TLC go from No Scrubs to no surrender

"I just don't understand/The ways of the world today/Sometimes I feel like there's nothing/To live for/So I'm longing for the days of yesterday."

Skip forward 20-odd years and the irony of that song is a whole lot of people wish they could return to 1994, now seen as some kind of golden period, to fall in love with TLC once again.

At 44, Thomas knows no period – or maybe every period – is golden in its own way. She feels the responsibility on her and Watkins – Lopez died 12 years ago in a body blow that almost scuttled the band – for the generation who idolised them.

"We have heard quite a bit of artists say that they were inspired by us, growing up. Lady Gaga said to Tionne, I think about Waterfalls, that it helped her with all the issues she had going on growing up, in high school," she says. "That's a real awkward moment for all of us, those middle school times when we are trying to fit in and figure out who we are, and people tell us that the songs we put out – we were always very outspoken and strong in our beliefs – had that impact on people."

"We owned up to it and were able to admit when we were wrong. We didn't regret it because it helped to shape the mould as you grow older," says Thomas. "There was no group like us, and there's still not a group like us. We didn't want the category of just being the norm, so when people saw that they saw it was a very authentic thing. We didn't know; we just did what we felt."

Alongside a reinvigorated TLC, with a new single, Haters, released just before they arrive in Australia, social activism has returned to music. TLC led the way back then with safe sex and clear feminist positions so what does Thomas make of the powerful black consciousness statements made by Beyonce with her last two albums, and even Beyonce's sister Solange Knowles with her new album?

"I wish I could see more of that," she says. "Beyonce, you know, came out shortly after we came out and it makes sense for her to be doing stuff like that now. But some other artists could be doing that too. There's so much going on in the world and it's not about putting a message that's going to cause division between people, because that's not what we want, it's about awareness and it's important and I think it's been lacking, big-time, for many, many years."

Some of that attitude may be evident when a long-awaited but much-delayed new TLC album arrives. It doesn't mean the door will close on the band.

"I would never look at this as our final statement: it could be the last album but it doesn't mean it's the last people will see of us," Thomas says firmly. "As long as that fire is inside you to do it, that's when you have a really good chance of it working. If you're doing it just because you think you should, there is no magic in that."

TLC play Enmore Theatre, Sydney, November 15-16, and as part of RNB Fridays Live: Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, November 18.

Also Palais Theatre, Melbourne, November 23; nib Stadium, Perth, November 20; Titanium Security Arena, Adelaide, November 22; Hisense Arena, Melbourne, November 25.