Manifesting & Joking On Tour With Pearl Jam: Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers Embrace Their ‘GLORY’ Era

Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers singer Anna Ryan has been manifesting some out-of-this-world goals, and, so far, it’s worked. From touring with huge international names to headlining the group’s “dream” venue in Melbourne next year, it’s a good time to be the singer of one of Australia’s hottest bands.

This week, the Canberra four-piece release their hotly awaited second album, GLORY, after hitting the road with Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters and selling out their own headline shows.

Opening up about the Australian tour support slot for Pearl Jam, Ryan says the band “couldn’t believe it.”

“First of all, that they had asked us, that’s just silly,” they laugh. “That’s silly that they would do that! And then, when we played those shows, they made us feel so comfortable. I remember not really being that nervous for the shows because of the environment that they had made for us.”

Recalling how frontman Eddie Vedder would introduce the group at the Australian shows and encourage punters to come in early, Ryan adds, “You just don’t expect that from the biggest band in the world. You don’t expect that sort of treatment, but they really did care about us and really looked after us, which was so nice.”

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And then, Pearl Jam invited Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers to join them on tour in America, not long after Ryan made a joke about touring with the Seattle rockers again.

Ryan muses, “I remember when our management called us up and they were like, ‘Guess who’s [going to America?]’ and I remember making a joke, being like, ‘Haha, imagine we get to go back on tour with Pearl Jam because they loved us so much.’

“And then our managers were like, ‘They loved you so much. They want you to come on tour in America.’ I remember being like, ‘This is ridiculous! Who’s in charge? Someone’s making a big mistake!’”

Remembering that along with their bandmates, Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers had “worked really hard” for an opportunity like that one, Ryan continues, “A lot of the time throughout our career, people have always been like, ‘Oh, you’re so lucky to go and travel and do these things and do all this stuff with a band.’

“And it’s like, when people say it’s all come down to luck, it’s a little bit annoying,” she admits, “Because it’s not luck. Like, we’ve put in a lot of time and effort into this band, and so it’s really nice when we get rewarded with these awesome shows and festivals. It’s like, ‘Damn, we did it. We did a good job.’”

The treatment they received from Pearl Jam, and Eddie Vedder in particular, made Ryan appreciate them even more. “They went the extra mile, like taking the time to talk to us after shows, checking in on us, leaving us bottles of champagne, little notes, and we even got up on stage with them a couple of times! We sang a song with them, like, are you kidding me? What’s going on?!”

All of those experiences—the wild, on-the-road tour stories, and the quieter, personal moments of reflection—powered Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers on their new record.

GLORY is an album brimming with empowering energy that explores themes of infatuation, disgust, and self-acceptance. Musically, the songs are widescreen indie-rock you can strut to, sing along to, and cry to. It proudly captures messy nights out, mascara smeared, and a phone battery on 1%. It’s eye rolls and Cher Horowitz-level sass.

For album #2, Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers teamed up with Australian-born, London-based Grammy Award-winning producer Catherine Marks (boygenius, Manchester Orchestra, Rise Against) and made a record that’s “completely us.” Together, the band and Marks holed up in a home studio on the Central Coast for five weeks, only coming up for air to tune into Married At First Sight and spend time with family.

In addition to Marks, GLORY was mixed by Grammy Award-winning Oli Jacobs (Kendrick Lamar, beabadoobee, Taylor Swift) and mastered by Ruairi O’Flaherty (Sabrina Carpenter, Lana Del Rey, Bleachers). On their new album, the band – Anna Ryan (they/she; vocals/guitar), Scarlett McKahey (she/her; guitar/vocals), Jaida Stephenson (she/her; bass) and Neve van Boxsel (she/her; drums) – have discovered their new greatest strengths.

“We’re so excited to get this album out,” Ryan tells The Music. “I would say, on everyone's behalf, [GLORY is] the most proud of our music that we’ve been, and yeah, I think you can just tell how much we’ve grown as a band with this album.”

The recording process for GLORY couldn’t be more different to their debut album, I Love You, and the songs mark a significant level-up from what the band had created before.

For their debut album, Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers essentially put out a majority of the songs they’d written over three to four years. Some were written while the group was still teenagers, while others came later, when their songwriting skills and experience had sharpened. That process made for a bit of a “disjointed” release, Ryan shares, and GLORY was more intentional.

“It’s definitely different to I Love You because it’s a little bit more intentional from us,” they begin. “When we did I Love You, it was sort of wrapping up everything that we had ever written, basically, and just getting music out there.

“It was sort of a little bit disjointed, like, there’s some songs from when we were, like, 17 years old, and then some songs we had just written. But that’s how it had to be, I think, for the first album. It had to just be [about] getting our music out there, and we were super happy with how it turned out.”

