tunesday – who, what, when, where, why with sweetie

No one’s doing it quite like Sydney/Warrane punk-rockers Sweetie. The trio – made up of Lily Keenan, Rikki Clark and Lucy Warriner – are gearing up for the release of their debut album Dogtooth (out September 25th), and in the meantime have made a DIY music video soon to be adored by craft lovers everywhere. Unfolding in a miniature city, “Pay Rise” sets a scene where the band reign supreme – both over paper skyscrapers and over chords of an unstoppable tune. Take a gander at our chinwag with Sweetie below and feast your peepers on the rad music video too.

Who was the first person to listen to Dogtooth in full? Lily Keenan: It was our producer Anna Laverty who held space for each song as we coaxed them into being and then spent 10 days in the studio with us building the album, layer by layer. She is simply the best album whisperer in the biz. 

What inspired the lyrics behind the song “Dogtooth”? Lily: Someone very dear to me has snaggle teeth. Isn’t it strange that we bestow a dog-like unconditional love on others but we never allow that for ourselves? Loving someone – not despite their imperfections, but because of them – it’s the kind of uninhibited expression that this whole album is reaching for.

When did you start working on the album? Rikki Clark: Lily called around one day in 2024 when we were all in the middle of a really busy career period, and told us that we got the grant we applied for and that meant we could afford to make our debut album. Naturally, we were over the moon, but at the same time we didn’t have any songs for this album which now had a deadline, and the pressure to make a really good album (now that we no longer had the excuse of financial destitution) was palpable. With that in mind, the three of us, our friend Elmo, and Lucy’s dog Aggie, went down to a cabin in the bush in Goulburn for a long weekend with a bunch of instruments and started working on songs together, and that’s how we got the ball rolling.

Where are you most excited/nervous/interested to play Dogtooth live? Lily: I am nervous about playing Dogtooth in a dog park because I hope the dogs like it

Why did you all start a band together? Rikki: It started out as a COVID bedroom project, something to work on while everything else was on hold, but very quickly it also became an opportunity to get stuck into playing music, because for some of us that wasn’t something that was socially encouraged when we were younger (boys didn’t want girls in their bands, girls were too shy to start things on their own). It was a great moment to realise that starting a band is actually easy.

Who are your favourite local artists in the scene at the moment? Lucy Warriner: Currently obsessed with Sweet Boy Sonnet, Ponzi Scheme, Perfect Actress and My Guardian Angel. 

What is the first thing you all do before you step on stage to play show? Lucy: My favourite pre-show ritual is when we empty a mountain of clothes onto the floor of the greenroom and scramble to piece together questionable outfits, gas each other up for at least 30 minutes, and then have a tequila shot (the cheaper the tequila, the better).

When is the last time you did something creative that wasn’t music? Lily: We did the whole creative on the music video for our next single, “Pay Rise”, coming out at the end of August. Direction, producing, set design – the whole thing. Let’s just say it involves an entire miniature city painstakingly made by Rikki, an underwater scene and several cardboard dioramas.

Where did you film the music video for “Dogtooth”? Lily: We made it on a friend’s farm in Orange, Wiradjuri Country! Directed by Imogen Grist, the clip is a gothic folk twist on the title – we are all turning into dogs. It was about five degrees and we spent the night running around paddocks and abandoned housing developments. We felt truly feral by the end. 

Why do you make music? Rikki: To make friends and to yell loudly about things we care about.

Who helped create the sets in the music video for “Pay Rise” and how did it all come together? Rikki: I built the city, and Lily built the little dioramas that all of our heads are in. We had a lot of help from our friends and partners in getting all the little windows cut out of all the buildings. I started out by making a 3D model to get an understanding of scale, but once the first building was done we kinda just winged it. Every piece on the set was hand made out of recycled materials that we had collected over many months, and whatever was able to be recycled after the shoot has been repurposed on other sets.

What was the most surprising thing that came out of writing “Pay Rise”? Lily: Watching Rikki drum really fast while spitting 100 words a minute! It was also really surprising how fast the song came together – most of the parts were in Rik’s head and she sang them out to us.

Where is the pastel city featured in the music video of “Pay Rise”? Rikki: The city was originally supposed to be Sydney, because a lot of my feelings that are expressed in the song surround a particular shade of guilt that is specific to my experience living here, but ultimately the city could be any CBD around the world. To me, most CBDs around the world look and feel exactly the same, kinda like airports – and so this city is Sydney but is also any other city or place where people compete for money, visibility or power.

Feast your eyes and ears on the rad video for “Pay Rise” this-a-way. For more ripper music chats, check out our lovely chinwag with Julia Stone or have a squiz at our chat with alt-rockers Any Young Mechanic. Plus, sign up to our newsletter to stay in the loop.