Contrary to the belief of liquor store employees and the occasional TSA agent, I am no longer in the thirteen-to-nineteen age range. I think my state of arrested development partially stems from my discovery of Reality Check, the sole record by the late-2000s blog-pop outfit The Teenagers. A recent uptick in streams set in motion by user-generated TikTok content and “indie sleaze” revisionist history signifies that this stoppage is sweeping my corner of the internet. But when fielding so much algorithmic slop, it’s hard to discern the scale at which a band is trending; even harder, the cultural cachet they had at their peak if you weren’t present. 

However small, the band’s revival feels serious. Recent posts have mirrored Wayback Machine pages, filled with bras and bare torsos, with fans following instructions from the track “Feeling Better” to write "I LOVE THE TEENAGERS" in risqué places. Their memorable hit “Homecoming” is still inspiring discourse. There are over half a million views on a TikTok clip stating: “whenever i slightly like a boy i remember about this song because he is probably not thinking about me the way im thinking about him.” The music video has enduring appeal, too. It’s proto-Petra Collins for Rookie Mag, featuring belles with bubblegum and pom poms, bathed in frothy pastels, brushing each other's hair. The only thing that has aged poorly are the suspenders.

Even in glowing reviews, the band were often written up as a one-note act—stereotypically sleazy French boys who recycled topics from a shortlist. But when I listen to Reality Check, I can be whoever I want: The object of affection, the scorned lover, or the girl who’s just plain confused. Though there’s an equal number of aging hipsters who miss their favorite artist, the band’s breakup yielded little public comment, and awful SEO delivers the early doo wop group they share a name with as the top search result. Through the power of direct message and electronic mail, I got my questions answered by active members Dorian Dumont and Quentin Delafon for their first joint interview in a decade and a half. The proverbial sharpie is strewn across my stomach—I really do love The Teenagers.

Your MySpace bio listed your influences: SEX, LOVE, PARTY, VODKA, SUMMER, PUBERTY, RED BULL, HAM ROLLZ, and SWEDISH GIRLS. What inspires you nowadays? 

Dorian: It’s divided, one side is nostalgia, memories from being a band on tour, and on the other way it’s new music, finding out that even with AI or same chords reused in a million songs, I can still hear a new song and be excited like when I was discovering music at 15 years old. Example is Dijon “Talk Down,” first time I heard it was not so long ago, and I was like wooooooooooooow.

Quentin: As before, I want to make music to tell stories, sometimes silly sounding, but that ends up resonating with people everywhere—and living off our royalties eventually.

What are your current thoughts on these references from your lyrics: the movie Showgirls, the show 90210, and the Gap brand? Also, what did you have against Jeff Buckley?

Dorian: I’ve never met an accountant from Gap but we thought it would be funny, in Paris you meet a lot of people “in fashion” but you know sometimes it's bullshit. And I have nothing against Jeff Buckley and I listened to a lot of his music, but at the moment when we wrote “Starlett Johansson’ I just thought it was funny, ‘cause for a night out or one night stand, that would be a bit boring to listen to. 

Quentin: I rewatched the whole 90210 OG series a few years ago and it was amazing! Such a cultural reset to have a show centered around teenagers with storylines addressing substance abuse, racism, sexual assaults as well as showcasing Tori Spelling as the iconic nepo bb she always was. And I attended a screening of Showgirls in the cinema recently as well. Help! I'm stuck in the past! Technically I think we were exposed to less content back then, meaning things had a bigger impact.

One of you was a musician before you started The Teenagers, and the other wasn’t. Did this cause differing reactions to the sudden attention and opportunity?

Dorian: I don't think so, we were all surprised in the same way, I think. I always thought I would manage to release some songs in my life, but I never thought it would be like that. I have been pleasantly surprised by all the attention we got during these crazy few years. 

Quentin: Not really, I’m the non-musician but I’m an opportunistic attention whore, so I dropped my corporate job at Burberry in a heartbeat to live the indie dream. Would do it again.

Had you been to San Diego before writing “Homecoming” and “Wheel of Fortune”? What endeared you to American culture—were you consuming any Californian media?

Dorian: I had been to San Diego with my parents when I was 15 for like one day, but it has nothing to do with the lyrics of “Homecoming” to be honest. I don't even remember that we sing about San Diego in “Wheel of Fortune,” ha ha. Oh well. But yeah we grew up with 90210 on TV every day, Melrose Place, Knight Rider, Baywatch … We had a lot of American culture surrounding us in France. Everything was dubbed, so that’s why French people aren’t the best in English, but we were fed by American culture in the 90s. 

