A CONVERSATION WITH... BEAUTY SCHOOL DROPOUT
Punk hasn’t lost its edge, it’s simply changed with the times. Beauty School Dropout is one of the bands proving the heart of punk is still beating strong.
Picture by Imogen Mosley
The worst type of shows are the ones where it feels like the band is playing pretend. They’d be perfect as a ‘band of rockstars’ in some made-for-tv film that no one remembers. The band is technically good at what they do, but there’s no emotion. There’s no heart behind what they do, the songs they write, the interactions they have with their fans. It’s music for the sake of being famous.
Beauty School Dropout is exactly the opposite.
The L.A.-based four-piece (composed of Colie Hutzler, Beepus, Bardo, and Colton Flurry) are rockers and sweethearts to their core. They take their time answering questions from journalists and fans alike, they crack jokes to brighten the coldest of rooms, and they burst from the seams with energy when they talk about their music or each other. It’s unbelievably easy to get excited hearing them talk about something as seemingly simple as a riff in ‘MADONNA’, a sample from playing a Wurlitzer in ‘CITY NEVER SLEEPS’ or how a drum kit is set up. They're in it for the love of the game and for the love of making the world a bit more enjoyable than it was before they stepped onto the scene.
That intoxicating passion revs up every second the band owns that stage at The 100 Club later that night. But iconic venues in famous cities aren’t the only places the band wants their music to be heard.
“Not to toot our own horn, but this band was built on the foundation of free shows. We didn't play a ticketed show for the first two years we were a band. Our first show was at our friend's vintage store. We would just move all the clothes out and perform there. Our friends who own bars let us throw free shows there. Our first 30 shows we played were all free. Coming right out of lockdown, people wanted that. They wanted to get rowdy and have fun. So we take that mindset into everything we do now, and it’s still really important to us. We still throw free shows in LA all the time. And we can't wait to throw free shows everywhere because music should be free,” Brent explains.
Colie continues, “We love targeting specific places that are just so not meant for rock shows. Like one time, we played on the roof of a diamond store near Rodeo in Beverly Hills. There are some clubs in LA that we've gone to that are totally meant to be dance spaces and do not invite that culture at all. We kind of weasel our way in and flip it on its head.”
Music, specifically rock, has been in their lives for as long as they’ve been breathing so the only logical conclusion is to try and take over the world with it. “We all have very music-centric parents. Whether they play or not, they're very passionate about art,” Brent starts.
“Dads, especially. We have rock dads. They're like pageant dads, but into rock music. It’s admirable, but sometimes overwhelming,” Colie chimes in.
“It's a blessing and a curse for sure. I can only speak for myself, but their willingness to help is sometimes too willing. But I love them to death,” Brent finishes with a smile.
Now with their debut album WHERE DID ALL THE BUTTERFLIES GO? the band’s taken the fire that’s grown alongside them for years and condensed it into the visceral saga of an unrequited love affair. It’s intense, it’s revivalistic, and it’s an ironically raw tale of club bangers, contemplation, and ‘party shit’, as the band says.
“We just want the album, and BSD overall, to represent freedom. West Coast rock music. Showing people that we're here to make a stance. We've been at it for a long time. This album has helped us really find ourselves as a band and as individuals. And so I hope that allows people to do the same thing for themselves,” Colie states.
“I think we were all struggling with our life choices pursuing this career when we first started writing for this album. Obviously there have been so many amazing wins, but there's also just a lot of hardship in pursuing your dream. We all were falling in and out of love with different aspects of it. We set out to make something that we're genuinely proud of. We took time off, took a year and a half off from touring, and really became friends again. We would go out of LA to write and make art together. Throughout that process, we were all struggling with different things personally and in the band. By the beginning of this year when we were actually recording the music, we were like, ‘Damn, this is awesome again!’ We're so excited to go play shows and we're the most proud of the music that we've made. This album feels like it's defining who we are as Beauty School Dropout.” Brent says.
Not what you would expect a band that’s getting closer to the top of the world to say. In a time where bands and artists are constantly under pressure to maintain a perfect image and only share bits of their reality, the band revealing a bittersweet truth makes the album that much sincerely relatable.
“You know, I didn’t even want the title track on it,” Colie says. “There was one sonic element that I didn't love in the demo version, but it was also just a very vulnerable song to write. That in and of itself was hard for me. All of the album is vulnerable, but I think that one just really cut deep. We all had our own opinions of what we liked and didn’t like. So it was just a matter of us dueling it out and American Idoling what we thought was and wasn't best for the album. Mind you, we wrote close to 100 songs for this. There were other contenders looking for me that then I would have preferred, but now that it's out, I’m so glad that’s how it ended up.
“We were paired with a lot of producers for this album. We really pushed for our label to bring on an A&R that was putting us in the room with people we didn't already know. We're so used to moving so quickly that we were really impatient. Oftentimes we were very underwhelmed by the product we were getting back because we're used to turning around a demo in four hours, thanks to Bardo. We got our world rocked because of Neal Avron, who did the album with us. He has a much more traditional approach. He's very focused on takes, playing, and getting everything super as is and then decorating it, which is a much more concise and long process. So I think it taught us a lot of patience and appreciation for that side of things, which is cool.”
All their unreleased songs from the years and this album are stacked away, with some mysteriously (or not-so-mysteriously) being leaked to ever-ready fans. This album and the tour, including upcoming support for letlive. and Machine Gun Kelly, have all been surreal moments of connecting with themselves, their music, and their fans.
Picture by Imogen Mosley
“It doesn't fully feel real yet and maybe some of that is the jet lag. I think everything's kind of hitting it once. But also, we know we have so much more work to put in and so much to recover from all while climbing the hill that we're on. These big artists, big shows, all of it is bucket list items. You get a moment of celebration and then it's right back to work, right back to wrapping cables,” Colie jokes.
“We dream so big. I think every check box that we get to check off, it feels like we're getting closer to our end goal. The journey is the goal, but we do have things that we want to achieve,” Brent adds. “It just feels cool that it’s happening at all.”
Dreaming big is better than not dreaming at all. With the way that the world is, it’s always better to dream of a world that can be better than it was an hour ago. If it got bad, it can get better. That's the philosophy the band follows with their shows and their following of rock.
“There’s a shift in attention to the culture within rock as an energy and as a pop culture thing. Rock’s becoming much more relevant, relatable, and something that people can really grab onto. I think a lot of that also comes down to, not to get political, but just the political state of things. I think people want to feel free of that a little bit. That's kind of the mission behind everything we do. Giving people that freedom,” Colie says.
Colie by Imogen Mosley
“That’s what rock did for us as kids. It’s a place to scream and let it all out. Like Bardo's favorite band is Green Day. That's a really good representation of exactly what Colie talked about. They blew up on the political state and being a voice for the people that don't have a voice. And even though we're not necessarily political, we hope to bring the energy of acceptance and party energy. You work all week, come to a show, release, meet some new friends that hopefully are lifelong friends, and get a little crowd surf and a mosh in,” Brent adds.
Brent by Imogen Mosley
Bardo by Imogen Mosley
Colton by Imogen Mosley
“Seeing it connect with people and watching these things that we create in our private moments, connect with someone that we may have never met, it’s really cool. That's probably the craziest reward. See all those kids with our tattoos, it's surreal. That shit keeps you going, you know?” Bardo finishes.
So take their word for it, if you want a real rock show, come to a BSD show.