The Springtime Reminds Me Of… An Interview with Touch Girl Apple Blossom

On Graceful, Touch Girl Apple Blossom bring jangle rock to their Austin, Texas punk scene.

Despite releasing their debut album, Graceful, on K Records in May, Touch Girl Apple Blossom aren’t new to the game. For years, they’ve impressed their local Austin punk scene, adding variety to each gig they book. Playing alongside metal and hardcore groups, their breezy and fuzzy sound doesn’t stop the moshing; it simply adds a bit of levity. At this point, they could be named the Austin All Stars.

After speaking with Olivia (vocals) and Dustin (bass) from TGAB, I understand they’re not seeking all-star status. Along with John (guitar) and Daniel (drums), they’re a group of friends who formed a band in the right place at the right time. Their origin story is simple: While Olivia and John were jamming during the pandemic, they connected over their favorite ‘90s  jangle records and invited Dustin and Daniel to join, and like that, a new Austin band was born.

After their debut EP was released via Summer Shade in 2023, recording Graceful became TGAB’s focus, though not always their priority. Between sessions, Olivia played with Hotline TNT, Dustin learned to sing lead, and John and Daniel made records with their band Guiding Light. The anticipation of getting into the studio taught them to do it for themselves. After a year of recording their debut in Austin, the real victory came; they signed to K Records. A label so intertwined with the jangle scene, Touch Girl literally named themselves after a K band. “Our name is based on a Beat Happening song. So, I feel like I owe any sort of my playing music to bands that were on K Records,” said Olivia.

After touring with Good Flying Birds and releasing Graceful, I spoke with Olivia and Dustin about the new record, playing live, and K Records. We spent much of the call going back and forth on our favorite bands, and below is a condensed version of a much longer conversation.

Sam: Can you tell me about the TGAB songwriting process?

Dustin: I think a lot of our songs start with a simple idea from one of us, and then we all kind of get together and contribute our own stuff. But some stuff comes fully formed, I guess it’s a little all over the place, but I would say we all end up contributing. Even if someone has an entire song written out, we all add our own little things.

There was a significant time gap between your debut EP (2023) and Graceful. Walk me through the recording process?

Dustin: We wrote the songs, I guess, over a year or something, and then got into the studio, and we recorded all the music pretty quickly, like in a few days. But we took our time with mixing and rewriting lyrics. We’d hear stuff, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, my performance wasn’t that great, let’s go back and record.’ 

Olivia: We slowly pieced together the record, and it took a long time to write the songs because I was on tour with Hotline TNT, and I wasn’t doing a lot of Touch Girl stuff.

Dustin: We didn’t have anyone breathing down our necks for us to finish the record, and we hadn’t sent it to anybody. We were doing it for ourselves essentially, so we just took our time.

You recently wrapped up a long tour with Good Flying Birds. How did it go?

Olivia: Oh my god, it was the best tour ever. 

Dustin: This was the best. I’ve been in, like a million bands, and it seems like every tour I’ve ever been on was maybe like 2/3 pretty okay, and then, like 1/3 playing to two people. With this tour, every single show was good. I have never experienced that, and I’m old, so it was really cool, and it kind of breathed new life into me.

Olivia: It was crazy that people knew the words to songs in cities that we’ve never played before. There’s such a strong, supportive scene right now for bands like Touch Girl and Good Flying Birds. People are just down, and they’re studying, they want to be a part of it, they are excited to hear the songs, and they know some of the songs. It all felt so loving.

Dustin: I’m like historically bad at taking compliments, and people would come up to us, and be like ‘We drove three hours from to come here,’ which is so crazy.

You played with a lot of great bands while on tour. Which sets still stick out to you?

Dustin: The New York show was special because we got to play with one of our favorite bands ever, Chronophage. They were a Texas band that moved up to New York.

Olivia: I feel like we had a crazy cast of legends that we get to call our peers. Philly with fib and 22° Halo. Garden of Love in Montreal. Caspian in New Orleans. 