Quentin: True, basically brainwashed by our TVs and we loved every minute of it. Music also, actually! French music tended to be super corny back when we were actual teenagers, the cool bands and artists were American and British. The San Diego reference in “Homecoming” was that we just wanted a city that is a basic American and “uninternational” Cali place. Sarah who sings on the song and is from the US said this was the perfect place!

Were your performances perceived differently in America versus England or France? Did you have greater shock value there? I was four in 2008, so I unfortunately missed those dates.

Quentin: I think that the further you are from home, and the greater your performances are received. For example, in Australia, or in Mexico, we felt like rock stars really because we played huge stages in real festivals, and at some point on stage you’re realizing that you’re doing the same thing as bands you grew up with, it’s crazy. England is always a great audience, I think because they’re always ready to party. In America, it was also always very nice to play there, we had a lot of fans. And in France, well … it’s weird because it’s where we’re from, but it wasn’t very going crazy for us, we played some gigs of course, it was very nice, but for example we didn’t do any big festivals there, and our agent was telling us that all the promoters were telling him that we needed to confirm before. But US or UK bands didn’t need confirmation, so I don’t know, I never really understood how we were perceived in France. You have stats on Spotify about where your listeners are from, and I think Paris is like number 25…

Dorian: So true, the further we were, the better we were welcomed, but I think anywhere there was always a shock value because we have never been a traditional indie band. As for our cold reception in France, we never did music for the French so the price to pay was not being welcomed by our peers, and we were never played on the radio which was very important then here—but it’s OK, the whole world welcomed us with open arms and room-temperature vodka.

You’ve hinted at being more well-behaved as teenagers than people might assume. When you were writing, did you feel like you were stepping into character? 

Dorian: I would say that we’re educated, but well behaved, I’m not sure ha ha. We’re nice people of course, but I don't think we were the easiest band to deal with on tour for example. And yeah, I feel it's mixed, we’re not characters but what's important to me is that we were never too serious. I think that when it's too serious, it gets boring. 

Quentin: Yeah there was always a part of the writing that was some idealized and fantasized version of our lives mixed with who we truly are but yeah in our everyday lives we are not out of control, we are very well adjusted—and some might even say we are angels.

Did Matt Irwin shoot the Reality Check cover specifically for the album, or was it taken prior? Who is that couple? 

Dorian: Yep, it was an organized shooting for the artwork of Reality Check. We loved his work and we are happy he accepted to work with us on this cover. Felt sad when we found out about his death, really. The girl is in our “Homecoming” video too, Quentin met her partying in London and she looked so cool. The boy was a model I think, don't really remember to be fair. 

Quentin: Yes we loved Matt’s work at Dazed and really wanted him to shoot the artwork. He was very in demand and super busy at the time but agreed to do it in the end. We wanted to have this teenage couple kissing in front of some wall covered in vegetation. That was the brief. It was shot at the house of the guy who signed us (Milo at Merok Records) in Dalston and it was wrapped in one hour tops. No, actually it was Matt who introduced us to Shona—who ended up being the number one girl in the “Homecoming” video! I don’t think she was a party girl, Vanja and Chelsea from the video were my friends from the streets lol. 

Why do you think Gen Z has embraced your music? Apart from it being great, I can’t decide. I think my generation longs for a freer, more debauched era, and they wish they could’ve been present for your rise. You also captured the unique feeling of teenage loserdom— avoiding Orlando Bloom movies because a girl fancied him, or dedicating a song to your celebrity crush. Some of your songs are timelessly sad. “III” is pretty eternal. I definitely feel like I don’t know anything.

Dorian: Like you said, we have a lot of Gen Z people telling us that they wish they lived our era, and went to our parties in 2008. I’m not gonna lie, times were easier, the world was going a bit better and people worried less in general about the state of the world. People were partying hard really, it was all for the fun, and social media was new and fresh, people were talking to each other about new bands, about culture, about anything and it was exciting, as now they're fighting about everything. We hope that they can feel like they were there when they listen to our music or watch videos. 

Quentin: Yes, it’s a mix. First, yes it’s great thank you, also it’s strangely timeless as we did capture that adolescent bedroom boredom fantasy but at the same time I think we also embody that era, 2005-2010, that seemed more free and I think it was on some level—social media was more innocent and less omnipotent to start with. But we tend to idolize the past, it wasn’t perfect at all back then, I feel bullying was really normalized and celebrity culture was extremely toxic for example. If you look at what Britney or Lindsay Lohan endured, it is hard to understand it today.

Of the people sharing their support on social media, are most of them original fans or new listeners?

Dorian: We asked them, and it’s almost a perfect 50/50.

Quentin: It’s cool to know that on top of the nostalgic millennials we have new listeners, mostly Gen Z, that are discovering our music today. That’s what is inspiring us to make music again!

You’re on Instagram and TikTok now—do they feel at all like MySpace or Tumblr to you? They seem less personal, but they’re still being used to share your music.

