Booze Radly’s 2023 EP, Lose, Badly, just passed its one-year release anniversary and is a look at Booze Radly’s next full-length album. With six tracks and seventeen minutes, Lose, Badly is a powerful, striking, earworm-inducing EP that leaves listeners wanting more.
The EP starts with the dynamic, dance-around-to song “White Guy Emo”. In this song, Booze Radly utilizes a strong backing structure of a gorgeous melodic guitar part and a chunkier rhythm guitar that ties everything together perfectly. The second track of Lose, Badly is “Hydro-Illogical” and Booze Radly truly gave us a gift with this song. It’s a love letter to the listener’s ears. The melody and vocals combined with the cadence of the lyrics draws in the listener and with the auditory structure of the backing instrumentals, it’s very easy to fall deeply in love with “Hydro-Illogical”. Later on in the EP, we’re treated to “Unlearning Sadness”, which has complex and gorgeous backing instrumentals that make the lyrics and vocal melodies shine in a big way.
In anticipation of their next full-length album, I got in touch with Alex (and Dylan) of Booze Radly and was able to interview them and gain insight into their thoughts about their next album and the musical process they’ve been working through to create it.
Valor: What was the most satisfying/rewarding part of making Lose, Badly?
Booze Radly: The usual things that come with making music with your friends, experimentation,
discovery, collaboration etc all come to mind. With this release we actually started with a
scattershot of songs we wanted to keep separate from our next LP so it was kind of uniquely
interesting to take unrelated tracks and make them into something cohesive. When it was
finished I think the fact that they came together as if it were planned that way from the start was
very satisfying.
V: What was the most challenging part of making the EP?
BR: Compared to previous releases, this was one was by far our most straightforward. The
hardest parts are always; keeping things in time and agreeing on mix changes towards the end.
This release was no different in that respect but a few choices in the beginning helped us
alleviate some of that pain in the end. One big change this time around was going all in on amp
simulation for the first time which definitely made a lot of things easier. Until recently we weren’t
impressed enough by the quality of amp sims to feel comfortable doing this. I think have a lot of
time locked inside together during covid also gave us a lot of time to think ahead to future
releases.
V: Was there any other music (songs, artists/bands, etc) that influenced Lose, Badly?
BR: Way too many to name individually, however this release has a fun anecdote about this.
During covid the unfortunate passing of my mother’s partner led to my inheriting a former radio
DJ’s vinyl collection. As a result, with little else to do in lockdown besides heavy substance
abuse and the occasional board game night we dove into all these records and ended up
practically studying some of them. Dylan had been telling me for years at this point how great
bands like Rush and Yes were, and I happened to recall my mom’s partner extolling how great
Blue Oyster Cult was so we just listened to these on repeat. I also listened to Dark Side of the
Moon for the first time. We just got really into studying classic rock I guess which really did kind
of fit the mood of a global epidemic locking us all inside.
V: What other inspirations led to Lose, Badly?
BR: Personally for me, this EP was more of a swath of experiments with what kind of songs
we’re able to produce with the exception of “Crash and Burn.” That song feels like a
continuation of what we started doing with Haunted Mind. Moving on from this EP, I think we’ll
see further evolution of that sound but weaving in elements from all the different sounds we’ve
been dabbling in rather than basing a whole track on them.
V: What is each band member’s favorite track?
BR:
Alex: Unlearning Sadness
Dylan: Crash and Burn
Youssef: Crash and Burn
Vince: Admission of Infirmity
V: What song is the most fun/satisfying to play through?
That’s a tough question, for “Admission” and “Crash and Burn” I often feel like I’m hanging
on by the seat of my pants. “Unlearning Sadness” I’ve struggled with lining up a key to play it in
that I can also sing. Those are all still rad songs and fun to play live. I’m going to go out on a
limb and say “White Guy Emo” for myself and guess Nothing to Lose for Dylan ‘cause they
always take their shirt off and flex during that one.
V: What is the most exciting part (so far) of the full-length follow-up to Lose, Badly?
BR: That we’re finished writing and demoing the damn thing. Aside from that I think its really
shaping up to be something wild. It’ll probably land somewhere between 15 and 20 songs after
cutting like 5 to 10 songs. All of which I feel pretty confident have at least one sick as hell hook
somewhere in the song. It definitely will be a little weirder than our last album but I think people
will end up liking it quite a bit more.
V: When the full album is released, what will be the most exciting part of the release?
BR: Seeing if I can play a double LP worth of songs live without collapsing on stage.
Booze Radly’s Lose, Badly is full of spirit, heart, and catchy melodies that get stuck in your head and in your soul. The EP, and my favorite song from it, “Hydro-Illogical”, are core pillars of my DIY emo playlists and I know all the words to more than one song from the EP. Lose, Badly is such a gift for the DIY emo scene and, if you’re looking for a new obsessed, Lose, Badly and Booze Radly could fill that role.