EP Premiere: hey, ily – “Friend Group from Hell” b/w “3,2,1 Starve! (Why Do I Still Look the Same?)”
Posted: by The Editor
Montana’s hey, ily are unclassifiable. Their Bandcamp describes them as “power pop kinda,” but that sells them short–they dabble in it, sure, but then they also dabble in chiptune, pop-punk, post-hardcore, surf rock, electronica, emo, skramz, and on their newest single some metalcore. Their two EPs last year and their LP from this past April revealed a band as amorphous as they are talented, and their newest single, two songs by the names of “Friend Group from Hell” and “3,2,1 Starve! (Why Do I Still Look the Same?),” reveals that those were merely test runs.
These two tracks display a confidence that even their previous work never did. Out tomorrow on Lonely Ghost, the title track embraces their poppiest sensibilities, while the B-side is their heaviest song yet, exuding a menace they’ve never really tapped before. It’s an impressive outing, and we’re proud to premiere the EP a day early.
Frontman Caleb Haynes shares of the tracks:
This song is the first time all five of us have sat down and truly collaborated on a song together. That’s probably why we think it perfectly encapsulates what a Hey, ily! song should be: noisy, chaotic, catchy, and genre-bending. It probably also ends up being our angriest song yet. Lyrically, the song is about being forced to be around people who are slowly partying themselves out of any aspirations and nutric personality, forcing you to witness, and in turn, be affected by their descent into toxicity.
When we get bored of writing power-pop flavored emo tunes, we try to experiment and write a song in a genre we haven’t before. That’s where this song came into play. Inspired by bands like Cerce, Foxtails, and Leer, we wanted to write a kind of throwback screamo song. Whether or not we accomplished that is still up to debate. This song definitely took us the longest to write so far, for a while we couldn’t figure out where we wanted to take the song. At one point it even had a djent breakdown, but we decided to ixnay that. Lyrically, the song is an internal struggle, wanting to advocate for body positivity and self-acceptance but still trying your best to change your own physique, wrongfully thinking it’ll increase your self worth. It can really make you feel hypocritical. I was just sick of being in that mindset, and writing an angry hardcore-inspired song was my best way out.
Give the songs a listen below.
Friend Group from Hell is out tomorrow on Lonely Ghost Records.
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Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
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