Dorian: What I liked about MySpace, it’s that it was more music oriented I would say. A lot of people were there to discover new music. I’m having way less fun on Instagram to be honest. And I'm too old for TikTok, I’m asking a few Gen Z fans advice and they were helping but I don't really have the energy to do a lip sync right now. 

Quentin: There was something more organic about social media back then. OK, you always had those annoying Macy’s gift cards spams on Myspace but the algorithm was not a mad controlling tyrant yet. 

After your whirlwind years, how did you deal with being dropped by XL and your interpersonal fallout? In hindsight, do you think the band “ended” at the right time?

Dorian: In the music world, we called it “post tour depression.” After an exciting tour, where you meet 20 or 30 new people everyday, where they all tell you that your music is great etc., where you get so much adrenaline from shows, you go home and watch a TV show and it’s quite rough to adapt and go back to normal life. Honestly I think it took me something like ten years to come back to “normal life” and to be excited about real life stuff … It’s more complicated to handle than I thought.

Quentin: We toured a lot for a while and it was great, we loved it but it drained the life out of us at the same time. So we tried to write new songs but what's to talk about if you don’t experience real life and don’t have anything else to talk about other than being drunk backstage and hungover at soundcheck? 

Why did you decide to write your final release “Do You Remember" in 2020? Did it bring you closure?

Dorian: Yeah, at the time I felt we needed to be clear and close the chapter, I needed it. We actually wrote “Do You Remember” in like 2013 when we worked on a second album. 

Quentin: I think it was to prepare for our comeback then lol.

Do you have any zouk recommendations?

Dorian: Yes, this band called KASSAV is amazing. 

I can’t find your remix of Phoenix’s “1901” anywhere—do you still have it? Maybe it’s on Soulseek.

Dorian: I didn't even remember I did a remix of Phoenix ‘1901.” I don't have it. 

Quentin: Ha ha, totally forgot about it! Just found it in an email though, it’s cool! 

Do you still practice photography, Quentin? The archive on your blog What Really Happened is incredible. 

Quentin: Thanks! My dad had advised me to write a journal but I couldn’t be bothered and did this instead. I’m not so active taking photos but I post the occasional story on Instagram lol. Once we start touring again I will dust off my Nikon Coolpix and upload on my blogspot—if I remember the password.

Dorian, you’re a father. Has your daughter heard your music? She isn’t old enough to understand what the lyrics mean, so I’m sure it’d be okay. 

Dorian: Yes, the first time she heard it, it was “Feeling Better.” I asked her if she liked it and she answered “no.” But recently we listened to a song we are writing at the moment and she instantly told me that she loved it, and that it sounds like Royel Otis, because that's one of her favourite bands (with Paramore) and we listen to them almost every day together.

You often post about modern artists. Who’s most exciting to you? 

Dorian: I spent ten years not really caring about new music or anything, and now for a few months I talked to a lot of people in bands, artists, and a lot of them told me that they like The Teenagers, it was very heartwarming. So now I’m listening to them, ha ha. I like Frost Children, their energy reminds me of Justice before they broke everything. I like what The Dare is doing, using old influences but in a modern way. I’m also a recent 2Hollis mega fan, I listen to him all the time, I think he will be an important step in how pop music evolves in the future. I could be wrong, but I can imagine that pop stars will want a part of him soon. I feel like he digested Crystal Castles, 2000s hip hop, electronic Kitsuné stuff, pop music from all eras, and that he’s doing the perfect mix of all this. 

And Dijon and Mk.gee, of course. I think every guitarist that listened to Mk Gee is impressed and dreams at night about being able to play like that. And finally I'm excited to listen to new Beach Fossils stuff because I have the feeling that it’ll be even more pop than it was ever and I want to listen to that. I love Beach Fossils so much. 

Quentin: The Sugababes OG lineup is back and that’s what I’m into rn. They are amazing live as well. I can’t wait for the new album and I’m so happy about it! They are doing it without a label on top of it so it’s quite inspirational. I really like Addisson Rae as well but I can’t tell if it’s good or if my questionable music tastes are getting the best of me again.

Last year, you mentioned the possibility of releasing some songs from your shelved second album and going on a farewell tour. What are the odds of those things happening? Would you still bring people onstage to sing “Homecoming”? We have to get Universal Germany on the phone.

Dorian: We are working on new material right now … And if we ever play gigs again, of course, everyone is welcome on stage to sing homecoming. 

Quentin: We reworked some previously unreleased demos (the good ones) and we are also working on new songs! It was such an exhilarating process to record again. We can't wait to do more. Regarding the homecoming shenanigans, we will always do that! I don’t remember how it came up but it was the best idea we ever had and it was never a let down.