There’s a Tuesday talk Silver Scroll nominations and writing songs for your alter-ego

Saturday, 11 October 2025

There’s A Tuesday are an Ōtautahi four-piece band making slick, catchy, guitar-driven pop. Their single Margo, from their 2025 debut album Blush, is one of the nominees at this year’s APRA Silver Scroll Awards – their second nomination after their song Girl At Night was nominated in 2022. Frontwomen Minnie Robberds and Nat Hutton tell George Fenwick about the impact of Smokefreerockquest, the alter ego behind Margo, and playing in a band with your best friends.

When did There’s A Tuesday form?

Minnie Robberds: In 2019, and we were then called There’s A Tuesday Between A Monday And Between A Wednesday – bit of context on the name. We played as a duo for a bit, even went so far as to get quite folky. We even bought a pedal that made a horse noise. We didn’t know it made the horse noise.

Nat Hutton: We thought it was more like a trotting kind of kick drum, but it was neighing and doing all sorts of things.

MR: So that was a good era for us. We met at our drummer Gus’ birthday party in year 12 and stayed in touch, and then started playing music together. And then Joel, the bass player, came on and we all started jamming together. And then we were a band from 2020 onwards and have been playing together ever since.

How did winning Smokefreerockquest in 2019 change your career?

NH: It was amazing because not only did you get to share your own original music, but you were surrounded by so many other kids doing the same thing, and being vulnerable, and getting up there and singing about what was going on in their world. We met plenty of cool people that we’re still in contact with. I’ve flatted with people I met there, and we’ve played a bunch of shows with people we’ve met through there. It’s such an amazing, cool thing that we have here in Aotearoa, and we’re really lucky to have it.

How did you learn to write music?

NH: I started when I was really young, like 6 or something, and was writing some very 6-year-old songs. When I was 7, I got my first guitar, which was this electric blue, crappy nylon string, and started writing stuff on there. I don’t know what you’re going through at 7, 8, 9, but I was going through some stuff, because I wrote so many songs. I had clear files full of A4 paper I’d written with lyrics that Minnie and I actually went through last year. And there were some pretty emotional lyrics in there. I also had a really beautiful kapa haka teacher at school, and he encouraged us to sing and perform, and that is where my love for it started.

What was the origin of your Silver Scroll-nominated song, Margo?

NH: Up until a couple days before I was born, I was going to be called Margo. Kind of still wish I had been called Margo, but I’m a Natalie today, which I don’t really resonate with, but Nat’s cool. Basically, Margo’s just about going through school when you’re young and trying to fit in, and growing up queer in an environment where I swear I was the only one who was and no-one else was, or even if they were, would never, ever talk about it.

I definitely put on a front in high school, so the song plays into that alter ego, which was the girl I was trying to be, who I named Margo. It’s about being someone you’re not, or feeling like you can’t truly be yourself and how that can be kind of crap but kind of nice, because it feels like that song was closure on that whole awful high school experience.

What’s your relationship like with Margo now?

NH: I’m all good with her. She’s fine. Not a close friend, but if I see her around, I’ll say hey.

Tell me about your debut album Blush.

MR: It’s written and recorded over three or so years, and it came out in April, which has been really cool. We did it in Ōtautahi with Goodwill, Will McGillivray, who’s a producer down there. We’ve worked on basically all our music with him, and he’s an incredibly cool person, really inspiring as an artist and as a musician, but also a really good friend. It was just such a nice experience. We’ve been really lucky, have had some awesome reception from the people we already had around us, but also we’ve been able to grow a little bit.

What does it mean for you guys to play in a band fronted by two women?

NH: It’s really cool, and it’s cool when we play a show, seeing younger girls come along and be into it. That’s not me being like, ‘we’re inspiring heaps of people’, but when I was younger and got super into seeing local bands in Christchurch, there weren’t many females at all. So it’s really nice to be filling that gap of what I, at least, couldn’t find when I was younger. And it’s nice, it being not just me up there, and maybe Minnie feels like it’s not just her up there, but it’s like, we’re best friends, Joel and Gus are best friends, and we’re all best friends, and it’s a pretty special dynamic.

The APRA Silver Scroll Awards are in Ōtautahi Christchurch on Wednesday, October 29, and will be livestreamed on rnz.co.nz