Mikaila Delgado & Teddie Winder-Haron - Yours Truly ‘These Songs Are About The Next Chapter In Our Lives’
When slithering through Yours Truly’s extensive discography, the words of vulnerability, rawness, and honesty come blazing to the forefront, and for good reason. Equipping their music with the emotional weight of their life experiences, and submerging them deeper into raw moments of feeling, Yours Truly creates soundtracks of resonation. From their early days of pure pop punk, to a now more refined sense of alternative/heavy pop, the band’s latest offering, Toxic, sees connection remain the heart of their sound.
We sat down with Mikaila Delgado and Teddie Winder-Haron to unpack the latest album, its creation, and some of the milestone moments along the way!
You guys already have an album called Self Care, but moving forward, Toxic presents itself as more of a self-care album for you; it's confident, it's charged, it's rebellious. What has been the biggest sound change that you've noticed from now to then?
Mikaila: I think we sound angrier on this album. And I think that... I really appreciate what you say about all that, because I do feel like it feels stronger and I feel like it feels more self-assured, and I feel like it is us reclaiming the band that we are and that we want to be. So, yeah, I think that it is... I guess it is like a self-care record. I never thought of it like that, but I love it.
Something I associate with Yours Truly a lot is vibrancy and aesthetics. Looking back to Afterglow, I think you guys defined the colour yellow. I associate you so heavily with that. The visual presentation of your album, from the album cover to the music videos, is this a big thing for you and how does the process of bringing it to life come about?
Mikaila: I think the colours changing signifies a new chapter. I don't know why. It's just like something that we've always done. And I think that also, yeah, it definitely helps signify that this is the era of this. I don't know if we really had that in Self Care. I think Self Care was like, beige. But yeah, it's just I think having everything look different shows also how we've grown as a band as well to show that these songs are about the next chapter in our lives.
I think going on top of that, even the album cover itself, there's been this increase of these anime-style album covers. There's a few bands doing it at the moment. Did one of you in particular bring this style or have a personal liking to the anime style, or did it just come to you?
Teddie: I think we both have the same level of enjoyment of anime things. We've grown up with the animes and stuff that you saw on TV and then grew from there with ourselves.
Mikaila: I think we both really... we watched a lot of anime on the last album cycle, and I think it was an escape for us, I think a little bit with when we'd have a big day or we'd be on tour and we'd have a movie night or something like that, we would watch anime and stuff. So I think that, yeah, having that be a part of the the album cover or to have it look like animated in a way, just show things that we were interested in, I guess.
In terms of what you're interested in, sonically, this album does sound really different. Do you think you had a lot of influences going into it, whether it be media or other musicians?
Mikaila: I think that a lot of it came from the things that we started liking in the in-between of the two cycles. I think a lot of us, Teddie and I, we both started listening to music that wasn't pop punk, and we started watching things that we didn't watch before. So, I think that taking the influence of things, like there's a big drum and bass influence on this record. I think we've had that before, but I think that after enjoying it when we did Is This What I Look Like?, being able to fully get into it in the time in between was important.
Teddie: Almost took the exact words out of my mouth. That's almost exactly what I was going to say.
Well, I guess it's interesting that you mentioned, Is This What I Look Like? Because I feel like for a moment in time, that really defined your identity a lot. It was projected onto airwaves. ‘Walk Over My Grave’ was massive and it was performed on some pretty big tours. Was it something comforting for you or is there a weight that comes with feeling trapped by only being as best as your last work?
Teddie: I think we're always just trying to do the best for ourselves and trying to better ourselves because it's not really like we can... You can't really compare yourself when you're doing completely different things. No one's going to release the same music as someone else. That's just not what we're going to do. So I guess it's always good to look back and be like, Okay, I want to do better than this. But if it's different, it's going to be... You can always look at it as like, it's always going to be better in a different way because you've done something different. You're not just on the same thing over and over again because that's the easy way to do things.
But I think that as long as we keep challenging ourselves and pushing ourselves further, I think we'll always think that our work is getting better as well as we're always putting more and more effort into everything that we do, taking as much time and more effort in all the things that we've learned from the past cycles, taking it in. I think that that's just the way that we keep ourselves from pushing forward and trying to do better and better every time.
As well as that, I guess this might be a more Mikaila-orientated question, but I think some tracks are just so different to what we've heard before, especially vocally. I think ‘Sour’ comes to mind, your vocals just sound so different and so gorgeous. Is there a conscious effort in terms of singing differently, or do you just think it comes down to how you're growing and changing as a musician?
Mikaila: I think a bit of both. When we started Yours Truly all I knew about myself was that I had a strong voice and that I could sing really high. And so I was like, let's check that on every single song. That's my thing. I have to sing really high and really, really powerful the whole time. And then we started touring and I was like, this shit is tiring. Why did I do that to myself? And so I think that this time around, I think that I've become a better singer, and I've got way more control through the years of touring, and I've realized through just doing funny things on stage that I can do other things with my voice. I think with this album, I was like, I'm going to explore that, and I want to do different things that people haven't heard me do before, but I know I can do. Also, hopefully, I won't want to cry every time we perform.
That sounds like a good step in the right direction! On the aspect of touring, I remember celebrating the release of Self Care at the Crowbar, and soon you'll be doing the album, acoustically, I'm pretty sure, in the Crowbar walls as well. Is there a coincidence or is there something that keeps drawing you back to the Crowbar for these milestone events. So what's the deal there?
