The Regrettes Dropped New Single ‘Monday’
What better way to deal with the pandemic blues than turning it into music. Well, like most artists that’s exactly what The Regrettes singer, Lydia Night did. Touring frequently since the age of 12, the pandemic not only affected her career but also made her feel that her own identity was being stripped. On September 24th, Regrettes released their new music ‘Monday’ that’s reflective of the anxiety and frustration that haunts people. It throws light on the existential crisis experienced by people with a whimsical music video.
“Gotta get the fuck out of LA,” Night sings with a defeated snarl. “Run from the sun before it burns my brain.”
“I wrote our new song ‘Monday’ on Zoom during the pandemic with my producer Tim Pagnotta and talented writer Michelle Buzz,” Lydia Night explains. “At the time I was pretty much at the peak of my anxiety disorder, every morning I was waking up and absolutely dreading the idea of functioning and being ‘productive’ (whatever the hell that even means) for another day. Like most of us, I was still at home, where all my issues still existed. So, whatever I was dealing with didn’t slowly fade away while stuck in traffic on the way to go write somewhere. I didn’t have the space to think of ‘what do I want to write about,’ instead, I just rolled out of bed and all my horrible fucking thoughts were still with me, just waiting to be unboxed.”
“As LA locked down, I felt a huge part of my identity and ego being stripped away because of no touring, and no connecting with people at our shows. I’ve been touring since about the age of 12, so I had to come up with a new way to function in the world. It was really rough, and still is rough, but I found writing this song to be super therapeutic.”
“It’s special that this is the first song we’ve put out in a while because it’s an important moment in time for me to mark. Part of the healing process for me is really learning and trying my best to keep on dancing the pain away so I hope people can relate to that and dance with me, even if it’s not at a show and in the safety of their own kitchen.”
Accompanied by a fantastic new video directed by Dillon Dowdell, and featuring a cameo from Olivia Rodrigo, Lydia adds, “The video introduces ‘Joy’, a spooky pink character representing the false image of one’s ‘perfect and ideal self’, which began to taunt me and I think many people in middle school. She will be an ongoing character and theme in music to come. We had a blast making it with some of our besties.”
The song finishes with the line ‘Hey, I’m still alive’, which Night believes best sums up the message of the track. “I hope people don’t connect with some of the lyrics but if they do, I want it to be a reminder that they’re good enough,” she said. “We don’t have to constantly be achieving things to be worthy. Sometimes, just being alive is enough. Getting up and making a coffee, that’s enough.”
‘Monday’ follows The Regrettes’ singles from 2020, “I Love Us” and the aptly-titled “What Am I Gonna Do Today?” Their last LP, How Do You Love?, arrived in 2019.
Check out the video for ‘Monday’ below.
—Silviya Yohannan
