Miss June Drop Debut Album 'Bad Luck Party' + Interview

Miss June's hugely anticipated debut album Bad Luck Party is finally out today, successfully capturing their furious live energy like lightning in a bottle. The explosive Tāmaki Makaurau four piece fronted by Annabel Liddel are celebrating in style with launch events in their hometown and Wellington this weekend, before returning overseas to play world-conquering headline dates over the next two months in Australia, UK, Europe, US and Canada. Chris Cudby caught up with Liddel for a quick chat ahead of the group's global adventures – scroll downwards to read their convo and wrap your ears around a stream of Bad Luck Party here...

Miss June - 'Bad Luck Party' Album Release NZ Shows

Friday 6th September - San Fran, Wellington*
Saturday 7th September - Galatos, Auckland

Tickets available HERE via UTR*

Chris Cudby: Your songs sound like huge anthems but are also quite personal with the lyrical content, like 'Twitch' draws on quite specific experiences of your own. How long have the songs on this record been in the works for, and why did you choose now to release your debut album?

Annabel Liddel: We've been writing the songs on this album for three years at least... We put out [2015's] Matriarchy really quickly and we toured that for about two years before we really committed to starting to write an album. For me, I really knew I needed to complete my studies before we released this album, which gave me a bit of a time frame to get it done. We also needed the time to develop our sound, and develop the songs to where they're at now. When I say three years, some of them were written three years ago, and some of them were written a few months ago. There are songs on the album that we've never even played live before, and then other ones like 'Twitch' that have been road-tested for a year or so.

Some of the lyrics of your songs are pretty vicious – are there any themes you found you kept returning to with Bad Luck Party?

I definitely write songs that are quite personal to me, lyrically at least. I'd say the only theme would be honesty, and writing about my feelings about situations.

The production on your record sounds really amazing. I was wondering, were you thinking about any specific references for the sound of Bad Luck Party? Who did you work with in recording the album?

We recorded the album at The Lab, working with Tom Healy who really became the fifth member of our band. We knew that we wanted the album to be experimental. I had listened to a Song Exploder podcast about, funnily enough, Weezer's recording technique. I really took away from it the fact, once they'd done the tracking of the bass and the drums, they have quite a lot of fun with the guitars and different sounds and lyrical takes and things. I think that was a huge influence, Weezer's Blue album, it's sort of what brought me around to enjoying pop music again. Then furthermore with the guitar tones, I was pretty heavily influenced by a lot of early New Zealand bands. I really loved Bailterspace, 3D's, and then bands like Sonic Youth as well. I really liked that lead guitar, being lead and sitting on top of the rhythm, but at the same time being really experimental. I guess the Pixies do that as well.

You are just about to launch into a massive tour, with 34 shows lined up between now and early November. What kind of prep work is required for such an intense tour schedule?

I am a serial over committer, so I've been really really busy. I just did New Zealand Fashion Week and now we're doing all the press for the album. Prep work would be all the usual stuff for when you're travelling... For me it's making sure all my equipment's tour ready, getting in a frame of mind to not see your family or friends for a while, getting in a frame of mind to not strangle your bandmates for two months.

You're playing in Auckland and Wellington this week before going back overseas, what can local fans expect from this weekend's shows?

I think that it's going to be a big celebration. I want it to reflect the name of the album which is Bad Luck Party, and just be a celebration of everyone's flaws, all of the underdogs, and also a celebration of everyone that's supported us over the years. It's been a long time coming, and I want people to turn up and feel safe and welcome and free to express themselves in any way that they feel like.

'Bad Luck Party' is out now via Frenchkiss Records.