INTERVIEWS
What Teether & Kuya Neil 'YEARN IV'
The Naarm/Melbourne & London-based artists chat through the release of their latest record, 'YEARN IV'.
Wearing influences on your sleeve is too often pegged as a bad thing. For Teether & Kuya Neil’s latest project ‘YEARN IV’, it’s an ongoing commentary on the two artists’ relationship not only to each other, but to their music.
The album, released last Friday, is the first project between the Naarm/Melbourne and London split duo since the 2023 mixtape ‘STRESSOR’. That release, nominated for a slew of awards and played across radio stations, both commercial and community around the country, is with the benefit of hindsight a clear preparation for ‘YEARN IV’.
Where ‘STRESSOR’ succeeded, ‘YEARN IV’ comfortably builds and questions. The duo has continued to find a voice entirely unshy about its influence and simultaneously uncaring about crossing genre boundaries. Kuya Neil’s hardcore, garage, breaks and more are all tied together by Teether’s loose and often rhythmic vocals, leaving ‘YEARN IV’ as a clear hip hop record, but one very comfortably finding a home in club spaces.
Off the back of the release of the album, Mixmag ANZ spoke with the pair.
Q: Where do you both see this fitting into the current musical landscape? Does that even matter anymore?
TEETHER: I don’t think it’s ever mattered. There are definitely scenes that exist, but I think music is largely a solo mission for the majority of the time. At least at this point in our lives where there’s shit to do. There’s a lot of new music I love and a lot I have never heard and we’re all just out here doing shit.
KUYA NEIL: Yeah, I don’t know if it matters so much anymore either…but locally, I think we've done our best to capture the essence of the micro-communities we feel affinity to in Melbourne - underground rap, club music and ethnic suburban Australiana.
Q: Can you give me some background on the recording of the album? How did it come to be started in Naarm but finished in London?
TEETHER: I just moved and we had to finish it. It was mostly finished by the time I got here, but there were lots of decisions and tweaks that had to be made.
KUYA NEIL: Honestly, it just sounds cooler on a press kit when you mention London, like we recorded at Abbey Road studios or some shit. In reality, we recorded the majority of the album in 2023 across Sydney and Melbourne. We spent a week in a beachside house in Rye, Victoria, where we set up a small studio in the lounge room and spent the whole time on psychedelics writing, recording and going to the beach.
The project was tweaked, mixed and mastered over the course of about a year and half. When Teether moved, some of the music video footage for ‘Blush’ was recorded from his flat in London, but in terms of music it was mostly recorded in Australia.
Q: I feel like ‘electronic’ music is, funnily enough, becoming more live. There’s a lot of guitar & real instruments on this release, while also being ‘club-ready’ for the most part & featuring vocals on every track, so do you feel like that’s a fair comment to make?
TEETHER: Yeah for sure. We come from a live band background and take playing live quite seriously, despite the fun we try to have up there. I reckon all of our music is made with playing live in mind somewhat, even if we don’t think about it actively in the moment.
KUYA NEIL: I think that's a fair comment. We feel deeply connected to both aspects. In terms of the broader shift towards ‘live’, I do feel like electronic music, DJing and nightclub culture has become so popular that returning to something tangible is a natural response to that oversaturation. I also blame Fred Again…
Q: How do you think your shared metal upbringing has influenced the way you both make & appreciate music?
TEETHER: Definitely! We both learned to do what we do now from spending years playing guitar and writing music in Guitar Pro separately. I think we arrived at a similar result and so it’s always been easy to create together. The more we unpack our shared experiences and that, the more we can lean into certain influences and try to push our sound further.
KUYA NEIL: I like heavy music a lot, and most of my production aims to create that feeling of heavy bands I enjoyed growing up. Learning metal riffs as a teenager also helped me improve a lot as a guitar player, which gave me confidence to explore other styles and genres.Q: What have been some of your key inspirations with this record?
TEETHER: I’m sure a lot of people can relate but life has been crazy for the last few years. Like non-stop big life developments, full-on work weeks and schedules, ambitious goals and navigating limitations. Just when I think shit can’t get any more hectic, it does. And not just for us, but for everyone around us.
I think having some time away from Naarm to go record this allowed us to process things that I didn’t even realise we needed to, and those things show up across the record.
KUYA NEIL: Definitely. This record felt like the escape we needed from all of that.
Q: Do you think modern music lacks attitude?
