Interview: Imperial Teen

With a career spanning decades of sharp indie pop and irrepressible hooks, Imperial Teen are back with new music. We sat down with the band to discuss their latest singles, how they put songs together, their dynamic as a group, and what keeps them creating together.

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The new single, “Hands All Up,” dives into the uneasy dynamic between capitalism and art, particularly the whiplash of music industry success and disappointment. How did those reflections take shape in the writing room, and what made now feel like the right time to tackle that theme head-on?

RODDY: Yeah, we have always been on the cusp between making music and making art but also getting paid and not paid for what we do. That’s an industry thing, to not get paid for our work. It’s a given. We are specifically in a whiplash between a broken industry that doesn’t  compensate its workers (musicians). Us making art and expecting attention and credit, though. It’s a never ending need, I feel, the want for acknowledgment. If we were really successful and sold so many records and made a lot of money it might be a different story but we are stuck in a place where we just make music for love and attention. It’s noble at the end of the day and we straight up love what we do. I guess the song is a love story and a protest of sorts too.

Will mentioned that the band aims to “make people dance and think and feel at the same time” on “Hands All Up.” As a songwriter, how do you balance crafting bright, irresistible pop hooks while weaving in darker or more cynical commentary?

RODDY: From the get-go we have always juxtaposed a cheery stance musically with a dark lyric. Or the reverse. We initially recorded our first record. Seasick, in a time when a lot of us were dealing with suicides and drug addiction and 90’s darkness. The music we created to back those lyrics was poppy. It was a contrast that kind of formed who we became. It’s in our blood. We still do that but I think we’re a little bit weary of a tongue too far in cheek if that makes sense? I am appreciating more overall darkness in a present these days. It feels like the world is calling for it or at least we are grieving and possibly creating more darkness in today’s world.

Previous singles like “Overdrive” and the title track “All Over You” set a really electric tone for the record. How does “Hands All Up” fit into the broader theme of the new album, and why did it feel like the right track to share next?

RODDY: We didn’t have a whole lot of say in which tracks were being shared. Merge kind of said, ‘All of the songs are viable,’ in terms of likability or poppieness or whatever. The first discussion though, Merge had left All Over You off the list of songs that we’d use as singles and we did demand that we focus on that song. Hands All Up maybe has an energy, the tempo alone, that’s a little more upbeat and brisk. Sometimes our songs lean on the mid tempo side of things and it’s fun to share something fast. I think it was a decision that was as basic as that

You’ve described Imperial Teen’s albums as “an episodic piece of where we are now.” When you look at All Over You as a snapshot of the band’s current chapter, what does this episode say about where the four of you are right now creatively and personally?  

WILL: Creatively we feel inspired by life and each other as our own little community.  We each have our individual lives and projects going on and we do our best to navigate it and bring our  best selves to the table with each other.  With the world around us on fire literally and figuratively, it can be a challenge to show up in that ‘let’s make it work’ mindset, but we mostly end up there together.  

All Over You draws on a massive palette, dual vocal harmonies, bubblegum pop, grungy distortion, electro beats, and power-pop. Over thirty years in, how do you keep pushing those boundaries so that these classic elements still feel fresh and unpredictable?

WILL: Even though we’ve been doing it for a while, we’re all interested in what’s happening now in the culture.  We absorb it all and put all into what we’re doing while making it our own. We’re around other people who have been doing it for awhile but still have an excitement for life and what the kids are up to.  I’m really inspired by younger artists and new sounds and also by older artists who still sound fresh and look sexy.  

There’s a great story about “Overdrive” coming together in a single magical take right before Will had to catch a ferry. Are those spontaneous, race-against-the-clock moments fairly common for Imperial Teen, or was that a rare piece of studio magic

WILL: Sometimes we’re forced to create in short time frames.  I love it- it brings a sense of immediacy to the process and it’s a nudge to bring your creative A game.   A bit of pressure usually seems to work for us.  Nothing like a deadline to bring out our best; otherwise we get a little complacent.  

On the title track, Lynn’s improvised climactic scream (“We’ve got nothing to do”) turns the song into a full-on punk rallying cry. How much of All Over You came from those raw, unscripted studio instincts versus pre-planned structures? 

LYNN: At some point when listening back to the roughs of all the songs on this album, I got in a punk thinking mode, a bit angsty, a bit  frustrated.  Those lyrics “we got nothing to do,” matched my mood and I was brought back to my younger years and feeling those same things…I wanted to HEAR something, feel something other than what I was in that moment…..and I knew what to do with it. Yell.

