AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The emo band Sweet Pill has a new album out. It's called "Still There's A Glow."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SHAMELESS")
SWEET PILL: (Singing) Convincing you to go. Convinces me to hold on.
CHANG: But to make it, the lead singer had to overcome some pretty major hurdles. NPR's Brianna Scott caught up with her to learn how she did it.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Do you have your ID?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yes.
BRIANNA SCOTT, BYLINE: On a Friday night in Philadelphia, there's a long line of people of all ages waiting to get into the Ukie Club. Daniel DiBartolo (ph) is an event promoter who helped to put on the show here.
DANIEL DIBARTOLO: We're creating a community and a home for the scene. Just, you know, a bunch of weirdos that don't really fit in anywhere else, which I am definitely of that myself.
SCOTT: The crowd is here for a listening party. The local punk rock band Sweet Pill is sharing their new album "Still There's A Glow."
SWEET PILL: (Singing) Push back your hair so that you can see. My eager eyes staring back at me. Say the word...
SCOTT: The next day, lead singer Zayna Youssef tells me, it was a struggle to create this new album. Back in 2024, she says she was having trouble writing lyrics to the music her bandmates were coming up with.
ZAYNA YOUSSEF: I asked to scrap what we had, and just, can we just keep writing more? And it was a hard conversation because how do you tell a group of people that, like, love what they made, hey, this might not be it.
SCOTT: In retrospect, she says that had a lot to do with her mental health, which, after a lot of touring behind the first record, had hit rock bottom.
YOUSSEF: I had undiagnosed depression, undiagnosed ADHD.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO CONTROL")
SWEET PILL: (Singing) Holding onto something gold. But I always want more.
SCOTT: That had an effect on how she was living her life.
YOUSSEF: I don't have any control of myself. I'm making these decisions that give me that short-term satisfaction but make really long-term - like, it's detrimental long term to me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO CONTROL")
SWEET PILL: (Singing) I'm malleable, no control.
SCOTT: So Youssef and the band started over. Twice a week, all five members would gather to jam and develop ideas. And Youssef started therapy, something she'd never done before. That previous song, "No Control," was written before that. This one was written after she began therapy. It's called "Tough Love."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOUGH LOVE")
SWEET PILL: (Singing) What I had's not enough So what? Suck it up. I am scared but not a coward.
YOUSSEF: In the beginning of the song, I say, what I have is not enough. And at the end of the song, I say, what I have is enough. I feel like I wouldn't be able to say that, like, a year ago. Like, to be able to say what I have is enough - I wouldn't be able to say that without, like, taking a step back, you know?
SCOTT: Sweet Pill is sometimes described as a punk rock band. Though they also deploy a complicated technique that has earned them the descriptor math rock, and Zayna Youssef's confessional lyrics also connect the band to the long tradition of emo music.
YOUSSEF: I mean, emo means emotional. That's literally it.
IAN COHEN: There's something very appealing, I think, about, like, discovering what emo is and then being able to go through the history and, like, do your homework.
SCOTT: Music writer Ian Cohen has largely reviewed emo music for the last 10 years. He's currently working on a book about Midwest emo. He can list a lot of bands that have embodied this traditional of emotional fourthightness, starting well before mental health was so prominently discussed in public.
COHEN: It is undeniable that emo, as it exists now, is inextricable from the greater mainstreaming of therapeutic terminology and concepts in pop culture. I think that is absolutely something that has shaped why people are into it.
SCOTT: Zayna Youssef tells me that she and her Sweet Pill bandmates are influenced by different subtypes of emo. Third-wave pop emo, pop punk, DIY math core, even something called swan core.
YOUSSEF: So therefore, we create a blend. So it's just like emo mutt, I think.
SCOTT: Emo mutt is her term for that synthesis.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LETTING GO")
SWEET PILL: (Singing) Changing but I still see that kid.
SCOTT: And, of course, fans latch on to her lyrics. The last song on this album is called "Letting Go."
YOUSSEF: And it is by far everyone's favorite song on the album. I think it's because it's the honesty, and I think people are craving honesty nowadays.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LETTING GO")
SWEET PILL: I shook out my sheets. No mess, came clean.
SCOTT: Youssef sings about coming clean, leaving behind parts of yourself that have outlived their purpose and being open to change, about making progress.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LETTING GO")
SWEET PILL: (Singing) I had to let go.
SCOTT: She says that's crucial.
YOUSSEF: I think the tone of the album is hopefulness because there's a hell of a lot of emo music that's self-deprecating, and I don't want to make another album. I think we're in a world where people need to see confidence and need to see this world that - like, there's still a glow. There's still hope. You know, as dark or as low as you may get, if there's, like, an ember in the fire, if there's a glow, like, you can still make that fire happen again.
SCOTT: Sweet Pill's new album. "Still There's A Glow" is out now. Brianna Scott, NPR News, Philadelphia. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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