Worm Girlz On Their Upcoming Tours & New Track: ‘We Are A Band Full Of Queer Freaks And It’s About Time We Sing About It’

31 October 2024 | 9:00 am | Tione Zylstra

The Brisbane garage-rock quintet are ‘Thinkin’ Bout’ the girls and the gays.

Worm Girlz

Worm Girlz (Credit: Tayla Lauren)

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Brisbane’s favourite compost-dwelling garage-rock band, Worm Girlz, dropped a new track today (October 31), titled Thinkin’ Bout. The quintet are currently on their debut tour after a whirlwind year, performing at both BIGSOUND and Laneway Festival in 2024.

Worm Girlz, known for their contagious energy and queer love anthems, are also set to head out on another tour - this one being exclusively filled with Chappell Roan covers.

But before they head off, The Music caught up with Worm Girlz - made up of Jade Montgomery, Angie Gale, Isabella Wood-de-Melo, Lauren Rowe, and Nikolai Bray - for a chat about all things tours, worms, and queer love.

What is Thinkin’ Bout about?

Discovering yourself and taking a scary leap into the unknown… and GIRLZ.

Was it inspired by any real-life experience?

Jade:

I was doing a songwriting challenge and the prompt was “fruit”. I started to write two songs, one was a cute safe song about fruit, and the other was a verse and chorus for what would become Thinkin’ Bout. It was at a time when I was feeling scared of labels, and to be honest, scared of even admitting I was Thinkin’ Bout girlz.

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I nearly didn’t share it, but when I sent it to Loz, they immediately said, “Is this a Worm Girlz song?”. Having the band totally on board with the message of the song, and so supportive of me in telling this story, meant the world to me. 

Lauren: 

Around the time that Jade and I sat down to finish Thinkin’ Bout with Worm Girlz in mind, I was experiencing the early stages of a new relationship and the rush of a crush was an intensity we definitely channelled into this song.

How did it feel to write an anthem celebrating queer love?

It felt so right and exciting. We are a band full of queer freaks - and it is about time we sing and scream about it. The response to the song live has already been incredible, and we are just so ready to share it further! It’s beautiful to be able to unpeel the layers of internalised shame and feel truly free and celebrated while sharing this song. 

What do you want the song to achieve overall?

Thinkin’ Bout is a moment in our live set that invites audiences to let their hair down and party with sapphic love at the forefront. We hope that from wherever they’re listening from, our girl loving community can feel free and seen and more importantly celebrated.

Does it feel like you’ve created your own little worm community with your music?

A worm farm? It definitely does! We are so blown away for the support we get from our community. Words can’t explain how grateful we are to have met every single person that has wriggled their way into our compost, both online and in the world. Every show we’re reminded that this community is truly full of the best people.

Tell us about your tour!

Since long before we released Dirt, our debut single, we have been dreaming about our first headline show and everything it could be. After writing Thinkin’ Bout we knew that it was the perfect song to celebrate in a big way! We sent out a worm-signal to our friends and managed to pull together not only our dream headline show in Meanjin but also a tour! We’ll be bringing our fun, campy live shows across the South-East Coast, with the ultimate celebration taking place Nov 16 at Valley Loft - with a country western theme, of course. Grab your boots and do what cowboys do best (be gay). With LOTS of wormy surprises in store, these are not shows to be missed!

And tell us about your Chappell Roan tour! Is it solely covers? And why Chappell Roan?

She said it best herself: “I’m your favourite artist’s favourite artist”. We adore Chappell Roan, she is everything and everywhere - an ICON. Her music is inspiring and camp and QUEER! An opportunity to study and learn from her music and stagecraft while we’re simultaneously performing and promoting our wlw anthem Thinkin’ Bout felt too perfect to pass up.

Plus we know that a lot of our fans are also Chappell Roan fans and so it gives us the opportunity to dig for wormz across the country! 

The set is mostly dedicated to our lord and saviour Roan but it wouldn’t be a Worm Girlz show without us giving absolute WORM. You can definitely expect a cheeky taste of our own sound too! 

What can we expect from Worm Girlz next?

Oooo we have big plans for 2025. You can expect to see our worm farm continue to grow as we reveal more of our world both sonically and visually. We can promise there will be no stopping our silly TikToks, our wormy crafts, or our wriggling across the big stages. Total worm domination is imminent and we just can’t wait to embrace everyone who needs a band and community like Worm Girlz. 

‘Thinkin’ Bout’ is out now across streaming services. Worm Girlz are currently on their debut tour, and their Chappell Roan cover tour starts tonight - find tickets for both tours here.

This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body

Creative Australia