Team Love are a six-piece alt-country and folk band (full list of members below) from Victoria who released their first album during the pandemic. Since then lead singer and songwriter Ruby McGrath-Lester and partner/bandmate Shaun Stolk have become parents, so they’ve had a little bit on their plate. But as I found out when I chatted with McGrath-Lester recently, they have been writing songs – and there were around two dozen which were candidates for their second album, the recently released Now Things Ain’t Coloured Rose.

The band worked up all of the songs before making a decision on which to record, and the resulting eleven songs are in part McGrath-Lester showing us some fairly tender parts of herself. Being vulnerable in art usually requires not only a commitment but a leap of faith for the artist, and part of what’s great about these songs is that in acknowledging that there are some things that aren’t ‘ideal’ (depending on how that is defined), she’s not going to change them. There’s a comfort in that for the listener – a reassurance that, no, we don’t all have to fix ourselves all the time. Because maybe we actually don’t need fixing – we just don’t to be more self-accepting.

The band’s tenth anniversary is looming, and there may well be some live shows in honour of it, so keep an eye on the band’s socials for news of upcoming gigs.

And a note on the audio: towards the end my wi-fi connection became unstable (as Zoom likes to say) so I had to cut the part where I’m attempting to say goodbye to Ruby!

Team Love are:

Ruby McGrath-Lester (vocals, acoustic guitar)

Ruby Cattell (violin, vocals)

Monique Bricknell (keys, vocals)

Shaun Stolk (guitars, vocals)

Paddy McGrath-Lester (drums, vocals, guitars, percussion, mandolin)

Tom Thomas (bass, additional keys)

Listen to Now Things Ain’t Coloured Rose on Apple Music

Listen to Now Things Ain’t Coloured Rose on Spotify

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