Pop Evil‘s new album, Skeletons, is out now and arrives less than two years after the group’s last record, Versatile, dropped in 2021. Speaking with ABC Audio, frontman Leigh Kakaty reveals that both efforts were written around the same time the COVID-19 pandemic kept Pop Evil off the road.
“I know we were hungry to finally be back on tour and to be doing what we normally do,” Kakaty shares. “[There’s] a lot of built-up urgency on this record, and giving ourselves an opportunity to just really grow and evolve.”
“You get stir-crazy, man,” he adds. “You wanna feel like you’re doing something. So I think that we did, we had some momentum there to really push, and we did, and this is kinda what it looked like.”
With Skeletons, Pop Evil continues to experiment with different sounds, such as the electronic elements on single “Paranoid (Crash & Burn)” and the almost country feel to the title track. However, the main goal of Skeletons was not necessarily to push into different genres, but rather to not overthink when those different genres start to creep into the sound.
“I feel like I’ve overthought so many of these albums in the past,” Kakaty says. “It should be quick, it should be if you’re feeling it, and it’s raw emotion, we wanted to capture that.”
“The more I’m overthinking it, then it’s not really music to me anymore,” he continues. “Obviously, we’re spending time to make sure the lyrics are perfect, but we didn’t want to overthink it. If it … feels right, then let’s trust it.”
Pop Evil is also launching a U.S. headlining tour Friday in support of Skeletons. In teasing the tour, Kakaty declares, “It’s a whole ‘nother level of focus for our live show.”
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