BEST EX Teams up with Luxtides to address music industry misogyny on the new single 'Die For You' which is out now.

“I think the song can really be summed up by the lyrics in the bridge: ‘They don’t see the things you do behind the doors you opened that I walked through,’” says Mariel Loveland of NYC-based indie-pop band Best Ex on the new single.

Featuring NYC-based Luxtides (moniker of singer songwriter Danni Bouchard) Loveland adds that while she can’t speak for Bouchard, she feels that many of the (largely male) gatekeepers know newer artists would do anything to succeed and they use that. “It almost starts to feel normal because nobody really acknowledges it and you’re in this manufactured pressure cooker made to believe one wrong move will ruin your future.”

Commenting on her creative synergy with Luxtides on the track, Loveland says, “We’ve been writing together for years, and I’ve been absolutely dying to sing a song with her. We’ve both started in the music industry around the same time in a similar scene. I remember, she texted me on her very first tour (at that time, I was on like my second year of touring) just asking for advice about how to function as a woman in an industry where there are so few of us.”

Years later, they are both no longer touring in those bands that set the foundation for their music careers, and people are starting to be more aware about the sort of abuses of power that women in the industry have endured. “I used to always repeat this joke from [Amazon Prime series] 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,’ where she says something along the lines of, ‘I’m a female comedian, there’s nowhere I haven’t been groped.’ It wouldn’t be so funny if it wasn’t true,” Loveland says.

'Die For You' follows the album’s previous singles, the bright yet somber waltz of 'Tell Your Friends' and the bouncy tongue-in-cheek 'I Promise To Ruin Your Life', and, similar to the themes on the aforementioned tracks, the album as a whole speaks about the pressures society puts on women to smile through pain, injustice, love, loss, and uncertainty.

"There's this double standard where women are expected to always be pleasant and grateful, lest they come off like too much of a nag, too controlling, too emotional. The patriarchy tells us that a good woman is a woman who quietly carries the consequence of the actions of the men around her. Of course, there are other themes that are more universal—like feeling scared with the state of the world, falling in love, or dealing with mental health issues. I think this is an album anyone can relate to because, at the end of the day, it's about being human."

The follow-up to Best Ex’s 2020 sophomore EP Good At Feeling Bad, With A Smile marks a dramatic life change that forced her to re-examine her life. “I honestly feel like I entered the Covid lockdowns a girl and came out a woman—but maybe that’s the trauma of enduring an entire pandemic that really forced me to sit down and reflect on my life (a silver lining, for sure),” she explains. But life threw her some pivotal events that gave her balance and foundation.

"I feel like I’ve aged a decade in three short years, and I think that’s all reflected on the album," she realizes. "I met my husband, moved in with him almost instantly. We eloped. I became an aunt. I lost my grandma. I was diagnosed with OCD. When I listen, I literally hear myself coming of age.”

Debut album With A Smile is released 6th October 2023 via Iodine Recordings/Alcopop! Records

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BEST EX - Debut Album 'With A Smile'