Happy Loving Couple

"I actually can't play any instrument very well. I dabble in lots of instruments but don't have the patience to actually master one,” Microwave Jenny's bubbly Tessa Boney admits with a laugh. “So I would often get [husband, guitarist and fellow songwriter] Brendon to come and play for me. Which is weird. I don't know how I was writing stuff when I wasn't actually really playing anything well.”

Born in Ulladulla, Tessa grew up at Umina Beach, her growing interest in writing and performing eventually leading to her meeting Brendon Boney, born and raised in Wagga. There was no thought initially to work together – rather, they would help each other out on their own music. Boney certainly sees Tessa's lack of formal musical training as an advantage.

“It helps with her style,” he suggests. “She has no theory in her songwriting, so she'll just play whatever she wants to hear – I can't write like that.” “He's the theory-head,” she adds. “So it works really well,” he continues. “We come up with things that the other person wouldn't. We were just writing songs for, like, two years together just to have songs around, and then we kind of thought why don't we just start something with it, create our own thing. I never thought of myself as a singer so I don't take it personally,” he laughs. “She has an amazing voice.”

They're both lyricists, so Tessa suggests the split within Microwave Johnny material is probably 50/50, though, “Actually, he probably writes more – he writes quite girly songs,” she laughs again, “so it works out well for me.”

“No, no,” Boney protests. “I write really manly songs about manly things.” He certainly owns up to writing their cheeky little latest single, You, Me, Backseat, lifted off their latest, and third, EP, Chasing You. “Well, I just kind of think of what you'd want a girl to say to you and that puts me in that mind set, of the cool things that girls should be saying to guys.” At which point they both break up laughing again. There's a lot of joy in this young Indigenous couple, and that's really the thing they want to share through their music.

“When we started,” Boney admits, “we're pretty conducive to a good time. We just wanted people to relax and have fun and just smile. That's the place we're in as a couple and we can't really help the sounds that we make, so we just try to create good positive pop [and] easy-listening music. We're not trying to confuse anybody or reinvent the wheel or do anything outrageous or crazy – we're just trying to make a nice type of music that we like to listen to.”

Back in 2009, the couple were the recipients of the inaugural Peter Garrett Breakthrough Grant. “That was a huge grant, with a lot of money that gave us a lot of support,” Boney explains. “Before that we were just saving…” “And it takes so long,” Tessa adds. “Especially when you're 100 per cent independent, we manage ourselves, we run everything ourselves,” he continues. “I don't remember how we found out about it but that just allowed us to get all this studio experience, write and record.” It paid for second EP, Crazy, Crazy Things and the new one.

Microwave Jenny are joining The Medics and Jess Beck for the all ages showcase of contemporary Indigenous music ending this year's Carriageworks music program, called Redfern Station. “We've done a few things with the people at Carriageworks and the Gadigul guys,” Boney explains. “We love playing in that venue, so every time we get the chance, we jump at it.”

Microwave Jenny will be playing the following shows:

Thursday 27 December to Tuesday 1 January - Woodford Folk Festival, Woodford QLD