Badflower is an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band founded in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The band is composed of singer/guitarist Josh Katz, lead guitarist Joey Morrow, bass guitarist Alex Espiritu and drummer Anthony Sonetti. The band is signed to Big Machine / John Varvatos Records and was named Artist of the Week by

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

after the release of their EP ''Temper'' in 2016. Their debut studio album, '' OK, I'm Sick'', was released on February 22, 2019. Their second album '' This Is How the World Ends'' was released on September 24, 2021.

History

Formation and indie label releases (2008–2014)

Badflower's earliest incarnation, the Cartunes, formed in 2008, when music school students, Northridge CA born Josh Katz, and Gilroy CA transplant, Joey Morrow, met at their Hollywood CA apartment building. The pair moved in together, and began writing songs for their 5 piece band. They released a self produced EP in 2011 but after losing their bass player and rhythm guitarist, reformed as rock band Badflower, recruiting Espiritu and Sonetti to round out their ranks. They played several shows in

including a weekly residency at The Key Club and gained attention from

satellite radio Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a ''broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than ter ...

personality and former

NSYNC NSYNC (, ; also stylized as *NSYNC or 'N Sync) was an American boy band formed by Chris Kirkpatrick in Orlando, Florida, in 1995 and launched in Germany by BMG Ariola Munich. Their self-titled debut album was successfully released to European ...

member

Lance Bass James Lance Bass (; born May 4, 1979) is an American singer, dancer, actor, film, and television producer. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band NSYNC. NSYNC's success led Bass to work in film ...

. After a performance at The Troubadour, opening for Kongos, the band signed with former

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

Hundred Handed and began recording their first music release.

Major label signing and ''Temper'' EP (2015–2016)

Badflower released their debut single "Soap" via Hundred Handed records on March 4, 2015, and debuted its

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August of 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive ...

the same day. Shortly after the release the band flew to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

to support

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

pop duo The

Veronicas The Veronicas is an Australian pop duo from Brisbane. The group was formed in 2004 by identical twin sisters Lisa and Jessica Origliasso. In 2005, the Veronicas released their debut studio album, titled '' The Secret Life of...'', which peak ...

and played to sold out venues including

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

's Heaven. Then, upon returning home to the US, the band headed straight back on tour to play several showcases in

Austin, TX Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

for

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

and South by So What?! in

Grand Prairie, Texas Grand Prairie is a city in Dallas, Tarrant, and Ellis counties of Texas, in the United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It had a population of 175,396 according to the 2010 census, making it t ...

supporting

Circa Survive Circa Survive is an American rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that formed in 2004. The band, led and founded by Anthony Green, consisted of former members from This Day Forward and Taken. Circa Survive quickly made a name for the ...

. A demo version of the band's song "Animal" was also used in record label executive

John Varvatos John Varvatos (born 1954) is an American menswear designer. Early life The Varvatos family is originally from the village of Poulata on the island of Kefalonia, Greece. Varvatos was born in Detroit and grew up in Allen Park, Michigan. He ...

's show during

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning 7–9 days when international fashion collections are shown to buyers, the press, and the general publ ...

. The band was then flown out to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to showcase for Varvatos and head executives at

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

with the prospect of making a deal. After the performance, the label immediately began negotiations which included a buy-out from their previous deal with Hundred Handed. Impatient with the negotiations, the band took it upon themselves to begin recording an album in their garage. On March 10 the band signed with

. When the conversation about making an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

began, the band confessed they had already begun making it in their garage and submitted a nearly complete version of "Temper" to the label. To the band's surprise, the label loved the self-produced collection and began preparing to release the unanimous favorite, "Animal," as the first

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

. "Animal" was premiered on

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists – and fans of guitar-based music and trends – that has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original art ...

website and released on September 1, 2016. Following the release of the single, the band performed across the US in support of

Billy Talent Billy Talent is a Canadian Rock music, rock band from Mississauga, Ontario. They formed in 1993 with lead vocalist Benjamin Kowalewicz, guitarist Ian D'Sa, bassist Jonathan Gallant, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk. There have been no lineup change ...

on the " Afraid of Heights" tour in September, 16. While on tour, the band gained attention from

active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...

radio stations Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-b ...

and top programmers for

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

and

. The band's debut EP, ''Temper'' dropped on November 4, 2016 and Badflower was named Apple Music's Artist of the week. "Good, Old-Fashioned Rock n' Roll May Have Just Made a Modern Comeback," declares Nylon Magazine Active and Alternative rock radio began spinning "Animal" regularly and was added by stations such as SiriusXM Octane and was voted #1 on KROQ locals only for multiple weeks in a row. iTunes named "Animal" among the best

rock songs Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (formerly known as Rock Songs and Hot Rock Songs) is a record chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine. From its debut on June 20, 2009, through October 13, 2012, the chart ranked the airplay of songs across alternati ...