TEETHER: I think you could find examples of this in any time period. You can tell who really wants to be making music and who is just using it as a means to an end. I think people are afraid to truly be themselves, maybe due to trying to be a certain way to “make it”, maybe because it’s not easy to put yourself out there.
I get it, but I think to be dishonest will result in mediocre art - or art with a very short lifespan. We’ve received a lot of backlash and strange energy from being not even that controversial. Of course, looking like us in Australia and not watching the way you act is going to ruffle feathers. So I feel like we cannot compromise our music or our being because people need to understand that this is actually quite normal too.
KUYA NEIL: F**K YeS aNd wErE HeRe 2 bRiNG iT bAcK!!!╭∩╮(-_-)╭∩╮
Q: Has your varied heritage been a means of connecting you in ways you don’t often have with other collaborators?
TEETHER: Yeah, it’s a part of it. That’s always going to be in there, even if it doesn’t feel like a conscious thing. There’s a certain trust and comfort. I had a moment when I clocked that Kuya Neil & I and Sevy & Bayang are the exact same ethnicities re-arranged. I think it’s funny that each city has a duo occupying/representing a similar space and we happen to be the exact same ethnicity.
KUYA NEIL: Definitely, having similar childhood experiences and day to day ethnic stuff makes it a lot easier to relate and connect. Shout out my POV (People Of Varied)!
Q: What do you think is the most consistent thing you both ‘YEARN IV’ across this record?
TEETHER: Something just out of reach. Still not quite sure what.
KUYA NEIL: More time.
Q: What role do you feel lyrics & wordplay have in a music culture often obsessed with trends, viral moments & dancing?
TEETHER: I think people can choose how much they want to engage with the songs. There are many ways you can read into the lyrics if you choose to. But they’re also just some words if you want to dance to our tracks in the club. We can control making the music we want to, but everything else is out of our hands and ever-changing.
KUYA NEIL: I think for those with the attention span or care to read the lyrics, it can help them connect more deeply with us as artists and understand our context a bit more. A thing I really like about our songs is that Teether’s lyrics are nice to read.
Q: You both have an affinity for Miscellania, Teether I know you even had your wedding afterparty there. How important is a consistent space for music in both of your lives?
TEETHER: I love that place. It’s home for us. I think I took for granted how special it is to have somewhere that we can all feel so comfortable in. And somewhere that is run by a team that is even more passionate about music than us. I’m super grateful they’ve allowed us to launch so many records there and I couldn’t have thought of a more perfect place to celebrate love! We do also love entering a hibernation era and creating in a space completely removed from people, so I think it’s nice to be able to do both.
KUYA NEIL: It’s definitely a place where we always feel welcomed and celebrated. I’ve probably DJ’ed there the most in the last year, and they always host great parties. Having a regular spot definitely helps the city maintain a strong sense of identity.
Q: Misc is, to many people, a club. What does it take for a space like that to be home to so many different types of music & the crowds that go with them?
TEETHER: I think it encourages people to be fans of music, full stop. It’s not like here’s this genre, here’s that genre, here’s this scene, here’s that scene. The team helps artists and bookers at all levels to put on nights with the music they love. They have made quite a daunting thing accessible.
KUYA NEIL: I think a big part is maintaining strong relationships with the audiences, artists and promoters. There's a lot of micro-politics and nuances to different crews and audiences, and you need to be adaptable and open to that, especially in a small city. These clubs can also be tricky to run as businesses, especially when working within a more niche music community, so shout out to the team at Misc for holding it down!
We're very spoiled to have a venue like this in Melbourne….okay enough Miscellania glazing.
Q: Do you have hopes for the future of Australian hip hop?
TEETHER: Yeah! I don’t know what to expect next which is a really exciting feeling.
KUYA NEIL: For sure. I think there are more hyper-local and authentic sounds coming out of the country that I couldn’t have imagined 5-10 years ago.
Q: Who do you think people should be paying attention to?
TEETHER: Just keep your eyes and mind open, there’s mad amazing music in all forms and no shortage of it right now. I would say, please go digging and try to engage with music beyond industry spaces. Go out to local shows, listen to Soundcloud links, etc. There’s some beautiful things going on.
KUYA NEIL: Everything dropping via CONTENT.NET.AU (unbiased opinion).
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‘YEARN IV’ is available to listen to now across all streaming platforms, and to buy via the duo’s Bandcamp.
Jack Colquhoun is Mixmag ANZ’s Editor, find him on Instagram