Beach Bunny

Built around the intimate songcraft and singing of Lili Trifilio, Beach Bunny started out as a solo home-recording effort. Adding a complete lineup and shifting the sonics toward punk-infused pop brought wider attention via the candid single “Prom Queen.” Their first full-length, Honeymoon, stayed true to that approach, yet the 2021 Blame Game EP and especially the 2022 album Emotional Creature scaled back the punk edge while retaining the sharp hooks and raw emotional weight of Trifilio’s lyrics and delivery. The same atmospheric tension resurfaced on the 2024 standalone track “Vertigo.”

Trifilio first issued music as Beach Bunny in the mid-2010s, issuing the largely acoustic EPs Animalism in 2015 and Pool Party in 2016, both steeped in introspective moods. Recruiting bassist Aiden Cada, drummer Jon Alvarado, and guitarist Matt Henkels steered the group toward fuzzy indie pop recalling the 1990s; their infectious 2018 EP Prom Queen yielded a streaming breakthrough with its title song. After Anthony Vaccaro took over on bass, the band’s growing profile attracted Mom + Pop Records, which issued the muscular debut album Honeymoon in February 2020, highlighting tighter ensemble playing and Trifilio’s incisive writing.

Once the supporting tour ended, Trifilio returned to her parents’ home amid the early COVID-19 lockdown and mined personal reflection for new material while seeking to broaden the band’s punk-pop framework. The initial results surfaced on Blame Game, recorded with producer Joe Reinhart during a pandemic pause in August 2020 and released in November 2021; the EP explored toxic masculinity and fractured relationships, easing the guitar intensity most noticeably on the ringing title track. By 2021 the group had also begun shaping a second album whose songs drew from Trifilio’s solitary daydreams and science-fiction reading. Seeking sonic evolution, they incorporated shifting dynamics, keyboards, shoegaze washes, and layered harmonies under the guidance of Sean O’Keefe, Fall Out Boy’s producer. Emotional Creature appeared in July 2022, after which the band embarked on an extensive U.S. tour. The non-album single “Vertigo” followed in June 2024, returning Beach Bunny to a guitar-driven, 2000s-style pop-punk sound.