Bad Suns - Infinite Joy [EP]

Los Angeles natives Bad Suns announce a new collection of songs called ‘Infinite Joy’, out November 17th via Epitaph Records. With Grammy award-winning producer Ben Allen (Washed Out, Walk The Moon) at the helm, the trio masterfully crafts a sublime union of alternative indie rock and synth funk with an emphasis on glossy production and accessible pop sheen.

Alongside the announcement the band has released the track “Living Or Dying”.  Accompanied by shimmering hi-hats and an undeniable groove, the song explores existentialist themes in an uplifting atmosphere. Written by frontman Christo Bowman as an expression of encouragement to his fiancé as she contemplates a major life decision, he expresses, “Living a life in a state of fear or regret is hardly living. Life is too beautiful to waste.”

Last month Bad Suns released the upbeat single and music video for “The One I Used To Love”- “a polished, deceptively danceable track born from a transformative new chapter” as highlighted by American Songwriter. Their first new music since their 2022 album Apocalypse Whenever, the song was a cathartic release for Bowman and a wistful ode to the past after overcoming addiction.

“The songs on Infinite Joy reflect an oceanic scope of emotions which colored the last year of my life,” the frontman comments. “In October of 2022 I got clean after a decade spent battling with alcohol abuse. In the direct aftermath, it was like experiencing an entire ten years’ worth of growth, in a matter of months. Growth doesn’t occur independent of pain, sorrow, joy – every emotion imaginable. I had to go through all of it, and resist none of it. It’s a journey I will be on for the rest of my life.”

To Bowman, “infinite joy” is more like a renewable resource than a feeling. He first encountered the phrase while reading scientist and author Carl Sagan’s novel ‘Contact’. It initially seemed oxymoronic, but after stopping to consider the possibilities, it started to take on meaning.  He muses,“Joy is an infinite reservoir which exists beneath the surface of palpable reality – accessible in fragments, most purely when we cease our attempts to grasp it. This idea struck me, perhaps because it seemed so naive and yet I couldn’t negate it.”

The FADER explained that Apocalypse Whenever conceptualized “an existential questioning of the way fear, regret and self-reflection function when informed by the notions of love and loss”. With songwriting as vulnerable as ever, Infinite Joy is brimming with contemplative lyricism as Bowman continues to look inward for answers. “Music tends to serve as a gateway to our purest emotions,” he explains. “My goal was, and always is, to allow room for every possible reaction to take place.”