The Regrettes

The Regrettes continue to solidify their reputation for unapologetically honest pop songs with the release their new song, “Monday,” their first new music since the release of their sophomore LP, How Do You Love?, which NPR Music proclaimed “a terrific culmination of a band that has been honing and perfecting their sound.” The song was inspired by and written over the last year’s pandemic lockdown, and Lydia Night of the band reveals, “as LA locked down, I felt a huge part of my Identity and ego being stripped away because of no touring, and no connecting with people at our shows. I’ve been touring since about age 12, so I had to come up with a new way to function in the world. It was really rough, and still is rough, but I found writing this song to be super therapeutic. It’s special that this is the first song we’ve put out in a while because it’s an important moment in time for me to mark. Part of the healing process for me is really learning and trying my best to keep on dancing the pain away so I hope people can relate to that and dance with me, even if it’s not at a show and in the safety of their own kitchen.”

The band, which consists of lead singer and songwriter, Lydia Night, as well as Genessa Gariano (guitar), Brooke Dickson (bass) and Drew Thomsen (drums), earned widespread acclaim with the 2019 release of their sophomore LP How Do You Love?, including NME who declared them “truly unstoppable,” and Teen Vogue who praised their “incredibly self-aware, empowering pop-punk” with additional accolades from Vogue, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and more. The band has headlined sold-out shows throughout North America and Europe, performed at festivals including Coachella and Reading + Leeds, and have appeared on Good Morning America, Conan and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The band’s new song “Monday” comes in advance of their performance at Ohana 2021.

“There’s so much pressure to constantly better yourself,” Lydia Night, lead singer and songwriter of The Regrettes, says. “That phrase, ‘further joy,’ summarized what it meant to be on the hamster wheel of constantly chasing happiness, but in turn, that’s what makes you unhappy,” she adds.

As the pandemic set in and Los Angeles shut down, The Regrettes were having a full-blown identity crisis. Lydia had been touring since she was 12-years-old and the band spent the past two years headlining sold-out shows and performing at festivals like Coachella. As NME said of their sophomore album, The Regrettes were “truly unstoppable” until they weren’t.

In January of 2021, after more than a year apart, The Regrettes reconvened for a 10-day writing retreat in Joshua Tree. They left the desert with a vision for the record and demos in hand. Although the subject matter is anything but light, she still calls it the “poppiest, and danciest” album they’ve ever made.

“What Further Joy means, that chase for happiness, that quote sums it up,” Lydia says. It’s the lesson that allowed The Regrettes to pause, go inward separately, and still land in the same place together, becoming a tighter unit than they’ve ever been. It’s also the lesson Lydia hopes listeners walk away with. “We all deserve happiness and to be present, and we’ll never get there if we feel so much shame and guilt for not being there already,” she adds. “Don’t get caught in the hamster wheel of chasing joy.”