With the four of you living in different cities, your record cycles rely on intense writing retreats followed by scattered recording sessions. How does that periodic approach, having big gaps of time between intense bursts of togetherness, affect the energy of the music you make.

JONE:  The times that we physically come together can sometimes have a sort of urgency to them which can sometimes make creativity on demand a bit of a challenge. Luckily, we can usually get in sync with each other really quickly, as we know each other so well, we practically read each other’s minds by this point! We enjoy being together so that energy gets channeled making the songs. It’s not always easy, but eventually we always overcome the challenges of time and space and get the record done.

When you all reconvene in a room after months apart, what is the immediate spark that an Imperial Teen session has officially begun?

LYNN: Sparks fly from the get-go! We generally greet each other for a while and exchange a little personal news. After coffee and a snack (who brought something good?), we get behind an instrument and one or another will start playing something, and so it begins…

The band has shared this incredible creative chemistry for over three decades. How has your personal and musical dynamic with each other evolved since the early days in San Francisco?

JONE: As you can imagine, a 30+ year, 4-way relationship has its ups and downs. We have all grown over the years and have worked hard on honing our communication styles. We know each other so well … triggers, likes, strengths, insecurities … Our personal dynamic has deepened, it’s such a long-term relationship at this point, it’s non negotiable. We are stuck with each other, happily. Musically, kinda the same, we know where we like to go in song, generally speaking, but we always love to introduce some elements that inspire and send us off in a new direction. That can be anything … introducing a new instrument, an effect, oddball percussion, switching to playing an instrument that isn’t the one you usually play.

Between your work with Faith No More, Man on Man, film scoring, and opera, you constantly move between wildly different musical worlds. How does bringing those outside creative experiences back to Imperial Teen feed into the band’s sound?

RODDY: Imperial Teen can only come from a place of the four of us. It works best when we all bring what we bring. What I bring tends to shift and change and morph because of things I do outside of the band, and there are a lot of extracurriculars. It’s all under a broad scope of artistry though and uncompromised creation. That sounds kind of pompous but really I kind of aim individually for a place that’s brave and demands respect for the undernourished, so to speak.

LYNN: We all have side projects – some not musical.  They all take a great deal of energy, and we are a focused group of individuals.

Jone owns a hair salon, is an avid camper and animal shelter volunteer and sits in with other musical groups. I am the only parent of the 4 of us and have 3 grown children – one of whom is autistic and needs 1:1 care,  I have a wellness business and am into fitness. Will is involved with several different artistic mediums, has played solo story-telling shows with a comedic twist of tale, and works in the Hollywood Industry. 

You’re kicking off a US headline tour this October, starting at Zebulon in LA and hitting San Francisco, Brooklyn, and beyond. How are you feeling about translating these new, highly textured studio arrangements into a live room packed with sweaty bodies?

LYNN:  We are INTO IT! We plan to do about 4 songs off the All Over You album, and an array of fan faves from our collection of songs. We really dig the exchange of energy from band to fans and back to us.  It really is beautiful and fulfilling and exciting. Can’t wait to meet and see you all!

With a deep catalog spanning seven full-length records and over 30 years, how do you go about building a setlist that honors the past while keeping the focus on All Over You?

JONE: The struggle is real! It’s tough to decide which songs to play, we have so many at this point. We try to have a sprinkle of songs from every album. We mix it up as much as we can but definitely have our old favorites we like to play. We plan to play 3–4 songs from All Over You on the upcoming tour.

Merging pop immediacy with a fierce DIY punk ethos has always been a hallmark of Imperial Teen. Looking at the indie rock landscape today, do you feel like the industry has finally caught up to the genre-defying space you’ve been occupying since the ’90s?

JONE: When people who don’t know the band ask me what kind of music we play, I’m kinda at a loss … I think I usually say indie rock? With a question mark. I guess, as you say, we are genre-defying. That’s a fun way to think about it. I think all the access to music, digitally, makes it easier to hear all different types of music. Back in the day, people were fed music on the radio that was “programmed” (unless you were listening to college or independent radio stations!) so in that way I do think the “industry” has been forced to catch up and open up to all kinds of sounds. Some real oddball music has become popular (yay!) and maybe that wouldn’t have happened if there weren’t all the varied ways to access music that there are now.