Bad Suns

Los Angeles indie rock quartet Bad Suns broke through via their 2014 debut album Language & Perspective, which merged bright modern indie rock melodies with classic post-punk touches. After issuing two projects on Vagrant, the group moved to Epitaph for the 2019 full-length Mystic Truth, the 2022 album Apocalypse Whenever, and the six-song Infinite Joy EP that followed in 2023.

Vocalist Christo Bowman, drummer Miles Morris, guitarist Ray Libby, and bassist Gavin Bennett came together in Woodland Hills, California in 2012. Still in their late teens and early twenties, the musicians looked to 1970s and 1980s post-punk trailblazers such as the Cure and Elvis Costello for guidance. They fused the anxious songwriting approach of those predecessors with a sunnier, hook-centric contemporary indie rock palette, and their first single, “Cardiac Arrest,” spread rapidly online in 2013. The track’s traction earned them a Vagrant Records contract and led to the Transpose EP later that year. Producer Eric Palmquist, whose credits include Wavves and the Mars Volta, guided the sessions for Language & Perspective, which arrived that summer and reached number 24 on the Billboard Top 200. A support run with the 1975 and appearances at SXSW and Coachella followed while the band prepared its next record, again with Palmquist.

Disappear Here surfaced in September 2016 and climbed to number 109 on the Billboard chart. Early the next year the single “This Was a Home Once” appeared, coinciding with the announcement that Bad Suns had left Vagrant for Epitaph. A further preview, “Away We Go,” arrived in 2018 ahead of Mystic Truth’s early-2019 release. During 2020 and the first half of 2021 the group rolled out several singles, among them “Baby Blue Shades” and “When the World Was Mine,” setting the stage for the cinematic fourth album Apocalypse Whenever. Longtime collaborator Eric Palmquist produced the LP, which landed in January 2022. Momentum continued into 2023 with Infinite Joy, an EP whose songs addressed struggle, self-reflection, addiction, and recovery.