Dustin: Emotional World in DC.

Olivia: A lot of these bands I didn’t really know, but I had a friend of a friend who would tell me about them, and I got to be blown away, and learn so much new music every night.

Dustin: Yeah, to be honest, I didn’t do much research. The tour was booked, and I hardly knew any of the openers, and then I was just consistently blown away every night.

Olivia: Cootie Catcher in Toronto was awesome, too. And Personality Hire in Cincinnati.

Can you tell me about the indie scene in Austin?

Dustin: Well, one of my favorite local bands is about to be a Richmond band. They’re called Heart Knit, and it’s just the best punk music.

Olivia: The thing about the Austin scene is that the DIY scene here is mostly punk bands.

There’s a real punk ethos here.

Dustin: John and Daniel from our band are in another band called Guiding Light, and they’re about to put out a record on PPM Records in LA, and they’re amazing.

As a more jangle, indie-leaning band, how did you find a following in the punk scene? 

Olivia: I think it’s that our friends are supportive, and everyone loves indie rock [laughs].

Dustin: We played a lot of varied bills. It’s not like we were plucked out to play with bands that sounded like us; we just played varied bills.

Olivia: We played so many hardcore shows and so many punk shows, just because that’s the vibe here.

Dustin: I like it like that, I like a varied bill. I personally don’t want to see a million bands that sound the same.

Let’s talk “Springtime Reminds Me of…” The opening riff is such an earworm. Who came up with the riff?

Olivia: John, our guitarist, wrote that riff. I feel like that was the first song on the record that when I heard it, I immediately had a vocal melody, and it was like, ‘Oh my god, we’re writing the record.’

Dustin: Same. I agonize sometimes over playing bass lines, like sometimes I will have no idea what to do for like a month or two, while we’re jamming. With that song, we all started playing it, and it sort of wrote itself. It has such a fun, inspiring riff that it was pretty easy to complete. 

Olivia: When we first played that song live, John and I would do a guitarmony at the beginning, it

Dustin: It was like Slayer ot Thin Lizzy [laughs].

Dustin, you made your lead vocals debut on the record. What was that like?

Dustin: It’s nothing short of horror [laughs], but I actually learned a lot in recording those songs, because a lot of the songs I write, I just sit on my bed and hum things delicately, and I kind of learned pretty quickly that that is really hard to translate those moments into a recording.

Doing them live is difficult, too. “Moon Was Gone” in particular is difficult to perform live. I think I didn’t write it in the right key, maybe for my voice, so now whenever we play it, Olivia takes the lead on that one.

But with “I’m Lucky I Found You,” that one is weirdly kind of easy for me, and even though I get nervous, I do like playing that. I kind of learned that I need to write songs, find the right key, and practice them loudly before I even think about recording them.

What was it like to release Graceful on the legendary K Records?

Olivia: It was definitely intimidating, because obviously that’s like the most bread and butter thing for us. Our name is based on a Beat Happening song. So, I feel like I owe any sort of my playing music to bands that were on K Records.

Dustin: Yeah, when I was young, I was just totally obsessed with Beck’s One Foot in the Grave, and there were just so many amazing bands and releases on K. They’re such a legendary label that when we found that there was any kind of interest from them, we were like ‘Yes, we’ll do it.’

What is the first song you remember hearing on the radio?

Olivia: Oh my gosh, I actually know the answer for me. “Soak Up The Sun” by Cheryl Crow. I remember hearing it on the radio–I don’t know if it was college radio–I’m sure it was just the regular Lafayette, Louisiana station. I couldn’t believe that song, I felt good listening to it.

Dustin: The first radio song I was obsessed with and remember feeling like it was made for me was “Escapade” by Janet Jackson. That is my good mood fuel. I can put that on and drive 300 miles an hour down the highway.

Touch Girl Apple Blossom is a band from Austin, TX. Their debut album, Graceful, is available now via K Records.