Released last month via Alcopop! Records and No Sleep Records, ‘Bad Love’ is a melancholic, dark pop song that revels in minor keys while Mariel Loveland’s (Best Ex) clear and emotive vocals tell the universal story of poor decisions turning into bad love.
Currently working on new music, the follow-up to Best Ex’s debut EP, ICE CREAM ANTI-SOCIAL (2017), Loveland is diving even deeper into indie pop, a move that may surprise some old fans of her former band Candy Hearts.
Having graduated from sofas onto major stages including stints on The Fest and Warped Tour, the Candy Hearts grew a sizeable following. But the music that she was performing wasn’t the music in her head.
Check out Bad Love below!
We managed to catch up with Best Ex as the artist talked about her latest song and more!
So how has the release of Bad Love gone down with fans so far?
I think it kind of shocked fans because it’s so different from what we were doing in the past, and I’ve never just dropped a single out of nowhere before. It’s always tied to something larger, but this time I let this song stand on its own because it is so different. I think everyone really seems to like it except that one internet commenter who said it’s a “bad, bad song.” I walked into that one. He would have been a great Pitchfork reviewer in the early noughties!
Can you tell us something about the single no one else knows?
I’m trying to think. I want to say that at one point, I did tell our producer to “make this part sound like Imagine Dragons,” but since I first wrote the song, Imagine Dragons has overthrown Nickelback when it comes to Internet punching bags. I’m not quite sure why because they have some really good songs with really unique arrangements. Out of every radio rock band, they’ve always been one of my favorite. Anyway, at the risk of being teased, this song is also about the same person I wrote “Brooklyn Bridge” about. Apparently, at a certain point I went from “driving into the start of this” to “sinking with the ship.” And now, I’m just picturing it as a slow-rolling Titanic situation. .
What was your favourite moment making the song?
I think at the time I wrote this song, I was really quite bored with my life. I was trying to draw on past tumultuous situations because I didn’t have a lot going on or much to write about. I was basically just sitting in my mom’s basement in between long trips to England, where at the time, I was trying to build a new life. I had just lost my job and had absolutely nothing to do, no friends in NJ, and only my cat to talk to. I really don’t even think I even actually set out to write a song that day. I was honestly just so painfully bored, but it totally poured out of me from nowhere. It sounded like nothing I’ve ever done. I wrote the bones of the song in like 30 minutes. For me, this was just such a perfect moment because at the time I was questioning everything. I was wondering if I could even still even write something that I was proud of. It inspired me.
Will there be a music video out soon for this song?
Indeed there will be! We filmed it on the coldest day in London and I still feel it cutting through my bones when I watch the footage. I can’t wait to show everyone!
If you could work with any band or artist on a new song, who would it be and why?
Honestly, Jack Antonoff. I love the way he challenges songwriters to explore new aspects of their songwriting. I love that he’s not afraid to take risks and maybe go for something that could be too campy or too weird and how he uses instruments in unexpected ways. Plus, any former punk kid from Jersey is pretty much on my wave length. Of course, I also wouldn’t mind if Taylor Swift joined him in our session, too.
Will you be touring at all this year?
We’re working on figuring that out right now. We are getting back out there. We have some things confirmed. Just putting our little ducks in a row right now!
How much do you enjoy working with two different record labels in the UK and US?
I completely adore working with two different labels. For a few years, I felt like I already had two lives: my life in NJ with my family and my life in Kent. I think this really feels like an extension of that. I just love having a home in two places — especially two places I love so much. It’s cool, too, because I came up in the East Coast DIY punk scene. No Sleep obviously has a very solid history with US punk in a similar way our previous label, Bridge Nine, did. We have the same ethos, we come from the same places. Alcopop, though, is absolutely so tuned into the UK DIY scene in a way I wasn’t. That’s something I only really got to explore once I was over there so much. It pretty much instantly felt like home to me.