'This is How I Feel, Take it or Leave it': Alicia Bognanno Talks Bully's New Album 'Lucky For You'
Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Written by Laura Johnson
With ‘Lucky For You’, Alicia Bognanno has made the most powerful Bully record to date. Self-assured without being self-indulgent, it finds the Nashville-based singer, songwriter and producer operating with obvious confidence while remaining emotionally candid in a heartbreakingly matter-of-fact way. “I'm living in the same black hole, but there's flowers on your grave that grow,” she sings during one of the LP’s many highlights, Days Move Slow, a fizzing ‘90s radio-rocker with a poignant sting. “Something's gotta change, I know.”
Here Bognanno artfully uses loss and self-reflection as a creative catalyst, having begun work on the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Sugaregg’ last spring, soon after the death of her beloved dog Mezzi. Getting personal on an album is not something that she is prone to shying away from, but her approach is not entirely inward-facing. Not only does it provide a sense of catharsis for her, it does the same for her listeners, even when they attach meanings to songs that move beyond her original intentions.
“With Mezzi and my personal life, it’s using music as an outlet and form of expression,” Bognanno says over Zoom during a dream-come-true tour with alt-rock titans Pixies. “It’s really just another form of communication where I feel like I’m able to say what’s meaningful to me, and I don’t have to be 100% sure that somebody else is understanding it. I think, if anything, I like that. It’s the mystery, to help someone forge their own connection to it. Whether or not it’s exactly what I was feeling isn’t really relevant, because it’s being overpowered by this connection and being less alone. It’s freeing for me to be able to write about that.”
Another factor in the record’s story is Bognanno’s ongoing sobriety over the past few years. She believes it played a vital part in developing her writing on album four, allowing her to access a level of clarity she had not previously approached her work with, while also helping her process her grief. “With writing, when you quit drinking you're forced to be present, and it’s a really interesting learning process,” she reveals.
“The things you realise or think about throughout that are pretty wild. With writing in general I feel like I have to be more present and intentional. I don’t have an excuse to throw something together, or write something based on how awful I’m feeling because of drinking. I think the concept of being more present because of it has really elevated my writing a little bit, only because I’m forced to analyse things that I wouldn’t have had to think about had I not stopped drinking.”
Bognanno has described herself as “overly emotional and sensitive”, calling it a blessing and a curse. But what does that really mean to her, and how did it inform the new material? “I’ve always felt a lot more, but I think I have a much better idea of how to navigate those emotions now,” she explains. “I’m more aware, like, ‘OK, this is what’s going on, this doesn’t feel right, why is this happening, what can I do to fix it.’
“Before it would be like, ‘This is going on, this doesn’t feel right, how can I run away from it, or how can I escape it and put off the feeling?’. And that was drinking. I think it’s definitely made me have to look in and reflect on the reasoning behind it, and then that is already giving me more things to think about, and more things to feel, and just a healthier way to cope. I would say I’m equally as emo, I’m just better at dealing with it.”
Having previously written and produced all of Bully’s material, ‘Lucky For You’ marked the first time Bognanno worked with a co-producer behind the boards, allowing fellow Nashville resident JT Daly—a Grammy nominee for his work on K.Flay’s ‘Every Where Is Some Where’— into the fold. “I think it’s nerve-racking in general, sharing demos with anybody,” Bognanno observes.
“When you’re so close to it, sometimes I feel I don’t actually know what it sounds like, if that makes any sense. It was an interesting process. I think collaborating with somebody, more than just them saying if they like or dislike something, was a totally new process. I think I was only able to overcome it fully because JT seemed like the right person. We got along really well, and I knew that he had the record’s best interests at heart, so I was a lot more comfortable sharing things with him.”
The album took seven months to record, far exceeding the time spent on her previous LPs, due to scheduling conflicts. But the longer gestation period gave rise to songs that may not have had time to grow otherwise and the extra time allowed more room for experimentation, resulting in a dynamic rock palette that draws on punk, indie and pop. “There are a lot of new instruments in there, it was very well thought out, everything we did was incredibly intentional,” Bognanno explains enthusiastically.
“It was quite the process. We experimented with so many things. There’s this rhythmic instrument that almost sounds like a shaker in Change Your Mind, that’s actually just me singing through a shitty microphone hooked up to guitar pedals and making random noises, and it’s put in there as if it was a percussive instrument. That’s a pretty good example of what it was all like.”
Alongside taking a scalpel to events in her life, ‘Lucky For You’ finds Bognanno navigating a difficult world. On Hard To Love she delves into the emotional minefield that is gender and sexuality, while Miss America is about the overturning of Roe v Wade and the continuing attack on abortion access by the American right. But, as a woman navigating the music industry, is she exhausted by still having to shine a light on these issues? And how does she balance that with the obvious need to?
“Oh my God, yes,” she says. “I have a zero tolerance policy for people who are like, ‘What’s it like being a woman in the music industry?’ I’ll tell you what it’s like, it’s like you asking me that question right now. It’s such a relief to have it brought up in this way, like, ‘Are you sick of it?’ Yeah, you know who never has to answer that question, fucking men. I also feel like, let’s move past that. It takes away from the music and it focuses on the gender of the person writing it, and that’s not what it’s about. Even in this record cycle, I can’t believe I’m still dealing with this shit. It’s been 10 years and people are still wanting to know horror stories of what it’s like being in the music industry and it’s triggering. It’s not benefitting anybody in any way, unless it’s followed up with resources and coping mechanisms.”
