The hardcore band Scowl from Santa Cruz has announced their new album "Are We All Angels" for April 4th via Dead Oceans (distribution: Cargo). It is their first album for the renowned label, which also includes artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski, and Japanese Breakfast in its roster.
Produced by Will Yip (among others Turnstile, Title Fight, Mannequin Pussy), who also worked on their last project, the "Psychic Dance Routine" EP, "Are We All Angels" showcases the toxic and antagonistic band channeling their accumulated aggression through a more expansive version of themselves. The album was mixed by Rich Costey (among others My Chemical Romance, Vampire Weekend). It is an album marked by alienation, grief, and loss of control, largely addressing their newfound place in the hardcore scene. A community that has embraced the band in recent years while also making them a kind of lightning rod.
The new single, “Not Hell, Not Heaven,” outright rejects the narratives spread about them by outsiders. “It’s about feeling like a victim and being a victim, but not wanting to identify with that,” explains singer and frontwoman Kat Moss. “It’s about trying to find some kind of grace in the fact that I have my power. I live in my reality. You have to deal with what you’re dealing with, and that doesn’t work for me.”
The song is accompanied by a video directed by Sean Stout, filmed at the 924 Gilman in Berkeley - the place where Moss, guitarist Malachi Greene, and drummer Cole Gilbert first met and laid the groundwork for what would become Scowl a year later.
The link to NOT HELL, NOT HEAVEN is as follows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PALtvM3SyYI
The album will also include the previously released song “Special,” which presents itself with great, anthemic energy while maintaining the raw intensity of Scowl.
On "Are We All Angels", the band explores ambitious new directions at every turn and bends genre norms. Moss makes the most immediately recognizable development by shedding some of the gnarly bite that characterized the band’s earlier work in favor of a more structured and sometimes even tender approach.
She plays with harmonies and melodic sensitivity that is sure to surprise even the most die-hard Scowl fans. Moss cites a wide range of influences outside of hard rock - everything from Billie Eilish to Radiohead, Car Seat Headrest to Julien Baker.
“Most of us really weren’t practiced musicians when the band started,” she admits. “It was very Germs-esque in that regard, like the first hardcore band of a baby, which is great. Now we might still not know what we’re doing, but we have a better idea of what we want to do.” Instrumentally, the band cites influences from Negative Approach, Bad Brains, Hole, Mudhoney, Garbage, Ramones, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Rocket From The Crypt, and others.
Bassist Bailey Lupo adds: “The songwriting for the new record was the most collaborative in Scowl’s history. Everyone brought so many ideas, and we were able to analyze them all calmly and take our time. We all have such eclectic tastes, influences, and personalities, and you can really hear that in every corner of this album.”
Even through this eclectic approach, Scowl lose none of their sharpness and still manage to convey the anger and frustration that lies behind it. They are deeply committed to the ethos of punk and its sense of community. “Hardcore and punk have shaped how we work, what we want to do as a band, and how we engage,” says Greene. “At our core, we are a punk and hardcore band, no matter how the song changes.”
Scowl’s “Are We All Angels” will be released in Germany digitally, on CD, LP, indie-exclusive on Olive Green Vinyl, and for Germany limited to 100 pieces on Highlighter Yellow Vinyl exclusively via Merchpit.
Scowl has quickly established themselves as one of the most dynamic and hardworking bands in the rock scene, extensively touring in the USA and internationally with bands like Limp Bizkit, Destroy Boys, The Bronx, Militarie Gun, Show Me The Body, Zulu, Touché Amoré, A Day To Remember, Speed, Sunami, and many others, as well as festival appearances at Coachella, Reading & Leeds, No Values, Outbreak, Primavera, and Sick New World, to name just a few.
The band - Malachi Greene (guitar), Bailey Lupo (bass), Cole Gilbert (drums), Mikey Bifolco (guitar), and Kat Moss (vocals) - was formed in 2019 and celebrated their breakthrough in 2021 with their debut album "How Flowers Grow". Since then, they have been relentlessly on the rise. With “Psychic Dance Routine” from 2023, Scowl have redefined the boundaries of punk by blending aggressive hardcore with lush alternative melodies.