and ''Temper'' among best

rock albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...

of 2016. A few songs from ''Temper'' were also featured on Spotify's most

streamed Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

music playlists including New Music Friday Following the buzz, Badflower was asked to headline KCRW's School night in

West Hollywood, CA West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most ...

on December 19, 2016. The band recruited friend and ''

Big Bang Theory The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

Johnny Galecki John Mark Galecki (born April 30, 1975) is an American actor. He played Leonard Hofstadter in the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'' (2007–2019) for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, and David Healy in the ABC sitcoms '' Ro ...

to join them on stage to close the show. On December 31 "Animal" entered into the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart and peaked at number 28. In addition, by March 2017 their single "Animal" from Temper had cracked at 1 million

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

streams and as of 2018 has garnered them over 2,000,000 streams. Soon after the release of ''Temper'' EP on December 12, 2016, Badflower began touring to promote the release.

Touring and debut studio album (2017–2020)

Badflower as well as American rock band

Red Sun Rising Red Sun Rising is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio that is currently on hiatus. The band has released two studio albums through the Razor & Tie record label; their first, '' Polyester Zeal'', in 2015, and their second, '' Thread'', on March ...

would be opening acts for

Pop Evil Pop Evil is an American rock band that was formed in North Muskegon, Michigan, in 2001 by Leigh Kakaty. The band's roots reside in TenFive, a group formed in the late-1990s by Kakaty and guitarist Jason Reed. Pop Evil won the Radio Contraba ...

on their "Rock 'N' Roll Now" Tour from January to February 2017. After the tour, they would be the supporting bands with

Bleeker Bleeker is a Dutch occupational surname. Bleeker is an old spelling of ''(linnen)bleker'' ("linen bleacher").Beware of Darkness, as well as two additional shows with

, playing at various music festivals like

Buzzfest Buzzfest is the name of two unrelated music festivals held in Houston, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The Buzzfest in Houston is a bi-annual show hosted by the radio station 94.5 The Buzz while the Buzzfest in Nashville is an a ...

, Rock on Range and River City Rock Fest. They would also put on a summer tour with the rock group Goodbye June from

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

, and In addition, it was announced they were to do several more headlines at major festivals like Louder Than Life Festival in Kentucky They have opened for Of Mice & Men, Greta Van Fleet, IDK, From Ashes to New, The Struts, Pop Evil, Bleeker, Beware of Darkness, The Wrecks, and Red Sun Rising During the tour, a previously unreleased track, "Move Me", was released on the band's

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page. Katz explained he wrote the song while heartbroken at his Thousand Oaks, CA home in 2015. However, four days after the release of "Move Me", their tour van was broken into outside a venue in

. Their backpacks, wallets, laptops, cameras, gear etc. were stolen and they were forced to cancel two shows in Santa Cruz and

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

, California. The tour reconvened soon after, and their track "White Noise", from their ''Temper'' EP, reached 1 million plays on Spotify. On September 9, 2017 it was revealed on Facebook they were to start recording for their first full length album with their record label

Big Machine Label Group Big Machine Records is an American independent record label, distributed by Universal Music Group. Specializing in country and pop artists, Big Machine is based on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. The label was founded in September 2005 by ...

, being the first rock group to sign a deal with the label. Badflower began preproduction for the new album in Fall 2017 and began recording at Ocean Studios in Burbank, CA alongside producer Noah Shain. More than a year later, on December 6, 2018, the band re-released their official music video for the song "Heroin", featuring the current version of the song, which had been added to the album. At the end of 2017, Badflower had over 1,000,000 fans from 61 countries playing over 312,000 hours of their music from their

alone. On November 1, Badflower announced their debut album '' OK, I'm Sick'', would be released on February 22, 2019. Josh Katz said the following about the single 'Ghost': "I was depressed and thinking about self-harm. So I just wrote it. I played out the whole scenario and put it into a song because that's what writers do, I suppose. I didn't even know if it was gonna go on the album. I was sorta hesitant to even show it to the rest of my band, But everyone heard it and loved it". The group released a single called "30" on July 17, 2020, coinciding with Katz's 30th birthday. It features lyrics centered around reaching the milestone age of 30 years old and being uncomfortable with it.

''This Is How the World Ends'' (2021–present)

On July 6, 2021, the band announced their second album, titled ''This Is How the World Ends''. The singles "Family", "Don't Hate Me", "Fukboi", and "Johnny Wants To Fight" were released in that order leading up to the album's release on September 24. It was elected by ''

History

Formation and indie label releases (2008–2014)

Major label signing and ''Temper'' EP (2015–2016)

Touring and debut studio album (2017–2020)

''This Is How the World Ends'' (2021–present)

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

Music videos

References

External links