“Does it make you want to rock out? Does it make you want to cry?”
If the answer is both at once, you’re probably listening to Teens in Trouble. Specializing in catchy hooks, heavy guitars, and disarmingly direct lyricism, the bright-blazing creative project of Lizzie Killian makes anthemic, emotionally driven indie-rock that merges the snappy, confessional style of Weezer with the Pixies’ soaring, fuzzed-out melodies. The band’s ever-evolving sound is most informed, though, by Killian’s ability to refract these influences through a prism of memory, melding past and present with sun-dappled clarity and a cathartic vocal power that’s distinctly hers.
A California native who moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 2019, Killian crafted Teens in Trouble’s self-titled debut EP during the pandemic, on a quiet street in Asheville, where she
rekindled her love of songwriting following an extended hiatus. Sequestering herself away from the world, Killian looked back on her years of youth in revolt and found her way forward as an artist. All four tracks on the EP, from brooding “Old Starnes Cove Road” to the propulsive “Decomposing,” emerged as if summoned from the ink-stained pages of an old journal.
The response was instantaneous and thrilling. Teens in Trouble released their self-titled debut EP last fall via Asian Man Records, and has since been featured in Alternative Press, BrooklynVegan, Consequence, Stereogum, and more. Two of the EP’s singles, “I’m Not Worried” and “Decomposing,” have also been featured in the popular online battle royale game Fortnite. Teens in Trouble is “ready to take the power-pop scene by storm,” wrote Consequence’s Jonah Krueger. “Catchy, energetic, and equal parts Weezer and Jeff Rosenstock, rarely do artists hit upon such gold while only having a cumulative nine minutes of material released.”