Produced by Will Yip (among others Turnstile, Title Fight, Mannequin Pussy), who also worked on their last project, the "Psychic Dance Routine" EP, "Are We All Angels" showcases the toxic and antagonistic band channeling their accumulated aggression through a more expansive version of themselves. The album was mixed by Rich Costey (among others My Chemical Romance, Vampire Weekend). It is an album marked by alienation, grief, and loss of control, largely addressing their newfound place in the hardcore scene. A community that has embraced the band in recent years while also making them a kind of lightning rod.
The new single, “Not Hell, Not Heaven,” outright rejects the narratives spread about them by outsiders. “It’s about feeling like a victim and being a victim, but not wanting to identify with that,” explains singer and frontwoman Kat Moss. “It’s about trying to find some kind of grace in the fact that I have my power. I live in my reality. You have to deal with what you’re dealing with, and that doesn’t work for me.”
The song is accompanied by a video directed by Sean Stout, filmed at the 924 Gilman in Berkeley - the place where Moss, guitarist Malachi Greene, and drummer Cole Gilbert first met and laid the groundwork for what would become Scowl a year later.
The link to NOT HELL, NOT HEAVEN is as follows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PALtvM3SyYI
The album will also include the previously released song “Special,” which presents itself with great, anthemic energy while maintaining the raw intensity of Scowl.
On "Are We All Angels", the band explores ambitious new directions at every turn and bends genre norms. Moss makes the most immediately recognizable development by shedding some of the gnarly bite that characterized the band’s earlier work in favor of a more structured and sometimes even tender approach.
She plays with harmonies and melodic sensitivity that is sure to surprise even the most die-hard Scowl fans. Moss cites a wide range of influences outside of hard rock - everything from Billie Eilish to Radiohead, Car Seat Headrest to Julien Baker.
“Most of us really weren’t practiced musicians when the band started,” she admits. “It was very Germs-esque in that regard, like the first hardcore band of a baby, which is great. Now we might still not know what we’re doing, but we have a better idea of what we want to do.” Instrumentally, the band cites influences from Negative Approach, Bad Brains, Hole, Mudhoney, Garbage, Ramones, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Rocket From The Crypt, and others.
Bassist Bailey Lupo adds: “The songwriting for the new record was the most collaborative in Scowl’s history. Everyone brought so many ideas, and we were able to analyze them all calmly and take our time. We all have such eclectic tastes, influences, and personalities, and you can really hear that in every corner of this album.”
Even through this eclectic approach, Scowl lose none of their sharpness and still manage to convey the anger and frustration that lies behind it. They are deeply committed to the ethos of punk and its sense of community. “Hardcore and punk have shaped how we work, what we want to do as a band, and how we engage,” says Greene. “At our core, we are a punk and hardcore band, no matter how the song changes.”
Scowl’s “Are We All Angels” will be released in Germany digitally, on CD, LP, indie-exclusive on Olive Green Vinyl, and for Germany limited to 100 pieces on Highlighter Yellow Vinyl exclusively via Merchpit.
Scowl has quickly established themselves as one of the most dynamic and hardworking bands in the rock scene, extensively touring in the USA and internationally with bands like Limp Bizkit, Destroy Boys, The Bronx, Militarie Gun, Show Me The Body, Zulu, Touché Amoré, A Day To Remember, Speed, Sunami, and many others, as well as festival appearances at Coachella, Reading & Leeds, No Values, Outbreak, Primavera, and Sick New World, to name just a few.
The band - Malachi Greene (guitar), Bailey Lupo (bass), Cole Gilbert (drums), Mikey Bifolco (guitar), and Kat Moss (vocals) - was formed in 2019 and celebrated their breakthrough in 2021 with their debut album "How Flowers Grow". Since then, they have been relentlessly on the rise. With “Psychic Dance Routine” from 2023, Scowl have redefined the boundaries of punk by blending aggressive hardcore with lush alternative melodies.
