TheWorst | Interview | New Album, ‘Yes Regrets’
Portland, Maine indie-punk/alt-rock trio theWorst have officially released their exceptional sophomore LP, ‘Yes Regrets’.
In the Spring of 2018, Brooke Binion—guitarist and vocalist of Portland, Maine’s raucous punk trio theWorst—started documenting her life in song, laying the groundwork for what would become the band’s high-energy and profoundly affecting sophomore album, Yes Regrets. Yes Regrets is a ten-track collection of blistering melodic punk songs presented in chronological order detailing the downward spiral of drug and alcohol addiction, the recovery process, and approaching the world with newfound sobriety. Binion’s transparent lyricism and coarse vocals shine atop layers of distorted guitars, fuzz-laden bass and pummeling drums, creating a record equally primed for circle pits and contemplative night drives. “This album was written over a very critical couple of years for me, so I wanted to have the album flow chronologically”, says Binion. “The first couple tracks were written before I got sober, then the middle of the record was written while I was in the process of getting sober, and then the end is sort of where I’m at now”.
Formed in 2016, theWorst gained a quick reputation in the Northeast for their energetic live shows and raw sound that combines the anthemic qualities of 90s alt-rock with driving indie-punk and shades of hardcore.
With ‘Yes Regrets’, theWorst have raised the stakes without abandoning the sound that they explored on their 2017 debut LP, ‘Jane Doe Embryo’, a testament to the group’s shared musical vision and Binion’s growing confidence as a songwriter. “Jane Doe Embryo was made up of the first songs I’d ever really written, and I tried to make it more poetic and universal”, says Binion. “This new record is so much more personal. I wanted it to be more direct, less metaphorical, to really capture those feelings”.
To record ‘Yes Regrets’ the trio—Binion, alongside bassist Will Bradford (SeepeopleS) and drummer Craig Sala (Paranoid Social Club, Kurt Baker, Planeside)—teamed up with longtime producer Will Holland (Pixies, Fall Out Boy, The Antlers) at Chillhouse Studios in Boston, MA, and brought in a number of friends and collaborators including Dana Colley (Morphine, Vapors of Morphine), Tony Bevilacqua (The Distillers), Nikki Glaspie (Beyoncé, Nth Power, Maceo Parker), and Nate Edgar (Nth Power, John Brown’s Body).
‘Yes Regrets’ kicks off with the heavily distorted dissonance of ‘Blacksheepish,’ an energetic and emotional tribute to a friend lost to suicide, before the sludgy ‘Serves You Rotten’ turns the focus inward, reflecting on and second-guessing the choices that can lead to hardship before ultimately embracing them and pushing forward. Elsewhere on the album, Binion details her struggles with bipolar disorder, chronicling the actions and fallout from manic periods on tracks like ‘Hurt Forever’ and ‘Monomania’. “When you’re manic, it’s like your brain is making decisions that you don’t agree with but you’re doing them anyway”, says Binion. “There’s a lot of impulsivity and that feeling of knowing something is a terrible idea but suddenly you’re doing it”.
On ‘This House Didn’t Build Itself’ theWorst play with structure and genre, with breakneck hardcore punk verses giving way to a downtempo, sparse chorus containing some of Binion’s most beautiful vocal harmonies. Meanwhile, the album’s title track, ‘Yes Regrets,’ combines elements of fuzzy desert-rock with early-2000s New Jersey emo before building to a noisy, anthemic climax. “It’s exhausting living this way where you’re constantly punishing yourself”, says Binion. “I’ve been through a lot, and most of it was self-inflicted, but this record is just about that pain you can cause yourself and those regrets that wear you down”.
‘Yes Regrets’ doesn’t shy away from exploring the realities of addiction, mental illness, and, appropriately, regret, but at its core, the album skirts the tendency to wallow in self-pity and isolation, instead offering a sense of community and acceptance to those who find themselves in a similar situation. “There’s some stuff I wish I could re-do, but I can’t and that’s okay”, says Binion. “I just hope people realize that even if you don’t have that hardcore ‘no regrets’ attitude, that’s alright. You might feel bad about some things that happen, but you can always still move forward from it”.
How long did you work on your sophomore album, ‘Yes Regrets’.
Brooke Binion: The songwriting was over a pretty intense two year period, it probably took us three years to finish it completely.
Have you found the isolation creatively challenging or freeing?
It’s been all over the map. There’s definitely been some low points where I felt like nothing was getting done and it never will again.
What’s the typical creative process like for you guys?
Usually me “Brooke” brings either a fully written or a halfway written song and then we work it out together and arrange it as a band.
I really enjoy how the song tells a story of drug addiction and its recovery process. Is it based on true events?
They’re based on events and relationships that happened while I was a drug addict and going through treatment. But they’re really not about the actual drug addiction.
The album itself sounds very personal and intimate, exposing all the vulnerability. Did you ever feel uncomfortable working on some of the lyrics?
All the time. I try to have some sort of code that limits involvement of some people and doesn’t tell the whole story, but this story is much more personal.. more so than the last.
How’s the scene in Portland for underground bands these days? Are you playing any shows lately? Any future plans?
The scene in Portland is amazing, the talent per capita we have in this city is better than anywhere I’ve ever lived. My current favorite bands here are Bumbling Woohas and Mouth Washington. We have a West Coast tour this Fall, and one more local show before the end of the year.
You originally formed in 2016, can you elaborate how it all came together for you?
I was in a band called Anarkitty with Boston artist Carissa Johnson and I was a little too messed up on drugs… and she wanted to do her own thing, so we got will Bradford from SeepeopleS to play bass and somehow became theWorst, but I don’t remember where the name came from. We added Craig Sala right at the beginning of the pandemic and his willingness to show up and hit the road and make records really grant everything to life.
How would you compare it with your debut album?
The first album was really the first batch of songs I really wrote in my whole life. They had a very broad sense of mental health, drugs, wanting to not be here anymore. This album is much more personal, based on much more specific things, events and people.
Are any of you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?
Will is the lead singer of SeepeopleS and Craig is the drummer for many bands. I can only think of a Paranoid Social Club which isn’t a band anymore.
Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?
The first all time favourites that comes to mind is ‘From a Basement on a Hill’ by Elliott Smith which just totally changed the way I think about lyrics and there’s a wild story about how I came across that album initially but not wild enough to tell right now. It would take too long. From the last 10 years I would say ‘Of Course You Do’ by Slothrust and from the last few years definitely ‘Party Favors’ by Sir Chloe.
Klemen Breznikar
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