Worm Girlz is the Australian femme punk band you hope calls you worm.
I had the chance to interview Jade, Angie, and Lauren on the night of their single release for ‘Thinkin’ Bout’ to talk all things gigs, politics, and music. I walked away with one thought on my mind: “am I worm?”
This band has an iron-clad foundation. Jade met Angie through Angie’s older sister, and they decided to form a band. This is the very beginning of the worm lore. Jade met Lauren and other members (Niko and Isabella) through music university.
Right off the bat, the members created the “Worm Commandments”, an outline of the band’s core message, with such things as being kind, how to facilitate uncomfortable conversations, as well as morals and values (and total worm domination). They’ve been involved in other projects before and wanted to make sure they built a strong foundation in the best interest of band longevity. Lauren commented,
“the survival of the band was only going to depend on us all setting these rules and values together, and us all moving forward on the same page.”
Something else that came from these “Worm Commandments” was the inclusivity rider. The inclusivity rider is a way for the band to ensure venues, promoters, and other bands have an equal and inclusive lineup and are thinking about things like accessibility. One reason for this was, as Jade described:
“We really wanted to make sure we knew exactly what we stood for as a band, and that any shows that we played, and any interactions that we had with people, felt right to the band, and felt safe for the band. We really believe in leaving the music industry a better place than when we started in it.”
Worm Girlz are putting their money where their mouth is with this inclusivity rider. Something we touched on a lot was community, and Worm Girlz are really focused in putting action into theirs.
Worm Girlz are not afraid to get political. We see this with their inclusivity rider, and with their music. With songs like ‘Dirt’ with a screamable chorus exclaiming they’d rather eat dirt than accept these unwanted advances or in Jade’s words,
“I’m setting a boundary and don’t you dare cross it”.
Or ‘Cool Girl’ with the opening lines
“Yeah I’m a cool girl, but I’ll bite off your arms. No, I’m not a fan of violence, but I’m so damn tired”.
When asked about the politics in the tunes Jade remarked,
“From the second that this project started it came from a necessity to want to be saying some of these things… We wanted to be loud and not back down our opinions.”
Lauren added,
“We needed this cathartic release.” When asked about their outlook on the future of politics, they discussed tough recent political decisions made in Queensland, where they live. Jade mentioned “It’s a tough time in our Australian political space.”
There’s been a recent change in government which leaves a lot up in the air for women’s rights, safety for Australia’s First Nations, and disability funding. While there is currently a lot of stress, Worm Girlz are looking to the positive.
“In our community there’s a lot of beautiful beautiful moments, and a lot of people working together, working really hard to support each other through, even when it feels like our government isn’t,”
Jade explained. Lauren added,
“It’s been really touching to be able to connect with the community, that does understand. We’re able to hold each other,”
They also mentioned,
“It’s a lot of material to channel into new songs.”
Australia’s abundant natural world is unique. With a name like Worm Girlz you’d expect nature to seep into other aspects of the band. If you go to their single covers and social media photos you see it featured a lot. When asked if it influenced the writing Jade said
“definitely the dirty, grubby, wormy bits.”
I know what you’re wondering: what’s with all the worms? For something so instrumental to their branding how did the name Worm Girlz come about? Angie was able to clear that up, “My twin sister, was really into composting,” this sister was always eager to show off the worms she’d find while composting. When they asked for band name ideas she said “you should call yourselves worm girls.” Angie said the initial response was no… they would not call themselves worm girls. Jade added,
“And then we thought about it for a little while and we realized it was kind of perfect for everything we already knew, what messages we wanted to tell through our songs, and what our values were.”
The band also uses the term worm as a describing factor, something or someone can be worm (or not worm).
“We either meet people who get it, or they don’t get it… they have the same values as us, or sometimes it can be a tell if they’re gonna be judgmental.”
The band uses the word to summarize everything they’re about, being worm is yelling in the face of a man getting all up in your business at a gig, and leaving space for those who actually need it.
I was introduced to Australian Punk, and more specifically the femme side of it, about 2 years ago, when a friend told me their mom and sibling are obsessed with Amyl and The Sniffers. They’ve recently had a global rise, which (hopefully) is passing the mic to more bands, such as Worm Girlz. Lauren mentioned, “It’s great to have a role model like that.”
We talked about how this leads to LOUD WOMEN Fest coming to Australia, which Worm Girlz will be playing on the 7th of December 2024. The band is very excited to be playing with, listen, and meet all the other bands but most importantly, to show people all the cool stuff happening in the femme punk scene in Australia.
This is another step towards the bands manifestations of “Worm Girlz UK 2025”. I am personally in line for the worm domination that will hopefully make its way over to the UK. Are you worm? Do you want to be? Well, you can help make this happen by streaming their new single ‘Thinkin’ Bout’, which Jade describes as, “A celebration of discovering your identity, and feeling that first crush.. it’s an exciting fun song.” She also mentions how this song is really diving into the bands’ personality. To me it’s about falling straight into your first queer love, you’re excited and scared and well… thinkin’ bout girls. This is also the favorite of Jade, Lauren, and Angie to play live, which you can catch at LOUD WOMEN Fest Australia on 7 December – grab your tickets here.
