Little Quirks

 

My name is Abbey, and I’m the lead singer and acoustic guitarist of Little Quirks! My little sister Mia and I front the band and have been performing together since we were kids. She is the rockstar drummer and backing vocalist! We have the best band behind us with our best friend Jordan Rouse (on electric guitar), who has performed with us for many years now. We met through a friend in high school. Last but not least is our newest member, Lachlan Raeside, who is our awesome bass player and backing vocalist. He was a fan of Little Quirks and appeared in a music video two years ago, and now he is a part of the Quirks team.

 

What is your earliest musical memory?

My sister and I grew up in a very musical family. I remember going to shows and watching my dad, aunty, and uncle perform when I was around three years old. I remember both being in awe and feeling a sense of normality (I thought every family did this for a very long time). My dad is a drummer, and he started teaching me drums as soon as I could hold drumsticks. I loved it all from day one. I listen to all the amazing bands now from my childhood, like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, and they take me straight back to family car rides.

 

When did you begin songwriting?

I have been writing little songs since I was very young but started writing properly for Little Quirks at 13/14 years old. I remember feeling so nervous and exposed showing anyone what I made up, but as soon as I did it, it became a huge part of my identity and one of my biggest loves. I’ve never been one to write in a diary, and I’m not very good at slowing down, yet I soon realised sitting in my bedroom with my songwriting book became all of that for me.

 

You will release your new album ‘She’s Wild’ on Friday, 16th October 2026. How did you want to approach the making of the album?

We are so excited for ‘She’s Wild’ to be released! It was a couple of years in the making as I travelled to the UK and wrote with some amazing songwriters, then came home and continued writing. We really wanted to introduce a newer, rockier era for the band, so there was a big focus on production and on playing these songs live before we started recording. It was important to us that they felt exciting to play as a high-energy band.

 

Where did you record the album, and who produced it?

We recorded our new album ‘She’s Wild’ on the Central Coast of NSW, Australia, with our awesome producer and now friend, Jack Nigro.

 

Do you have any interesting, funny or memorable stories from the recording sessions?

We had a lot of fun recording this album, both inside and outside of the studio. We went to Kmart and bought a badminton set, handball and clay. While one of us was in the studio, we’d be playing intense activities outside. A very strange combination of things, but we had the best and most competitive time waiting for our turn to record.

 

Did you use any particular instruments, microphones, or recording equipment to help you get a particular sound/tone for the record?

ABBEY – After doing a quick microphone shootout we decided on a vintage U87 to get a bit of an ‘old school rock’ sound.

MIA – DRUMMER – We recorded the drums quite differently in each song on this album; for ‘She’s Wild’ we wanted a tighter sound with mics close to the snare and hi-hat, and experimented with some electronic sounds, then for ‘Sacrifice’ and ‘Love That Door’ we wanted a larger wall of sound with mics around the room for a more traditional Quirks sound, and for ‘Fingertips’ we built a little fort around the kit to be padded up for a more intimate sound.

JORDAN – ELECTRIC GUITAR – Whilst I’ve always favoured the power of Gibson humbuckers, my most recent affair is with a 50s spec Telecaster! It’s made me reshape my entire pedalboard to develop a new sound for this era of Little Quirks. My current gain staging is a Blues Breaker stacked into a Fulltone OCD, with the British flavour of a Vox amp on the edge of breaking up.

 

Which of your new album tracks hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?

Happiest: I’d want to hear ‘Moving On’. It is uplifting and freeing to know that the world is brighter and more colourful after a breakup. It feels liberating.

Angriest: Hmm. The angriest is between two tracks, ‘Little Red Dress’ and ‘Gameboy’. Both songs call out guys for the bad things they do.

Most reflective: ‘Fingertips’ is the most reflective, as it’s very personal and close to home. It feels like it represents how my twenties have felt so far.

 

Was it a difficult album to write?

I actually loved writing this album and it has been one of my favourite Little Quirks projects to write for. I loved stepping out of my comfort zone and designing each song to be grander and rockier than before. I love the pressure and the experimentation of doing something a little bit different. It was also so much fun working with so many talented UK writers on a few of the tracks.

