ONE ON ONE: AN INTERVIEW WITH YOURS TRULY!

DIRECT FROM DEAF INSTITUTE IN MANCHESTER I AM HERE TODAY WITH…

Mikaila: Hi I'm Mikaila from Yours Truly.

Teddy: And I'm Teddy

IT'S BEEN TWO YEARS SINCE I FIRST GOT TO COVER YOU GUYS FOR HIVE MAGAZINE AND SINCE THEN YOU'VE NOT ONLY GONE ON TO RELEASE A NEW INCREDIBLE BODY OF WORK BUT YOU'VE TOURED ALL OVER.

LOOKING BACK AT ALL OF IT OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR GROWTH?

Mikaila: I feel very grateful that we're still here and we're still growing. I think that it's something that we kind of try not to think about that much. We've just been working really hard

I'VE SEEN ON SOCIAL MEDIA WHENEVER YOU GUYS SHARE THAT YOU'RE IN THE STUDIO CRACKING OUT LOADS AND LOADS OF TUNES. IT MUST HAVE BEEN PRETTY INTENSE!

Mikaila: It took almost two years to write and we had something like 50 songs for this record. We wanted to make sure that we got it right this time we wanted to make sure we spent a lot of time on it and also, like you said, we did a lot of touring. Being on tour kind of made it hard to kind of get an album together.

WERE THERE SESSIONS ON THE TOUR BUS WHERE YOU'D BE TRYING TO WRITE LYRICS OR GUITAR RIFFS AND THEN SOMETHING WOULD GET IN THE WAY?

Teddy: Yes, sometimes, just be sitting there or something. You would hit a bump on the road and then everything goes flying. When you get back from finishing a show you're tired as hell, then you gotta drive all the way through the night. We're usually like sitting shoulder to shoulder in a van, so it's not really usually a lot of space to be doing stuff and then whenever you do have the space you just want to sit in, look after yourself. Make sure that we're able to do this for as long as we can.

HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH YOUR STAGE OUTFITS? IS IT COORDINATED?

Mikaila: I think for this new album I think that we are almost dialling it back a little bit in terms of our outfits. I think that we really tried to discover who we were on the last cycle, tried to wear different things and I think that we've taken what we felt comfortable with on that touring cycle and have brought it into the outfits that we're wearing on this. It's all about feeling good, looking good, to be able to put on a show for people and to kind of feel like we're playing the world of ‘Toxic’. I've got a lot of sparkle going on which I've never really done before but also just comfortable clothes as well which is kind of weird. I've got two different sides going on. We're having fun!

HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN THE RECENT VIRAL CLIP OF CHAPPELL ROAN DISCUSSING PARASOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS? WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS AND THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT?

Mikaila: I've actually seen a change in people with the way they interact with us since that post. In the past couple of days, I've seen people be very respectful and kind of come up to us and be like ‘Hey, saw you play. Loved it. Have a good day.'

That is something that I maybe didn't experience a couple of years ago or even really before this. I didn't understand the whole idea of the parasocial relationship until our band started getting bigger. I realised that I was sharing a lot about my life on social media and that was when I found people becoming quite invested or involved in my life and speaking to me about personal things outside of shows. I did think to myself 'Oh, like maybe I need to be a bit more careful with the things that I present online' and the things I tell people.

I also at the same time am aware that I have a career in the fact that I tell stories about my life and I write songs about the things that I struggle with. We have a community oversharing the same trauma and the same feelings. I think that, for me, I’m happy to sit and talk about what we've gone through. I just think that there is a line. People just know to be like ‘Cool, I've expressed how I feel and we've spoken and thank you.’ And then we go ‘That was cool. Thank you so much for the conversation, see you next time.’

IT’S CLEAR THAT THERE’S THEMES OF NEGATIVE RELATIONSHIPS THROUGHOUT ‘TOXIC’. MOVING ON FROM THE RECORD, IS THERE A CATHARSIS FEELING WHEN PERFORMING THESE SONGS? DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE ONE-WINGED ANGEL ON THE COVER ART?

Mikaila: Playing these songs live - this is the first time I've had a very different feeling than I've had in the past when we've released music. This was a very hard record to write and it's probably the most personal record I've ever written lyrics for. Last night we played Birmingham and we started playing a song called 'Let Go' and I saw people singing along but in a way that felt very personal. It felt really amazing. As sad as it is that someone can hear that song and feel so connected to it because of their own personal experience, that cathartic feeling of being like ‘Oh, I've expressed these emotions and it's actually connected to somebody else,’ That's such a beautiful, beautiful feeling.

The artwork has the girl on it with the one wing and the headphones and she's going through this toxic wasteland. In a sense, I feel like that to me but I also feel like that could be anybody listening to the record. Being this person who feels like they have good intentions but constantly feels like they’re getting cut down. They use music to get through a toxic time in their life.

IS THERE ANY RELATION TO FINAL FANTASY WITH THE ARTWORK?

Teddy: I've never thought about that until now.

YOU GUYS ENJOY GAMING SO I’VE BROUGHT MY NINTENDO SWITCH WITH MARIO KART LOADED UP ON IT. WE’RE GOING TO TRY AND ANSWER AS MANY QUICKFIRE QUESTIONS AS POSSIBLE WHILST YOU EACH COMPLETE A LAP. THREE, TWO, ONE… GO!

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE COLOURS:

Teddy: Blue!

Mikaila: Green!

FAVOURITE VIDEOGAMES?

Mikaila: Detroit: Become Human.

Teddy: Fortnite!

THREE UNDERGROUND AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS THAT DESERVE MORE ATTENTION?

Mikaila & Teddy: Bloom (@bloomsyd), Hevenshe (@hevenshe / AKA Jenna McDougall), Besties (@bestiesinyoursection)

WHAT RECORDS OF YOURS HAS A LO FI REMIX?

Mikaila: ‘Is This what I Lo-Fi?’

WHAT'S THE UNEQUIVOCAL BEST TEA BRAND IN THE UK?

Teddy: Yorkshire.

WHO’S THAT POKEMON?

Teddy: IT’S PIKACHU!