Hawthorne Heights have released a special 2-song cover project entitled ‘Dads of Sad.’ Featuring their takes of ‘Butterflies’ by Kacey Musgraves and ‘8’ by Billie Eilish, this release showcases a band unafraid to take risks, looking at some of the biggest pop songs of right now through Hawthorne Heights’ signature emo tinted glasses.
“So much has changed in that span of time, some better, some worse, but we try not to let anything hold us back. The best part of music for me is reaching beyond borders and boundaries. Blurring the lines within a strange industry and marketplace is what keeps your blood pumping after all this time,” shares front man JT Woodruff.
Woodruff continues: “A lot of people are probably going to ask why the hell is this band covering extremely current pop songs that sound nothing like their band. The answer is pretty simple. We tweeted at Kacey, just wondering if she had ever listened to us back in the day. And she tweeted some of our lyrics back to us. We thought it was pretty bad ass that musicians in different genres are still connected. Billie Eilish was a similar scenario. She posted a video of her breakdancing to ‘NikiFM,’ and thought it was super cool. Both of these are very talented artists, who represent the most current side of pop music. Both sound nothing like what we are used to writing. We thought it was a great exercise in trying to make their happy pop songs sound like sad Emo songs.”
This is the first bit of new music since the band’s latest full-length, ‘Bad Frequencies,’ which was released last year via Pure Noise Records. It was the band’s first full-length release since 2013 and gave fans a look back on why Hawthorne Heights has maintained such a strong presence in the genre while continuously growing, maturing and reflecting on life as musicians and as men. The album was produced by Hawthorne Heights along with Nick Ingram (Hotel Books, Capital House Studio), and mixed by a Grammy winner Cameron Webb (NOFX, Social Distortion).