Beauty School Dropout’s latest album, Ready To Eat, is out Oct. 13. Accompanying the record’s announcement, the band also released a statement: “The album is a sonic spiral through our personal struggles with addiction, relationships, and love, or lack thereof. The album is meant to be a reflection of our growth and our intentions to overcome any obstacle that life throws our way.”
“It’s fair to say there’s no timestamp on [the album],” vocalist Colie Hutzler tells SPIN backstage at Louder Than Life. “This is a reflection of the last 25 to however many years old all of us are together, and just looking back at our pasts and kind of shaking hands with those things, whether that is addiction or failed relationships or so on, and really trying to make amends with those, or at least look at it in the mirror and face it head-on, see how we can grow for the future.”
The trio — Hutzler, Bardo, and Brent Burdett — say they put aside the typical “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll” mentality when creating the new album, especially as they have recently preferred to make music while sober. Now they feel that their “new addictions” are making music, their personal lives and friendships, and breathing more life into things that really matter to them.
“You get so much more out of that than you do with substances,” Burdett says.
The L.A. group feel they’re often seen as a “party” band for their wild looks and personas. With the evolving cultural ideals about sobriety and now-fleeting idealizations of musicians’ “wild” lifestyles, BSD feel that the music industry could have a better perception regarding sobriety.
“I think the music industry has this thing where it likes to glorify the good more than it actually participates in it,” Hutzler says. “That’s something we see a lot and try and call out when we see it. … We hold people accountable for their actions, as well as ourselves.”
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