Welcome to AP&R, where we highlight rising artists who will soon become your new favorite.
Since 2016, Philly’s Queen of Jeans have been delivering tangibly heartfelt, fluid indie rock. They occupy an overlapping area on the proverbial Venn diagram that features stripped-down, singer-songwriter folk-rock, loose, growling grunge, dreamy ’60s soft pop, and sentimental, melodic second-wave emo. Following their previous releases, 2019’s if you’re not afraid, I’m not afraid and 2022’s Hiding In Place EP — each produced by Will Yip (Anthony Green, Title Fight) in his famed Pennsylvania studio — the group are back, with a substantial, shiny new full-length, All Again. The album unravels the very real, and relatable, ingredients of a relationship — loneliness, fear, mirth, joy, anger, to name a few. But this isn’t just another relationship project — this has true depth and weight, and draws on vocalist Miri Devora and guitarist Mattie Glass’ real-life partnership, both in sonics and in the weighted lyricism.
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Urged along by Devora’s massive, progressive singing swings from a light touch like Lucy Dacus to the kind of deliciously larger-than-life belt we’ve heard from Hayley Williams, Glass’ guitar part proves to be the album’s vital grounding force — preventing any edges from getting too soft with rock rhythm and grunge-informed style. Also featuring a brand-new rhythm section, with bassist Andrew Nitz and drummer Patrick Wall, All Again takes on much-uncharted territory, dabbling in new and ambient sounds, an engaging contrast to Queen of Jeans’ strong, sing-along choruses. The end result is an album that feels fuller, brighter, and more complex than any QoJ project yet. The album is out today.
Can you explain this quote on your Bandcamp: “like a 2016 revival of a ’90s throwback to the ’60s.”
Our friend Kyle said that years ago when I was trying to explain the songs and guitar tones we were playing with while recording our first EP. It made me laugh at first, but then it felt like the perfect way to explain all of our influences blending together to create a song.
I’d love to talk about “crockpot pop.” Where did that come from, and what are the ingredients — sonically, lyrically, emotionally, and with your band dynamic?
Where it came from honestly was a Voice Memo failure when we were trying to make our first bio. We thought it was funny but realized that it describes what we do perfectly. No one has ever been able to pin us down to a genre. We’ve been called indie, pop, emo, rock, pop punk, alt country, etc. and while our path as a band might be easier if we fit more perfectly into a particular genre, we’ve always found our most genuine expression to be to mix together all of our influences and make what we like without trying to fit a specific mold.
I saw you when you toured with Anthony Green. What was that experience like?
“Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference…” But really, it was such a special one! Anthony is not only incredibly talented musically, but he also has the ability to make you feel like you can do anything. We did that tour as a duo and rearranged the songs to play them more intimately and in the process learned so much from that exercise and from performing in that way.
What’s been your experience in Philly, in terms of the music scene? Have you felt supported in Philly as queer artists, and what has coming up been like in that context? How does that play into your music?
Philly has a really special music scene. I truly believe the best music is being made here right now! It’s also for the most part a very queer-friendly city, so it’s been a pretty supportive place to be who we are, which of course makes writing and performing music truthfully more accessible to us.
In your new album, the arc seems to be around a relationship. Whether using a real-life reference, or otherwise, what story were you trying to tell?
This album is in part a concept album about a relationship and the passage of time — how it can make the truth of it more warped. You may have left the relationship thinking you were the hero and that they were the villain but the mind tends to filter things differently over time. Not only does it become less of a black-and-white narrative in your head, but you also tend to have more compassion for them and for yourself the more time that passes.
We tried to show this by arranging the songs in an arc of a relationship, and the end of the last track is actually a loop of the beginning of the record, inviting the listener to repeat the story. Maybe on the next listen, the protagonist won’t be as clear. While we really dug into this concept, including playing with more surreal sounds to show the psychology of what we were trying to say, of course you can’t really make art without using what you know. The couple at the center of the story is fictional, but the inspiration for the songs comes from real experiences.
What’s it like writing, performing, creating a body of work that’s so close to the heart, and close to the band itself? I feel like there’s potential for messiness and discomfort but maybe catharsis and hope as well!
There’s definitely some catharsis on this record. “Bitter Pill” is an example of a song we wrote as part of the concept of the relationship, but the inspiration came from real-life frustration about being women in the music industry. There are all these conversations you aren’t involved in that impact you in a huge way, and it can feel really frustrating and isolating. We used that experience to write a song of frustration from the point of view of the narrator in our story, who doesn’t feel like their partner is being genuine in the relationship. They feel like their partner would rather be nice than deal with being real.
There’s a school of thought that all great artists have known pain and suffering. What do you think about that?
I can’t speak for everyone, but personally, I believe I’ve written my best songs in times when I’ve struggled to find the words to say how I was feeling emotionally, so I took to a different form of expression in order to cope. For me, songs can serve as a release for the words or emotions I’m unable to recognize, or maybe too afraid to say aloud.
How do you want this personal narrative of sorts to translate to the audience? What’s it trying to say, outside of telling your own stories?
I think the best thing a song can do is to make you feel less alone. There’s nothing like finding music that expresses something inside of you that you haven’t heard articulated before. My hope is by sharing my truth and being genuine in my songwriting that I can make other people feel that way, too.
What is your band dynamic like, in and out of the studio?
Well, Mattie and I are married, Andrew is Mattie’s brother, and Patrick has been with us pretty much since the beginning, so we’re family, and there’s a lot of love here. We trust each other’s instincts, and while I come to the group with the idea for a song, my favorite part is the group’s process of developing and making it stronger.
Outside of creating music, we typically just like to hang out and eat good food, have silly conversations, and lift each other up. Our favorite preshow ritual is affirmations — we each say one nice thing about the other person to acknowledge how much we appreciate one another. It helps to feel close in that way before we go onstage, to know we all have each other’s backs.
What’s the story behind your band name?
There was a gaudy old storefront in South Philly called King of Jeans that was huge, and the image was of a woman bending down suggestively to a shirtless man in jeans. It was across from our favorite bar, and when they were tearing it down, we were sitting there talking about starting a band, and we thought we’d flip it for our name.
If you could tour with anyone, who would it be?
If Rilo Kiley ever comes back for a reunion tour, that would be a dream come true!
What’s the last song you listened to?
“BIRDS OF A FEATHER” by Billie Eilish.
If you had to describe a Queen of Jeans show to someone who’d never seen it, what would you say?
We always try to make the experience something you’d enjoy if you like our records, but different enough that you don’t feel like you’re just hearing the same thing as the recordings. On our last tour that we played as a duo, we did that by trying to rearrange our rock songs into something new that focuses more on what we’re trying to say in them. As a full band, lately we’ve tended to play the songs a little harder live than we do in recordings. We have fun playing that way, and I think it makes the audience have fun, too. Also, we always hang out after our set and love meeting people that come out to see us!