 

Who designed the album artwork?

The album artwork was an accident! We do a lot of things DIY in Little Quirks, so we went out with our very talented dad, who is also part of the management team, and took some photos for the ‘She’s Wild’ single. We ended up loving it so much we kept it for the album cover and thought it captured the darker, witchy and liberated tone for the album.

 

You will release your new single ‘Game Boy’ on 18th September 2026. What was the story/inspiration behind the song?

‘Game Boy’ is a story of a smooth-talking man that charms people into thinking they are the one and only. He surprises you with flowers and spontaneous dancing in the rain, yet it seems so well-rehearsed it almost seems scripted. ‘Game Boy’ is an empowering anthem and calls this character out for everything he is. It is so much fun to rock out to!

 

Do you have any visualisers to accompany the album?

Yes! We made a video clip for this album!

 

Where is your hometown, and could you please describe it in five words?

Our hometown is the Central Coast, NSW, Australia. I’d say: Beachy, Relaxed, Small-ish, Sunny and Bushland.

 

How do you look after your voices?

We try and sing as much as we can when we’re not playing. On a gig day, I try and be a little quieter than usual (which is very difficult for me as I’m very chatty, haha), I drink lots of tea (both in and out of gig days), sing my warmup songs (Ball Park Music from Australia), and I’ve recently started vocal steaming, which helps so much!

 

Do you have any live dates planned in the UK/Europe in 2026/2027?

We sure do! We are heading to the UK and just a taste of Europe to share our album this November!

 

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

Our goal is to give people a moment to have fun, let loose and escape their everyday lives. We hope everyone can feel every emotion in our show, but leave with a smile on their face.

 

Do you have any favourite stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones, etc.?

Abbey – My favourite acoustic guitar is my Gretsch Penguin. It’s a little guitar with so much personality, which is what I love about it. Otherwise, I make sure I have my tambourine with lots of dangling ribbons (I wish I had a favourite type, but I keep breaking them every couple of gigs, so I’m yet to find one haha). I’m not the best person for this question, so I’m going to pass this on to my gear nerd bandmates.

MIA – DRUMMER – I am always excited to play a classic maple Ludwig drum kit at our shows! I carry a Ludwig snare and a Zildjian Dark Crash that has become part of the Quirks sound. The more sparkle, the better, too.

JORDAN – ELECTRIC GTR – Our producer, Jack Nigro, was nice enough to let me indulge in every tone he had available! The latest album is predominantly a combination of a Marshall JCM800 and Vox AC30, with a Blues Junior sprinkled in a few areas. I almost always prefer to use the amp’s gain in the studio over any pedals. I’m not a huge modulation fan, but any effects you hear wouldn’t be anything more than tremolo or rotary emulators. Mixing and matching these sounds with my two main guitars (Telecaster/ES339) is what shapes the guitar tones for the album!

 

You are allowed to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

Amazing question! One of my favourite novels that has yet to be adapted into a movie is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I loved stepping into the story of Evelyn Hugo and gaining insight into being a woman in Hollywood from the 1950s to the 1980s. I think the album would work perfectly in capturing every phase of her life, the good and bad relationships with men and the power of being a woman.

 

Who are some of your musical influences? Do you have any recommendations?

I grew up on a lot of Beatles and Led Zeppelin, so they will forever be two of our greatest influences in writing. I am a huge fan of Florence and the Machine, Alanis Morissette, Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks, Janis Joplin and Olivia Rodrigo. All of those artists inspire our songs. Many are also powerhouse females that inspire me as a performer. They are exciting, energetic and unapologetically themselves. My favourite recommendations and inspirations are two bands from Australia, ‘Ball Park Music’ and ‘The Cat Empire’. They are so exciting live and command the audience’s attention. They also write the catchiest songs and are the sweetest people, which is so important.

 

What makes Little Quirks happy, and what makes you unhappy?

Hmm, as a band, we absolutely love an excited audience, post-show ice creams, and going on the most random side quests on tour (we have so many strange and wonderful stories from tour). We all get very hangry, so I’m going to say we don’t like it when we have no time to eat before a show (or when our tour manager doesn’t stop to feed us 😉).