Beach Bunny’s Lili Trifilio is like everybody’s huge sister. She is undeniably cool—a well-balanced, ceaselessly pink-haired Libra, succeeding in making her creative goals come true whereas failing in romantic relationships.
“The celebrities aligned,” Trifilio tells SPIN over the cellphone, talking about her 2019 commencement from DePaul College with a journalism diploma. “I couldn’t discover a job for the lifetime of me for 3 months, after which on the finish of these three months, we received this wonderful label deal. It actually did work out. It felt like I manifested it, as loopy as that sounds.”
The 23-year-old doesn’t have to juggle music with anything. The success of “Promenade Queen,” the title observe from Seashore Bunny’s 2018 EP, catapulted them into a really perfect place for an indie band—particularly previous to a debut album. When the LP arrived, 2020’s Honeymoon, it was clear that Seashore Bunny couldn’t solely seize followers’ consideration however maintain it and excite them additional. That success was not mere luck; making music performs a serious function in Trifilio’s life, a lot in order that she as soon as recorded a voice memo of her singing a melody in an Olive Backyard rest room.
“I used to be like, I have to get this down someplace or I’ll overlook it,” she says, laughing. “It was actually embarrassing, as a result of I used to be making an attempt to be tremendous quiet however I simply wanted to chunk the bullet.”
Blame Sport, out Jan. 15 on Mother + Pop Data, is an immersive four-song EP that watches our huge sister resolve to be a great function mannequin — for followers, but in addition for herself. Trifilio is on vocals and guitar, with Matt Henkels additionally on guitar, Anthony Vaccaro on bass and Jon Alvarado on drums.
The primary observe, “Good Ladies (Don’t Get Used),” is an anthem that Trifilio wrote in 5 minutes whereas “offended crying” about not taking shit. Its lyrics are unsparing: “Cease saying, ‘It’s my unhealthy’ / You’re performing like your deadbeat dad.” She is assured, breaking the ability dynamic, refusing to be a submissive sufferer.
“I simply felt like quite a lot of songs on Honeymoon tolerated poisonous behaviors as a result of that’s what I used to be doing on the time,” she says. “On the newer songs, I’m making an attempt to put in writing from the surface perspective and being like, ‘you need to stroll away from painful conditions at a sure level.’”
It’s onerous to not root for Trifilio, to not step into her sneakers and consider somebody in our personal lives when she sings, “When you adore me / Why do you ignore me?” on “Good Ladies (Don’t Get Used).” Her frustrations with love are on the nostril and ridiculously poetic. It’s the rationale younger ladies—particularly ones on TikTok—are digging Seashore Bunny; Trifilio, in her reckonings, is relatable and presents common struggles in a refreshing, visceral method.
On “Guarantees,” the alluring first observe of Honeymoon, she yells within the refrain: “Part of me nonetheless desires you, part of me desires to go to sleep / Once we’re on their lonesome in your bed room, you got here like a reoccurring dream / A part of me nonetheless hates you, how may you’re keen on somebody and go away? / If you’re on their lonesome in your bed room, do you ever consider me?” It’s humorous, lovely, darkish and sophisticated, set in opposition to an invigorating energy pop bombast. It sounds easy, but it surely’s not.
Although Blame Sport wallows much less and will get riled up extra, the vulnerability and honesty are retained. The EP leans into their punk edge, which they’ve at all times had, however was largely evident at stay performances the place crowds begin mosh pits and generally break into sides to kind a “wall of demise.”
“Initially it was simply me and an acoustic guitar—very mushy,” Trifilio remembers with a giggle. “Within the music scene in Chicago, there’s quite a lot of emo bands and punk bands—truthfully, all man bands. Regardless of that, they’ve type of accepted me into their circle despite the fact that I’m this… mushy little one! I feel from that [I was inspired], and simply from seeing how loopy their exhibits ended up being.”
The title observe closes the EP out on a bleak be aware. “I’m uninterested in the world perceiving me,” Trifilio drawls in opposition to repetitive melodies, itemizing methods by which being a girl means going through hazard, being degraded, being judged.
“As I began writing it, I did get offended and pissed off,” she says. “It was a kind of songs that wrote itself.” Her anger is obvious, particularly when the music picks up 80 seconds in, turning into extra of a chant at a protest. “Yeah, it’s my drawback, I’m asking for it / Guess you’re the sufferer and I’m the suspect,” she quips in a defeated tone.
Nonetheless, the observe itself is a victory—one which women and younger ladies will blast via their earphones, dance round their room to, yell alongside and fistpump to, mosh and crowdsurf to. Life sucks, however not less than our huge sister from Seashore Bunny encourages us to struggle again, to have energy, to persist and resist in any method potential.
