Teenage Dads Lose Their Passports

Teenage Dads are a local Mornington Peninsula band consisting of Jordan Finlay, Connor McLaughlin, Vincent Kinna and Angus Christie.

I don’t know much about the Mornington Peninsula except that a couple of my friends in Melbourne who also happen to be in a band rave about how beautiful it is. I suppose it must be one of those places where life is so idyllic and all your dreams come true. It at least kind of sounds like that for Teenage Dads who have been on a steady rise and (almost) doing this music thing for their full-time gig. We caught up with the fellas in the middle of their tour in Europe while they simultaneously answered questions and tried to find their passports. 

Hey Dad. I mean Teenage Dads. I am so sorry I was just on the phone to my dad [everyone laughing]. Well, that’s awkward. Anyway, what’s going on?

Vincent Kinna: It’s very chilly this morning. 

Where are you right now? 

Connor McLaughlin:  London.

Well, that sounds about right for London. 

Vincent: It’s been mostly sunny the whole time we’ve been here. 

That’s good then. Just about to embark on a big Europe tour, where are you most excited to go? 

Jordan Finlay: So, this is the end of the Lime Cordial support tour, but the start of our own one. 

Vincent: We’re pretty pumped for Dublin. We’ve been to before but we’re coming back too. 

Of course. Dublin is spectacular. Just all of Ireland really.

Jordan: Yeah, I’m also really keen for Austria because that’s where my family is from, and I haven’t been there – so get to see a bit of the heritage. 

Connor: I’m keen to play the Vienna show yeah. 

Jordan: Sorry one second that reminded me I have to check if we’ve got our passports. 

Oh god. 

Vincent: Got them! It’s going to be pretty cool. Then there’s all the US tour in July so there’s a very big sensory overload of new places none of us have been to.

Is this your first splendour gig? 

All: Yes

How did it feel to get the call up to play one of the country’s biggest, or at the very least, most well-known festivals? 

Jordan: It was kind of cool actually. We were at a show in the green room and instead of being immediately psyched it was kind of like uh oh, we’re going to be in America – can we, do it?  So, it was exciting but also like this flight is going to suck shit because we fly from America a day or two before our performance and then straight back. Angus and I went last year. So, we’re excited to be there and not camp this time. 

Yeah, this is the first time I won’t be camping too so I’m keen. Now if I was to describe your sound as a band it would be summer, is that a good or a bad description in your eyes? 

Vincent: I think it’s pretty accurate. Summer is good, I take it that most people think summer is a good thing. 

Jordan: Yeah, I guess so. If we had to pick a season, then yeah. 

Vincent: Is it like Australian summer? Or a is it a Russian summer. 

God, I didn’t think to clarify the summer. Not sure what a Russian summer would be like. 

Vincent: I think it’s just snowing.

So basically, the middle of our winter. Probably not that then. But then you have ‘Goodbye, goodbye again’ which is a completely different pace. Is that the direction we can expect to see more of in the future? 

Jordan: Nah [laughs]. 

Vincent: We showed the label that one and they were like yeah let’s do it. 

Jordan: I think it’s cool to have some songs like that. But just because you do one sad song doesn’t mean your whole entire project has to follow that whole path. Some rock band’s biggest songs are the slow ballads but that’s not what they’re about. It was cool to show people that side of us. 

What’s it like shifting from a high school band to this being your full-time job? Wait is this your full-time job yet.

Vincent: Almost. We’re like 95% of the way there. 

Connor: We have left work for three months to do these tours, so we have one leg through the door but let’s just say we haven’t deleted our boss’s numbers just yet. 

And growing a fan base while you’re also growing up as people? 

Vincent: I try not to think about the high school aspect too much because I don’t count that. 

Jordan: You always hear about bands that when they take off it’s like their fifth band but none of us had ever done music in a band before. So that’s probably why we consider the high school band the pre-band. We weren’t even called Teenage Dads back then or writing original music. It was just having fun playing at parties. It wasn’t until after school that we started writing our own music. 

Did you have a name before? 

Connor: Nah we didn’t have a band it was always just like can the band play at my 18th birthday? To be fair we were playing 18th birthdays as Teenage Dads pretty quickly and everyone was like you should have named it something else and we were like yeah probably. 

I saw you sell DILF shirts, was that one of your ideas because they are brilliant?

Vincent: There was a couple of people that had it lit up on their phone trying to throw us off a bit when we were playing, and we just immediately thought it would be good on a T-Shirt. 

Jordan: Yeah, just played into it a bit. 

Great idea, well thanks boys. 

Thanks Sam. 

This interview was a part of the 2023 Splendour Weekender. View the full digital copy here.