Operator Please Plays the Zoo Wednesday 2 April.
So, is the rise and rise of Operator Please the rock'n'roll dream writ large? On the face of it, it's hard to say no.
A group of kids with a penchant for spiky pop rides a wave of hype out of a Gold Coast high school and onto the world stage. Along the way they snag an ARIA, release an implausibly catchy debut, and hit the road around the globe. It's a one-in-a-million career trajectory.
But as the band's violinist Taylor Henderson sits in Cologne, Germany trawling through yet another round of interviews it seems that the reality of a chaotic touring schedule is starting to hit home.
"This is going to sound stupid, but I thought it was going to be like a Josie and The Pussycats scenario. Well, not really with the private plane, but very relaxed, just very... not what it is," she tries to explain.
"We've just played a show, then we've got this promo, and then we're getting up tomorrow at 6am, we're driving until 4pm straight, then we've got a three-hour TV show, and then we're on stage again.
"It's pretty intense."
While Henderson is quick to point out their current tour of the UK and Europe to promote the album Yes Yes Vindictive has been "incredible" and "amazing", a break before their upcoming Australian tour is top of the must-do list.
"We've kinda been working since before this time last year and we've had maximum of a week or so off," she says. "We are starting to get a little bit tired, and a little bit sick of each other."
The tour, she says, has also been a steep learning curve given the band is playing smaller shows in countries where they're still something of an unknown quantity.
"It's kind like starting again... basically no one knows the lyrics," she says. "So far us it's more about finding the confidence within each other, and within the stage, within the music than actually building off the audience."
Still, one look at the press the band is garnering abroad and it seems unlikely they'll be playing small European clubs much longer. Like Australia, the UK and Europe is slowly but surely falling under the Operator Please spell.
Just what is driving that connection to audiences everywhere is something Henderson finds hard to pin down.
"There is kind of a realness or truth underneath it [the music] and I would hope that's something people have a connection to," she says. "The album is kind of like a person. There are songs like ‘Ping Pong' which have no meaning and are just a bit of fun, and there are songs like ‘Pantomime' that are really the sadder, more softer side of someone."
Henderson is also realistic enough to know that the band's youth hasn't hurt their careers.
"As much as you want to be noticed for your music... there's a lot of bands making music and you need to have just that little bit of something to get people to start listening to you originally and decide whether they like you or not," she says. "But at the same time, it's very easy for people to think you are stupid, or that you're naïve, or that you'll just do what they say, because of your age.
"And it's very easy for them to think that you are going to want to answer questions about your favourite colour and who your celeb crush is and shit like that... which can kind of like be a little bit degrading."
