autonomy and looking after our mental health. Instead of learning to build a bird house and tie a knot, we feel as though these are some of the things that should be taught about in Scouts, hence the EP name (Boy Scout). But this is just one example. We wished these topics were taught/shared about more in youth and general society! Because they are some of the most important conversations.
What was the creative process like for this one?
We’ve been working on the songs one this EP since the beginning of 2020. ‘Bus Stop’ was the first song we wrote for this project and I think ‘Half Bad’ was the last one. Minnie and Nat write separately as Nat is flatting in Auckland and Minnie in Christchurch. After getting the bones of a piece, we share it with the others to polish it off, then take it to Gus and Joel in order for them to create and add their drum and bass parts. We recorded the EP in Christchurch with the world’s nicest, coolest and phenomenal producer of a friend, Will McGillivray at his home studio.
The EP kicks of with ‘To:Amy’ which is a real ‘story’ song and is tinged with melancholy. It is a really beautiful track. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind it?
Thank you so much! ‘To:Amy’ is written from the perspective of someone within a bad spout of anxiety and how consuming that is for them. They are writing to someone about their fight with anxiety and how detrimental it can be within their relations. The writer expresses how someone’s silence in those times can be so hard to navigate.
At the other end of the EP, closing track ‘Dyed Your Hair’ is a gorgeous, stripped back ballad which sonically is somewhat of an outlier on the album. Again, can you talk us through this track and what ‘feels’ you were hoping to create with it?
’Dyed Your Hair’ was supposed to be soft and intimate. It captures moments between humans and then how once those moments are over feeling that can be left. ‘I wanna lie down’ means multitudes to us and hopefully can to others too. It’s not bad or good, it’s something a bit more unexplainable and different for all.
For those who are new to There’s A Tuesday, how did the band come together, and what inspired your name?
Minnie and Nat met at Gus’s birthday party in their second to last year of high school. We can not explain how grateful we are for that conversation with a stranger at a party. We started hanging out, writing music together and originally formed as a duo. It was heaps of fun but we knew we really wanted to be part of a band so Gussy and Joel jumped in on the drums and bass. We were originally named ‘There is a Tuesday between a Monday and between a Wednesday’ but soon realised it wan’t as funny as we thought it would be when festivals denied putting it on posters hence the length. So, now we are ‘There’s A Tuesday’.
You were recently signed to BENEE’s record label Olive. What was that experience like and how did it feel to be handpicked by one of New Zealand’s biggest global stars?
Yes! Oh we feel so, so happy and grateful. Stella (BENEE) is one of the most inspiring and humble humans alive so to be so involved with her is a bit of a dream come true!
You have said that Boy Scout as a collection of music is the ‘most sincere to There’s A Tuesday’ that you have released so far. How do you think your creative process, and your confidence in that, has changed and grown over the last few years?
I feel like growing up in general has grown our musicality, experiences and perspectives on the world. This project reflects all we’ve experienced in the last couple years and our take on life.
It’s no secret the music industry does not have a reputation of being a safe space for women, in the main because it has been run by older, white, straight men since its inception. What are your thoughts on gender equality and sexism in the music industry?
It is certainly no secret and sadly that reputation still operates. There have been some really saddening moments for us as wāhine in this industry and this has ranged from having awful things yelled at us when playing on stage to feeling generally unwelcome in such a male dominated space. Though there has been progress and moments of light where women in music have been widely celebrated there is still so far to go for gender equality in the music industry. We are large advocates for this and always will be. We want to show young women that they are welcome here.
Boy Scout is out now, what else is coming up for There’s A Tuesday in 2022?
Yay - we are so glad to have it out in the world. We have a nationwide tour that we have our first show for tomorrow! Exciting! There is more music, more dancing and more words to be shared. We can’t wait.
Boy Scout is out now via Olive. You can download and stream here.
To keep up with all things There’s A Tuesday you can follow them on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
