Two Steps Forward
Holy shit.
Wha..? What day is it? What time is it? What black hole did we fall into and what took us so long to get out?
We tried our best to stay relevant in the algorithmic eyes of social media, but we needed to take a step back for a hot minute and collect ourselves. But we’re back! And, if you’ve been wondering where we’ve been, allow me to catch y’all up.
2020 wasn’t exactly kind to us. Yes, we released our album, and of course we’re still super proud of that, and yes, we started to work on a bunch of new things we’re excited to share with the world (more on that later), but we ran into a pretty rough patch and it took the wind out of our sails for a bit. In the interest of ending this post on a high note, I’m going to dig into the bad news first.
Nothing hits quite so hard as having to navigate a line-up change in the middle of a pandemic. Unfortunately, last year Alex made the decision to quit the band. On a sunny afternoon last September, she sat us all down and explained that she needed to focus 100% of her energy on her solo project, and, as a result, could no longer commit to Bad Buddy. Obviously, we understand and support her decision, but it was a hard blow that tested our resilience. We were already grieving for the album release party we never got to have, grieving for the tour that was cancelled, grieving for all the good times, and good music, and all night hangs. Losing our cherished bandmate made all of that pale in comparison. We wish her all the best, we know she’ll be successful (she already is). Most importantly, we wish her happiness and fulfillment wherever life takes her.
The notion of announcing Alex’s departure left us feeling really vulnerable. We didn’t want our fans and supporters to lose faith in us or in the music. We thought if we could just find a new bass player and enact some seamless transition it would assuage any fears people might have about the future of Bad Buddy. It just was never going to be that easy. Alex is undeniably talented and she leaves behind big shoes to fill. Finding a replacement is made especially difficult due to covid restrictions. We can’t just go to shows to scout new bass players, we can’t even take new promo shots if we find one, and as much as the caliber of the music is extremely important to us the camaraderie is imperative. We want to find someone who is not only a killer musician, but also a killer hang. We never want to take ourselves so seriously that we forget what music is all about. It’s an outlet, it's a means of connection, and it should be a really really good time. We want to take the time to find the right person who shares that mindset.
So, after a month of brainstorming potential candidates, and trying to save-face on social media, we all felt exhausted. We kept up our posting in an attempt to appease the algorithm, connect with our fans, keep up the momentum we had built from the album, but it all felt like a load of bullshit.
Ok, I’m sorry, but I have to fully derail my train of thought here to address social media - we fucking hate it. Like - we really really hate it. It is the worst part of the music business and, unfortunately, a necessary evil. Grant applications, festival applications, award applications all look to likes and streams for proof that bands are worth investing in. PLUS, most posts fail to reach a broader audience with any consistency unless an artist agrees to pay to fucking play. It doesn’t help that we’re uninterested in it. I am only mentioning this because we took a couple months off posting every damned day about absolutely fuck all because it felt fake and we aren’t interested in being like that. However, we really have to get back in and play the stupid game.
We just want you guys to know that the one thing social media is good for, and something we really DO care about is connecting with you! We want to have conversations in the comments and we are thrilled by DMs. We love seeing pictures of you rocking our merch, or covering our music, or taking the record for a spin. It fuels our fire, baby. We don’t have a team working for us, it’s just lil ol’ Andi and Geoff and I trying to keep up with the times and trying to look professional. So we’re going to try to post more consistently, but it’s not because we’ve crawled so far up our own asses that we think you guys are just DYING for another photo of us, we just gotta commit to the bit, and any online love you show us is appreciated immensely.
ANYHOW, where was I? Oh yes, I was writing of what is to come.
Through many long chats between Andi and Geoff and I, the fog of our uncertain future started to clear. The one thing we all know for sure is that we each have a deep love for this band. We believe in the music we make, and we believe in each other, and we won’t be held back. We’re digging in our heels and getting back to work. Someone’s gotta push this rock up the hill.
Now, time for some good news - we’ve been busy!
Just before social bubbles were outlawed for the second time we managed to do some really incredible things together. Firstly - we shot a totally amazing (if we do say so ourselves) music video for Fine Hunniez. Enlisting the help of the always wonderful Sam Brooks, we somehow shot the entire thing in one (long) day. It’s got choreography, it’s got colour, we covered ourselves in honey, we lit shit on fire, and we are so, SO excited to show you.
We’re also working on recording new music. When literally every member of your band lives in a recording studio, it just makes sense to crank out the tunes. We have a bunch of new songs that we are workshopping and everybody is gonna get a taste this summer. I just invested a bunch of dough into updating my studio and I’m excited to put it all to work. We also got in touch with a wicked bass player who has agreed to lay down some tracks for us. I’ll leave her anonymous for the time being, but I can assure you that she tears it up. We’re super pumped to see what she brings to the table.
To wrap this up, we’d just like to say thanks to all of you. Thanks for reading this. Thanks for sticking by us. Sometimes it feels like every time we take two steps forward, we take one step back, but we’re still just getting started. We’re gonna work our asses off to get some new music out and gonna keep fighting the good fight. Your support means everything to us, and we hope to be able to give back some of that love with our art. We know we have so much more to give - we’ve barely scratched the surface of what we’re capable of.
We’re not going anywhere.
So stay tuned.
Love you, boos.
-emily & BB.
A wrap photo from the “Fine Hunniez” video shoot.
