Sam Quealy – our favourite techno-pop princess

0:12Sam Quealy:Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. I'm Fernando Gusto Pacheco and today I speak with Australian singer Sam Quealy, self-described as your favourite techno-pop princess. We discuss her excellent new album Jawbreaker and her music influences.

0:43Sam Quealy:San Quilly, what a pleasure. I'm a big fan and I love Jawbreaker. My first question to you, how would you compare Jawbreaker with Blonde Venus? Because I can hear more of your voice in Jawbreaker. I do see the difference, although I love Blonde Venus as well. Yeah, I think the first album was me really experimenting and it was very club, Eurodance type of record. And exactly like what you said in Jawbreaker, I wanted to really use a more sincere side of my voice, experiment with singing lower, with no auto-tune, have more disco influences. Yeah, it's kind of just like a step up, I feel, from the first one.

1:22But the same as you, I love the first one so much. They're both amazing in their own ways.

1:27Sam Quealy:they are a good match but there's something quite even vulnerable in some of the tracks I love Love Lasso I think it's so nostalgic and there's a certain romance to it it's one of my favourite songs what do you think of Love Lasso? this one is definitely more vulnerable and sincere like you said it's about a toxic love that you keep going back to and also the chorus is very haunting in a way so yeah I love this track too I love them all it's so hard to pick a favourite

2:14Sam Quealy:I just want to know a little bit more about you I know you're from Australia from Sydney did you always from a young age wanted to perform because I know for you it's not just singing but it's about the dance the outfits and everything so tell us about your experience and and when did you move out of australia actually yeah i left australia very young like 17 or 18 i think because i knew that there was more to the world that i had to discover and see so very young and i was kind of already dancing and performing working professionally and I was writing songs but more for pleasure. And yeah, I think that it's a great place.

2:54Like I love my childhood in Australia, but I knew that I needed to get out and see the rest of the world and experience. I had lots of questions and I was looking for answers, I guess.

3:06Sam Quealy:And I guess you found it in Paris. But before, I just want to ask a question because I was reading an article about you and Les Inhok and I just want to make sure that I corrected my French. were you even an assistant to a magician in a cruise is that is that true i love that yeah i was a magician's assistant really was in like basically whenever i become obsessed with something i really commit to it and that phase was like magic this magic show i was doing we were doing like big illusions and stuff and i think that all of the skills that i've learned along the way like dancing performance art fashion theater music like they're all combined into this Sam Queerle project now.

3:46I love like a magic moment also in the show.

3:49Sam Quealy:We love magic, right? Who doesn't like magic? And you live in Paris. So tell us, I see your music fitting Paris very well because they love their electro there, even more than in London these days. So tell us what you think about the city. Does it match perhaps? Definitely. Like I love the French touch music in Australia when French Touch was first popping off, I was like, what the fuck? Like Daft Punk, Justice, you know, this kind of sound was amazing to me. So it's definitely influenced my work a lot. And also my collaborator, Marlon, he is French too. So he produced the first and the second album.

4:29And I think that the combination of having this like Parisian, Australian combination along with like all the other places that have been in the world, like Hong Kong, the Philippines, It's just like a very interesting combination of inspirations and sounds, basically.

4:46Sam Quealy:And his model from La Femme as well, which I know you also worked with him before as well, as a singer as well. Yeah, exactly. So that was really great working with him. It's very organic to work together. So this is like the best way to make art is when it's just flowing naturally. It's not forced. Well, we're talking a lot about Paris, but one of my favorite songs from the album is always London Town. and that's actually a clubby bagger, I love it yes and it's so funny we were just saying on our way here that it's the first song on the album it was the first single and now it's the first night of the Jawbreaker tour and it's in London with London Town so I'm so excited and I hope that all the Londoners really appreciate this song tonight that I wrote in their city I'm sure they will

5:48Sam Quealy:what are your music influence because you know i i love people like amanda lear i listen to italo disco and when i when i see your music i think it's it's almost an updated version for 2026 actually I love that I like to blend like a lot of nostalgic references like you were saying music from the 70s Italia disco all this kind of stuff and then put my own twist on it I guess because I'm it's also the only way I know how like even if I tried to write a pop song this is my version of a pop song or if I tried to write a disco song this is my version of a disco song because it's all my different influences and also the experiences that I've lived and the way that I like present myself and the music and the project.

6:34Sam Quealy:I wonder if you can tell us perhaps some another one of your favorite songs there's so many that I can pick I wrote it down say my name I think it's also quite beautiful in my opinion but do you have a favorite at the moment? I really like Strings of Terror I love this one because it's just like very what the fuck like it's kind of inspired by Alfred Hitchcock Psycho and I wanted to have like these strings that sounded really like terrifying kind of and a bit like aggressive and put that into like a disco an aggressive disco horror song say my name I also really love this one too I started that one with the top line first like do do do do do do on the keyboard and then it just like happened really naturally that song and it's also a bit sensitive this song I would say a bit more similar vibe to love lasso where it's kind of um vulnerable i guess this song love lasso i keep coming back to that line right into the paradise sorry but you know what i mean it's a very magical song a lot of artists they are actually performing is not their favorite thing you know and and they're being honest about it but in your case i have a feeling it's the opposite because it's all about the dance the costume that the femme fatale vibes as well right for me it's like the best part about being a musician is being able to share your songs with the people that want to listen to them like that's like the reward at the end of the day because writing the songs is like it's fine but getting to perform them live is like the best part because you're all together in the room singing sharing energy so yeah for me i like love the tour part it's like fun and well and finally just want to ask of course there's still a few gigs from your tour in other european cities but for later in the year is there anything that you can tell us perhaps more gigs or i mean i'm not asking for another album just yet i mean we should enjoy job definitely the rest of the tour dates are coming soon but we'll be touring for sure festivals and then yeah Lots of exciting surprises that you need to stay tuned, that I can't say, but yeah, exciting stuff.

8:55Sam Quealy:Thank you, Sam Quilley there. Her album Jawbreaker is out now. I'm Fernando Augusto Pacheco, and this show was edited by Mariella Bevan. Thank you for listening.

9:11Thank you.