Cub Sport’s Tim Nelson is no stranger to inward journeying. As the band’s lead singer and songwriter, he’s penned four albums that chronicle the winding path to self-acceptance, laying bare his attempts to unlearn the shame around sexuality and gender that hark back to his Pentecostal Christian upbringing.

After coming out in 2016, Tim identified as an atheist. Since then, he’s married his long-time love and bandmate Sam Netterfield and written Cub Sport’s 2020 album, Like Nirvana, which was rich with religious themes. He’s now “more open to believing in something”, continuing his exploration of faith in the band’s forthcoming album, Jesus at the Gay Bar.

The album borrows its name from a Jay Hulme poem that details an encounter between Jesus – who happens to be partying at a gay bar – and a young queer man who approaches him and attempts to touch his robes to be healed. Jesus responds: “my beautiful child / there is nothing in this heart of yours / that ever needs to be healed”. “That resonated in a big way for me. I felt like it really captured the whole journey,” Tim says. He now feels strongly about connecting with religion on his own terms. “It feels like making peace with it; reclaiming and reframing it to be something that isn’t hurtful, which is kind of the opposite of what I grew up with."

Of course, gay bars are often joyous spaces filled with music, dancing and general revelry; an energy that Cub Sport have captured and bottled in Jesus at the Gay Bar. While the lyrics are as raw and vulnerable as the band’s previous albums, the production sees them lean in to a new era of lightness and euphoria. “I wanted it to have heart and emotion, and for the lyrics to have that same feeling that’s been the thread that’s connected each era of Cub Sport. But sonically, I wanted it to give the listener energy,” Tim explains.

The few shows that Cub Sport played back in 2020, when their album Like Nirvana came out, were socially distanced, seated affairs that matched the music’s sombre and heartfelt tone. For Tim, performing that album during a period of collective struggle was “powerful and really beautiful”, but also underpinned by “a lot of sadness”. During one show in Adelaide, the energy palpably shifted when the band played “Sometimes”, an invigorating pop anthem from their self-titled 2019 album. “There were people up on the tables – all separated, but so much energy – and it reminded me how powerful it is to have those energetic moments and to all be together,” Tim recalls.

A desire to facilitate more moments of collective release informed the tone of Jesus at the Gay Bar. “I want to celebrate, rather than revisit the trauma of experiences, and look at the beautiful parts that feel good,” Tim says. That intent shines through in tracks such as “Always Got the Love”, “Replay” and “Songs About It”, a dancefloor bop where Tim gushes about the thrill of allowing yourself to fully submit to new love: “Blow off all of my friends / ’Cos I don’t want this to end / Ignoring every phone call / You’re bringing all of my walls down”.

Between the release of the album and Cub Sport’s upcoming national and world tours, Tim, Sam and their bandmates Zoe Davis and Dan Puusaari are experiencing a level of success that is rare for any band, let alone a self-managed act from Brisbane. Yet Tim, who went to school with Sam and Zoe, is just as eager to talk about the everyday, personal victories that once felt unimaginable. “We’ve been in the north side of Brisbane basically our whole lives,” he says. “It’s pretty cool: Sam and I walking into the same supermarket that I used to go to when I was a kid and now we’re holding hands. When I was little my worst nightmare was anyone finding out I was gay.”

Given Tim and Sam’s love story is central to the group’s music and broader fan universe, is it ever challenging for them to merge their personal and professional lives so wholly? According to Tim, being joined at the hip is the easy part: “We choose to spend basically every moment of every day together and we’re always talking. We’ve started to develop a telepathic connection; so often one of us will say something and the other will be like, ‘I was just thinking the same exact thing.’”

After eight years of wanting to be together but feeling like they had to hide, the pair are profoundly grateful for their creative and romantic partnership. “We’ve been best friends for 14 years now and together for six years, but in love basically the whole time,” Tim continues. Through Cub Sport, they’re not only making music with their mates, but fostering and celebrating previously hidden parts of themselves and inspiring others to do the same. “It’s a really special, rare thing.”

Jesus at the Gay Bar is out on April 7.

This chat comes straight from the pages of issue 112. To get your mitts on a copy, swing past the frankie shop, subscribe or visit one of our lovely stockists.