They continue, “But with GLORY, we went into the studio for five weeks with countless demos and then had to decide which songs were going to be on the album and just worked through everything. It was the most intense five weeks. Picking all the songs to the album, working them out, recording them all in five weeks… everything is quite aligned on GLORY, like, it’s a whole journey from start to finish.”

Since the release of their debut EP, Pretty Good For A Girl Band, in 2022, Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers have made the triple j Hottest 100 twice (Girl Sports at #55, I Used To Be Fun at #52) and dropped their debut album, I Love You, in 2023, which landed at #6 on the ARIA Albums Chart, teaming up with Softcult and The Linda Lindas for the album’s deluxe edition, I Love You Too, in 2024.

While the band have made waves with their music, Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers are passionate advocates for women, non-binary people, and young people globally.

They’re also ambassadors for Green Music Australia’s No Music On A Dead Planet campaign, performed during the Rising Tide campaign on Parliament House, opened up about the issues facing Australia’s live music industry before Parliament, and proudly support the Michael’s Rule initiative, which empowers international acts to book Australian artists on their tours Down Under.

All the issues they support come to light on GLORY.

On album opener WATCHING ME LEAVE, the band bring a Margaret Atwood-level twist to The Police’s Every Step You Take when they explore one person’s romantic gaze being a threat to someone else.

Meanwhile, TURN AROUND delves into the contradictions of confidence and nerves, BAIT finds Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers writing from the perspective of a terrible person: an ego-driven music industry man who believes he’s God’s gift to Earth, and DAYLIGHT is their clearest love song.

Then, album highlight MOTHER “is for every beautiful, magical lady who’s been caught in the crossfire of a man pretending to be good. It’s about the built-up rage of watching incredible women being mistreated by inadequate men, over and over again, since the beginning of time.” In other words, it’s a feminist anthem.

Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers premiered MOTHER, BAIT and UNSCARRED at the album’s lead single BALCONY launch shows: three intimate gigs along the East Coast, which started in Melbourne in July.

Ryan remembers the evening fondly. “It was awesome,” she says. “When we started playing MOTHER at that show, I remember someone filming me in the front waiting for me to start singing, and I had sat down because Scarlett starts this song, which is so awesome.

“This guy was filming me, and then I saw him go like this [Ryan points forward with a confused look]. And then he was like, ‘Wait, you're not singing [laughs].’ And yeah, Scarlett just absolutely crushes it.

“It’s so awesome to see everyone’s reactions to it, because it is quite different to what we’ve done before. It’s a bit of a journey when playing it, too. [The song starts off] very chill, just Scarlett, and then picks up, picks up, picks up, and then I just go crazy by the end of it— I’m just screaming, and it literally does feel a little bit like therapy! It’s definitely a lot of fun to play.”

DAYLIGHT couldn’t be more different to the dynamics of MOTHER. A clear love song, Ryan bears her soul on the track.

“That one definitely is one of the ones that is undeniably a love song, like, you can’t paint it in any other light; that’s just how it is,” they share. “And I think that’s fine, like, we didn’t want to say no to anything, I guess, on the album.

“I think, in the past, we’ve been very aware of, like, ‘Oh, we don’t want things to be too cheesy,’ but with this one, we were sort of just like, letting everything that needed to happen, happen. It’s a love song I wrote literally about my partner, who I have been with forever. You know, albums have to have a cheesy song [laughs]. Okay, let me have this one!”

Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers fans will have the opportunity to experience GLORY songs live at Laneway Festival in February 2026. At Laneway, they appear on a line-up alongside hyped-up international acts such as Chappell Roan, Wolf Alice, Wet Leg, Role Model, Lucy Dacus, Alex G, Geese, and many others, plus fellow Australian artists like The Belair Lip Bombs and Armlock.

“It’s so nice to be [performing] at Laneway and to be playing alongside all these crazy artists, like just total icons, which is awesome,” Ryan says. “I can’t wait—it’s exciting!”

And Ryan admits to being the most excited about seeing Chappell Roan bring her gothic fairytale fantasy stage to Australia. “I’m such a huge fan,” they share, “I feel like every song that I’ve learned that’s not our own songs recently is a Chappell Roan song. So, I’m definitely a big fan.”

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After Laneway, Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers will perform a headline tour in April and May, where the band will perform at one of Ryan’s “dream” venues.

“My dream venue in Australia is probably the Forum,” they tell. “It’s such a beautiful venue. We’ve played there [as a support act]… it looks like a painting!”

Aside from the excitement of headlining the Forum, the band are excited about “curating a big performance” for fans that they’ve never witnessed before.

“We want everyone to have the best time possible,” Ryan says. “We’re gonna put a lot of detail into the show and really plan it out and make sure it’s the best version of it that it can be. Playing all the new songs is super exciting, because we worked so hard on the album, and the finish line is getting to play them for everybody.”

GLORY is out now via Community Music / Mom + Pop.

Presented by triple j and Live Nation Australia