Cub Sport: The queer love story at the heart of the acclaimed alt-pop band
Bandmates Tim Nelson and Sam Netterfield mixed business with pleasure when they began dating.
By Will Stroude
Words: Thomas Stichbury
Cub Sport started hitting all the right notes when bandmates Tim Nelson and Sam Netterfield declared their love for one another.
The pair briefly dated when they were 17 – both closeted at the time – but agreed to stick to being friends upon forming the alt-pop group, which is completed completed by guitarist Zoe Davis and drummer Dan Puusaari.
In Attitude’s April Style issue – out now to download and to order globally – the boys, both 29, reminisce about their very, ahem, novel romance – which was reignited when Sam read Hanya Yanagihara’s literary masterpiece A Little Life in 2016.
“I was so struck by the message of friendship. Then as the story goes along and you see how the friendship becomes something more, it echoed our journey so closely that when it got to the end, I thought: ‘What am I doing? Why haven’t I told Tim?’” Sam recalls.
Cub Sport’s Tim Nelson and Sam Netterfield open up about their professional and personal relationship in Attitude’s April Syle issue, out now
“We were on a tour of North America and after the final show we had a big celebration, so I told him that night. I said, ‘I don’t want this to ruin our friendship, but I love you and I want to be with you,’” the group’s keyboardist continues.
Of course, the feeling was mutual, and the pair became engaged soon after, before tying the knot in August 2018, within a year of Australia passing its historic same-sex marriage law.
“I proposed to Tim,” Sam adds. “We were just lying in bed having one of those happy-cry reflection moments and I just blurted it out.”
While not the first couple in the world to make music together, they admit that mixing business and pleasure isn’t easy.
“There has never been any tension, [but] it has its pros and cons,” lead singer Tim explains.
“It’s great that our wins are the same, but the flip side of that is any challenges or disappointments are shared.”
Cub Sport have just released ‘Confessions’ as the first single from their upcoming fourth album, LIKE NIRVANA, out 8 May, and neither Tim and Sam are afraid to to deep dive into their relationship when it comes to their artistry.
In fact, sometimes that creativity flows beneath the sheets into their sex life. On the song ‘Limousine’, Tim swoons: ‘I can see myself gliding on the surface now/I can feel I need it deeper, can you show me how/cause f***ing you is like DMT [the hallucinogenic drug dimethyltryptamine].’
“That was definitely an example of writing something that I was a little wary about…” Tim admits.
“My parents listen to all the music and I know my mum doesn’t like ‘Limousine’,” he laughs.
“[But] I never want to stifle my creativity, or to change what’s coming out of me of fear of who’s going to listen to it.”
Read the full interview with Cub Sport in Attitude’s April Style issue, out now to download and to order globally.
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