“I think when I’m writing about stuff that has to do with my body, or my gender those are real time feelings that I’m experiencing as a human being, and they run so much deeper than this surface level question of what it’s like to be in the music industry,” she continues. “What about, ‘What is it like to live in this world right now as you are?’ That is an experience, and that’s talking about the song. Then I’m talking about what it’s like to be a woman, or what that means to me when that [Roe v Wade] is overturned, that’s a deeper level than just having a vagina and playing music.”
Despite presenting her music with a fearless edge, artistic freedom is not a privilege everyone experiences in the same way. Living in a state that’s predominantly Republican forced Bognanno to consider her own well-being when writing tracks like Miss America and the politically-charged closer All This Noise. “There are a lot of things that I am nervous to put out,” she admits. “Something like All This Noise, especially living in Tennessee, where it’s a red state, you’re almost thinking about safety things at that point.
“But there’s a lot of things that I feel like if I don’t push myself to do, or have the nerve to confront it, then what’s the point? If I’m going to play it safe all the time then I’m not really experiencing this form of art. I’m just doing something that I think is more of a service to somebody else versus experimenting with things on my own and how I feel about it. But really it’s the bigger picture of transparent authenticity, you know? This is how I feel. Take it, or leave it. I think this is meaningful, and however you take it I can handle.”
That commitment to her vision is abundantly clear from the hard attack vocal approach of All This Noise, a wildcard on the record that deliberately channels the intensity and heaviness of Mclusky, whom Bully have regularly covered live. Fed up of having to admit that the South Wales band's Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues wasn’t hers, she created her own chaotic live closer.
“I wanted my own song to run around,” she says. “Being able to match that energy lyrically and push those boundaries in that way too, and have something that’s a little bit jarring as a recap. That’s why it’s last on the record, I guess for multiple reasons, but I would only play that last. I would never have that song in the middle of the set, it doesn’t really flow.”
Bognanno will hit the road again for her own headline North American tour throughout August and September. Now, with four records to draw from for the setlist, will audiences be treated to a mix of old and new songs? Or will ‘Lucky For You’ be the focus? “Definitely all new album!” she declares decisively.
“I’ll put some old ones in there but JT and I had what we thought were no fillers, and so this is the first record where I feel like I confidently want to play every single song. I’m excited to. Usually there are one or two where I’m not convinced. This one, we’re doing it all.”
‘Lucky For You’ is out now through Sub Pop Records.
Bully Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu August 10 2023 - CHICAGO Illinois - Thalia Hall Chicago (USA)
Fri August 11 2023 - ST LOUIS Missouri - Off Broadway (USA)
Sat August 12 2023 - LAWRENCE Kansas - Bottleneck (USA)
Mon August 14 2023 - DENVER Colorado - Marquis Theater (USA)
Tue August 15 2023 - SALT LAKE CITY Utah - Urban Lounge (USA)
Wed August 16 2023 - BOISE Idaho - Grove Plaza (USA)
Fri August 18 2023 - SEATTLE Washington - Neptune Theatre (USA)
Sat August 19 2023 - VANCOUVER British Columbia - Biltmore Cabaret (Canada)
Sun August 20 2023 - PORTLAND Oregon - Aladdin Theater Portland (USA)
Tue August 22 2023 - SAN FRANCISCO California - THE INDEPENDENT (USA)
Wed August 23 2023 - LOS ANGELES California - Teragram Ballroom (USA)
Thu August 24 2023 - ANAHEIM California - Chain Reaction (USA)
Fri August 25 2023 - SAN DIEGO California - Soda Bar (USA)
Sat August 26 2023 - TUCSON Arizona - Club Congress at Hotel Congress (USA)
Mon August 28 2023 - SANTA FE New Mexico - Meow Wolf (USA)
Tue August 29 2023 - OKLAHOMA CITY Oklahoma - Beer City Music Hall (USA)
Thu August 31 2023 - NASHVILLE Tennessee - Brooklyn Bowl (USA)
Thu September 14 2023 - DAVENPORT - Triple Crown Whiskey Bar and Raccoon Motel (USA)
Fri September 15 2023 - MINNEAPOLIS Minnesota - First Avenue (USA)
Sat September 16 2023 - CUDAHY Wisconsin - X Ray Arcade (USA)
Sun September 17 2023 - FERNDALE Michigan - Loving Touch (USA)
Tue September 19 2023 - TORONTO Ontario - Lees Palace (Canada)
Wed September 20 2023 - ALBANY - Lark Hall (USA)
Thu September 21 2023 - SOMERVILLE Massachusetts - Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre (USA)
Fri September 22 2023 - HAMDEN Connecticut - Space Ballroom Hamden (USA)
Sat September 23 2023 - PHILADELPHIA Pennsylvania - First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia (USA)
Sun September 24 2023 - WASHINGTON District Of Columbia - Black Cat (USA)
Fri October 27 2023 - AUSTIN Texas - Parish (USA)
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