The project began in the summer of 2021, when the songwriter-producer pair were struggling with imposter syndrome as they transitioned from songwriting for others to being the face of their own music. “There was a lot more thinking about what lyrics we want to sing along with people-things we didn’t even think was possible when writing Flight Risk,” Bethel says of the new record. Rivals is abound with stomach-punching one-liners that precede cathartic choruses. Tommy Lefroy purges toxic expectations on the folk-like song “The Mess” (“I thought being a woman was cleaning up the mess / but I am, I am the mess”) and then ruminates on debilitating struggles with mental health on the upbeat “Worst Case Kid” (“dysphoria melts me when I get home”). Tommy Lefroy’s 2021 EP, Flight Risk, created in the quietude of the pandemic, catapulted the duo onto TikTok For You pages with the breakout track “The Cause.” (“ Flight Risk was us asking if we could, Rivals is knowing we can,” Bethel explains.) The new EP sees diaristic prose form an authentic coming-of-age reverie. ![]() As Mouzourakis puts it: “Creating this community that feels more bonded than any group of people who like a certain musician, we have something to talk about-and an understanding from the get-go.” As much as it’s a funny trope, it’s also a secret weapon, especially for young people to engage in a culture that addresses mental health openly.” In that regard, Tommy Lefroy has forged a space in the indie music scene where womanhood, queerness, and frank discussions of sensitivity can be heard. “Women are talking about things and giving space for conversions that aren’t otherwise. “Throughout society, the whispers of women have changed things,” she adds. “Once anything is a trope, of course it’s a generalization and it’s unfair,” Bethel says before stating they nevertheless identify with the label. ![]() Relatability, between artists and audience, is particularly vital to Tommy Lefroy in the Sad Indie Girl music space. Bethel and Mouzourakis are set on ensuring those who scream back their lyrics to them know they’re not alone. “Even calling it ‘Rivals,’ we’re poking fun at the women-pitted-against-each-other trope,” Mouzourakis says in an interview with Bethel, both of whom speak to me from Montreal just a few hours before stepping on stage (they’re currently in the midst of a North American tour supporting Samia across 22 dates and over a dozen states).Īlthough they’ve grown in popularity, with streaming numbers in the millions, Tommy Lefroy hasn’t sacrificed the artful nature of their songwriting. Also present: their needlepoint focus on wresting cultural presumptions of womanhood. ![]() Despite their latest work marking an advanced creative era, the band’s ever-playful lyricism and deliberations on adolescence remain at the core of Rivals. The 6-track project, out March 10, arrives as winter melts into spring. In Tommy Lefroy’s Rivals EP, the indie duo Tessa Mouzourakis and Wynter Bethel wage war on societal expectations of women.
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