Het is een tijdje stil geweest rond de vrolijke pop-punk band Candy Hearts uit New Jersey – en dat is niet zonder reden geweest. Het drietal maakt een lichte switch in hun sound met een overstap naar een iets elektronischer geluid, en verandert hun officiële bandnaam in Best Ex. Frontvrouw Mariel Loveland vertelt in een interview met Billboard:

Candy Hearts has always been an extension of everything I am. I came up with the idea for the band when I was a teenager, and I think it was deeply empowering at the time to be able to be in a punk band, shout on stage, and still own the fact that I felt like such a shy, insecure girl. That was always my thing — I’m powerful despite my anxieties. I think over the past five years — after the amazing whirlwind my band has been through that I still can’t believe even happened — it really transformed from an extension of myself to an extension of my anxiety and not much else. 

To me, Best Ex is taking everything that Candy Hearts is — everything that I am — and giving it a breakup makeover. Only I didn’t break up with a lying, good-for-nothing human being, I broke up with my lying, good-for-nothing anxiety. To me, this record is that light at the end of the tunnel I’ve been trying to find for the last two and a half years. Making it felt like falling and figuring out my wings actually hadn’t been clipped like I thought. I’m so happy to have this finally be out there and to have it stand, where it belongs, alongside all of our other songs, which I consider a deep part of who I am.

Best Ex heeft ook meteen het eerste nieuwe nummer uitgebracht, genaamd “Girlfriend”. Volgens Mariel Loveland kunnen we deze zomer een nieuwe EP, genaamd Ice Cream Anti Social verwachten.

Beluister “Girlfriend” hieronder.