Teddie: It was a pretty special time being able to do that, especially with the lockdown and COVID restrictions and trying to work around that. I think it was, for some people, it was the first bit of music they got to go back to. That became a special moment for us. We always want to do something like that with all the releases that we do now because I think it's important to have a nice special moment with everyone to just celebrate the release together. We can't think of a better place than Crowbar because especially all the staff there are wonderful. It's a great venue. We love it there.
On that same wavelength, I was there when you shared a few songs from the album at the Emo Night, and you just looked beyond thrilled to share it and have some fun. I guess with how heavy the album is, do these moments of celebration and elation mean a lot?
Mikaila: First of all, I'm so sorry that you saw us like that.
Teddie: I'm not! That was so much fun. I had the best time. That was so sick!
Mikaila: I remember I was walking away and then hearing Teddie just on the other side of the bar yelling “I'm going to play another one”!
Teddie: It was great. I had all the songs on a USB and I was like, I have the power. I have all the control now. I think it was so fun doing stuff like that. It's just having a bit of fun being cheeky.
Mikaila: We don't want to act like we think that we can't just go and just chill and play a whole bunch of songs with you guys. You guys are the ones that we're making the album for. As much as it's for us, it's also for you. So being able to just hang and do stuff like that, it's so fun. I love that stuff. And just also being able to have a community. I think that we lost community a lot during COVID, so being able to have an opportunity, which is why we're going to do these acoustic shows. And I said to Teddie the other night, I said, we need to cut one song because I know I'm going to talk shit all time. So we're going to run out of time because it's so nice having those intimate spaces where we can just talk to each other instead of us being on stage and being here and then people being not being able to hear anyone.
I think that, especially in Australia, we've all grown up together, really. There are people that have been coming to Yours Truly shows for six years and we know them. So it's just nice to talk and catch up.
I think you've done a great job at asserting that. I think that was one of the best Emo Night after-parties ever, regardless of what you think. It was great hearing song after song. You did a great job. On the topic of community, once again, a bit more of a Mikaila question, but I just want to say a massive congratulations on your Australian Women in Heavy Music Award nomination. You've been an inspiration for not just women in music, but beyond that for a while. What does the nomination mean to you?
Mikaila: It's really lovely because I think that being a woman in heavy music or being a woman in music in general, I think is very difficult. It's definitely not an easy thing to be a part of and to, I guess, to be nominated for something and to be acknowledged for the work that you've put in and the fact that I feel like as a woman doing this and being a singer in a band and stuff, I feel like if I can inspire other women to be like, 'I'm going to do that as well because I saw this other girl from Sydney do it as well. She can do it, why can't I do it?' I think that that's such a big part of being the front person of a band. If I didn't have women before me who did that and weren't acknowledged, I probably wouldn't have felt like I could do it as well.
People like Jenna [McDougall] from Tonight Alive. I think that if I didn't know that she was also from Sydney and that she was this girl running this band… I don't know. I think that it's cool to be acknowledged. I've been touring for 10 years now, even before Yours Truly. So it feels nice to have something like that.
Congratulations again for that. Just going back to the album itself and going back to how this feels a bit like a self-care record, did your writing styles change leading up to this record and how much?
Mikaila: Teddie and I did a lot of collaboration. We have collaborated in the past, but I think this time we had a lineup change. The people that we would usually work with that would produce us or anything like that, weren't as available to us as they usually had been. So I think that we just had to start making new connections and write with different people. And I think that taught us a lot about how to write, but also in other ways, other ways of writing and other ways of approaching writing. So I think that, yeah, I think a lot of the songs were written in different ways, which I think that we will be able to take into the next album.
I know you posted a little bit of a snippet of a song in one of your Get Ready with Me’s, but do you both personally have a favourite song on the album that you're anticipating to get out to the world?
Teddie: Yeah, definitely. ‘Let Go’ is my favourite that I want everyone to hear, but I've got... pretty much all of them are the second favourite, though.
Mikaila: I'm excited for ‘Let Go’. Those two are the ones that I did snippet for, but ‘Let Go’. I think it's just such a Yours Truly song, but in the way of it being what we like. I feel like its the ‘Composure’ of Toxic. That's where I sit it.
I guess just to finish off as well, what is the main thing you want people to take away from this album, whether they're long-time Yours Truly listeners or if this is the first project they've tuned into?
Mikaila: I hope that people... First of all, I hope they enjoy it, but I hope they take away a bit of understanding and in a way of that, other people feel the way they feel. If us being very honest and very truthful, lyrically and all that can, I don't know, resonate with someone and help them feel like they're not alone, then that's, I guess, the whole thing that I want people to take from it.
Teddie: Just going off with Mikaila's, I guess, just I hope it resonates with some people and just they're able to find that connection to it. I hope that people enjoy it just in whatever way they want to enjoy it.
Interview by Georgia Haskins @ghaskins2002
Toxic is out on Friday, August 16th via UNFD.
Pre-order here
Yours Truly - Toxic tracklisting
1. Back 2 U
2. Sour
3. California Sober
4. Let Go
5. All That I’m Not
6. Love Feels Like
7. Bloodshot Eyes
8. Sinking feat. Bloom
9. Desaturated
10. Call My Name
