Born in the quiet chaos of the COVID-19 lockdown, The Terrys came together and created a sound unique to only them, and the praise as well as the dedicated fans quickly followed. Hailing from the small beach town of Gerringong, Australia, The Terrys went from indie music newcomers to acclaimed performers with a cult following. As the lockdown slowed and dulled life for many, members Jacob Finch (vocals), Lukas Anderson (lead guitar), Ben Salvatori (rhythm guitar), and the later added Cameron Cooper (drums), and Trent Cooper (bass) found a spark– a creative light within the darkness. Teaching each other to play and having regular jam sessions in their shared trailer, owned by their landlord Terry (hence the namesake), The Terrys became pros, releasing their debut single, 'Video Games' in the summer of 2020.
Within only a year of being a band, their 2021 single, 'Our Paradise' would take them to unimaginable heights, being voted in at #76 in Triple J's Hottest 100 as were also announced as the most played artist on triple j Unearthed for the year of 2021. Currently amassing over 4 million Spotify streams, 'Our Paradise' made the Terrys one to watch.
Now, in 2022, The Terrys have released their much-anticipated debut album, True Colour– a head-banging collection of surf-rock sounds, lush with wired emotion, feverish guitar riffs, and addictive rhythm.
Tonitruale got the opportunity to speak with lead guitarist, Lukas Anderson about the formation of The Terrys, the songwriting process, touring, and more!
For a relatively new band, the response you’ve received has been pretty significant. How has it felt to build such a big following in so little time?
It's been pretty surreal, to be honest. We never really expected when we started our band to get to go and play our own shows and let alone be talking to you guys [at Tonitruale,] doing interviews and all that sort of stuff. It was kind of just a bit of a gimmick at the start. We wanted to be a band and people liked what we did so yeah, it's pretty surreal, to be honest.
The pandemic was a strange time for everyone, and many got a lot out of it creatively. That seems to be an understatement for you all, considering The Terrys formed and gained popularity during the lockdown. How has this experience changed your lives and approach toward your art?
It's completely changed all of our lives definitely in ways that I work at nighttime now and not in the mornings. I'm a carpenter by trade so I'm used to waking up at 7 o'clock in the morning or earlier than that, being on-site at 7 o'clock in the morning, listening to the radio and stuff. I guess just always subconsciously listening to the radio– I don't know, I kind of just wanted to be on the radio for some reason. I mean, [we're] just contributing to society in a different way now, I suppose.
You’ve talked in the past a little about how important it is to really take your time when crafting a song. Your latest single, 'Situation 99' seems meticulously taken care of with a lot of intention behind it. How do you think your sound benefits from this, especially on True Colour?
The whole process of writing has been a big learning curve for us and when I had the chords for 'Situation 99,' I just kind of knew that was going to be a sick song. I showed the boys those chords and they were like, "yeah, that's something." We were able to get into the studio and that was one of the songs we recorded in this ongoing session for the album; it kind of just never really got finished but we knew it was going to be something special. It was because we just needed to give it some space to breathe. We didn't want to rush it and didn't want it to be too forced together and Jake took the bounce of the bass and drums away, I think, and he was able to write his lyrics over the top of it like that and was able to pick his flow and do what came natural to him. It definitely benefits the song a lot when you can give it a second and think about it and try to get the best sounds out of the piece of music from the start rather than it all just being pushed together really quickly, which some of them were.
Your music spreads across multiple genres. How would you describe your sound in your own words?
In our own words, we've come up with 'space rock' or 'skate pop.' Skate pop is probably a good little representation of it. In my own words, it's definitely Rock n' Roll but it's more influenced by what we're all doing as individuals and what we all like as individuals which is skating, surfing, and you know, just hanging out and having a good time. So, it kind of represents just life, I guess. Life Rock n' Roll maybe. We only really ever made songs when we were just coming back out of a surf or having just come back from a skate and just hanging, so that's why we made music in the first place because it was something to do. It's pretty much a direct reflection of how we were feeling at the time.
Your relationship with fans has been prominent and caring. Who came up with calling them Terrydactyls?
That was one of our best mates, Tom. He's probably been to the most of our shows out of anybody. I can't remember how it exactly started but we were playing one of our first hometown shows and he and the boys were there and he just started squawking– like making this bird sound. And then, I can't really remember who, I'm pretty sure it was him who was like, "Yeah we're the Terrydactyls" or something like that. That was just always so funny for us. It's carrying itself now. We don't really say it at all.
You have a national Australian tour coming up, which is really cool. Can we expect any North American tour dates soon or just venturing outside of Australia in the future?
I mean, if there are people in North America that want to see The Terrys play, we'll come for sure. Spread the word; get all your mates onto it! We would love to come to North America. There's been no talk of America yet. I mean, we've always said that we want to go there. It's pretty far away so it'd have to be the real deal to get over there and be doing that– it would be an absolute dream. But I think we're going to play in New Zealand and probably the UK early next year, which is going to be fun
How would you each describe the upcoming record in three words?
Open. To. Interpretation.
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