They’ve got style in spades, but they’ve got plenty of attitude, too. Bad Omens are driven by fearless leaders Noah Sebastian and Jolly Karlsson. A well-publicized debacle that led to them dropping a tour was immortalized in “Limits,” a song with subtle jabs that flipped a negative situation and rode it up the radio charts. The song, which appeared on last year’s deluxe edition of Finding God Before God Finds Me, has done better on the airwaves than any of their previous songs, according to Sebastian.

Read more: 14 metalcore songs you probably forgot about

Unfortunately, they also had to drop the tour in support of that reissue, their first proper headliner, due to the pandemic. However, they were once again able to turn a negative into a positive, as they hit the studio to record six of its songs stripped down for FGBGFM Unplugged. In both cases, the silver lining was they could get home to make music, which is something the duo do professionally.

Together at their L.A. tandem home/studio, the Richmond and Sweden transplants translate inklings to full-on ideas, all the while improving their songwriting and production impulses for themselves and artists beyond. It’s the practice required to approach perfect—“making it” is a fool’s errand, as the hyper-self-critical band know all too well—and will allow Bad Omens to raise the bar even higher. Soon, the bands crawling desperately behind them won’t even be able to touch them, no matter how far they stretch.

You can read Bad Omens’ cover story from issue 391 as well as watch their newly released live performance of “Never Know” below.

Heavy bands can maybe do one or two acoustic songs generally, if that. You did six for FGBGFM Unplugged. How did that come about?

NOAH SEBASTIAN: We were able to perform the acoustic songs [for our Veeps performance] with headphones to a click, so we can still have strings, pianos and even reverb on our voices to make it sound really polished, even though it’s live. Our songs sound good stripped down and in a more soft, easily digestible format to people that aren’t so into heavy music, so we said, “Let’s just do an EP.”

JOLLY KARLSSON: There are songs like “Mercy,” which is a really heavy, drone-y metal song that just puts you in a trance. I love playing that song live with our strobes going, just standing there droning out. It’s very progressive metal, and we flipped that entire stake, and I started doing noise stuff on it. It’s got that real cool vibe. It has the same melodies, and you can tell it’s married to that song. I wouldn’t put these acoustic ones on there if we didn’t feel this is a great version of it. I just thought that these songs came out really cool: the 2.0 version. 

You have also used acoustic guitars in the choruses. Where’d you come up with that?

KARLSSON: Not every song, but I think we filled in some with that. It’s probably one of those bigger rocky songs, like “Burning Out,” that we might have a little layer underneath that fills it out. There’s a lot of guitars on that album. Everything was a lot on that album, and while we’re now writing our new stuff, it feels like we’ve just stripped so much, and we’re using one voice, one or maybe two guitars, but it sounds bigger. 

You said you’re stripping it down more. There was an interview that said it’s lo-fi but dark and ambient but somehow still dry and in your face. You basically said, in different words, that’s where the new stuff is going.

SEBASTIAN: Maybe this will give some hints to people that want to know what the new record’s going to sound like, but I wrote all the vocals for a couple of songs over a dark beat that I made. We took the hooks, the vocals and the lyrics that were inspired by that mood and then wrote more of a rock-oriented production/song around it.

KARLSSON: That’s when you really start to understand that concept [of] less is more because before you’re like, “What do you mean? No, more is more, idiot.” It just connects more, and less sounds big now because you can really make just a drum and a bass and a voice sound huge if you make it right. That’s what we’ve been trying to connect into. It’s turning out really cool.

SEBASTIAN: I say this every album, but right now, the stuff we’re writing is my favorite stuff we’ve ever done. It’s capturing every emotion I want to convey, and I think it’s going to be exciting. The whole long-term growth plan for bands is so much better than just blowing up overnight on SoundCloud or something because it’s always so short-term. It seems like it’s the goal, but I really don’t think it is. I think you need to dig deeper instead of wider.

You have a good knack for hooks and utilizing them to maximum effect. I love how you take the hook in “Said & Done” and turn it into a guitar lead/solo. It gets a different feel. It’s almost beachy, and that solo has that vibe to it. It’s the same hook as before, but you managed to give it a new identity.

SEBASTIAN: The 1975 do that a lot, and I think that might be where I got the idea from. There are a lot of layers, at least in their older songs, where there’s a synth hook or a little guitar hook in the background of the chorus, and then it comes back later as a vocal hook or vice versa. I think there’s a certain advantage to keeping simplicity and repetition in music because I don’t want people to have to think too hard to try to enjoy something. I enjoy technical rock, progressive-metal and metalcore stuff, but I just like music that I can put on and either sing along to or bang my head to or just fucking have pictures that remind me of something flowing through my head while I’m listening to it.

I don’t think it should be a job to listen to music—at least not the way I write music. I think bands like Bring Me are great at that. People compare us to them a lot, which used to bother me, but it doesn’t so much anymore. How I see it is I think that they’re just one of those bands in the same wave and boat as us that are not afraid to do anything they want. 

You’ve also grown lyrically. From the self-titled being a little more nihilistic and hopeless, this one’s a little more hopeful. I think that’s a cool contrast. I’m just wondering where that came from. Did you have an epiphany?

SEBASTIAN: Our first record was very anti-God, nihilistic and just edgy. I’m just over that now. Around the time we started working on Finding God, I went through some pretty crazy emotional/mental issues. It’s so hard to explain, but more or less, I started seeing the world differently and lost touch with reality for a second. I just was making people around me uncomfortable with how dramatically and sudden my personality and mindset changed. It was positive at first. Then it translated and manifested into panic, mania or psychosis. I’m not really sure what it was to this day. I’ve gone to doctors and did all kinds of stuff trying to figure it out, but I still don’t know. I sorted through it obviously and got better. 

With this album, I wanted to reflect on that experience and just show that you can make empowering, happy, positive music without it being cheesy or corny. We’re a dark band historically, especially on our first record. Finding God Before God Finds Me, for the most part, was just lyrically me trying to write words and convey my experiences and feelings in a way that people could sing along and just feel in control and powerful. A lot of the songs are written from the point of view of God or as Jesus Christ, which I thought was an interesting twist because so many bands are just all anti-religion, Satan rules. A lot of people thought we became a Christian band. I liked that because there was a small mystery behind our band. I want people to question everything.

Lyrically, “Dethrone” sounds like the most directly anti-religion song, too, but now that you mentioned it, “Let me take you back to when I was killed and born again” could be coming from Jesus. The internet says drug misuse, but it could go either way. That duality of meaning is a cool thing because people can take away what they need to. It could be about Jesus being like, “My dad sent me down here, and it sucks. I got killed.” 

SEBASTIAN: That’s such a good word you used: duality. I think that’s a great way to describe it. Maybe not “Dethrone,” but there are songs on there that I think Christians can listen to without guilt and can interpret in their own way. One of my favorite songs on the record, lyrically, is “Mercy.” The chorus says, “If God came down from his kingdom, he came down from his home/And we asked him if he’d take us back, he would surely tell us no,” which to me is a statement on just how too far gone humanity is for the concept of religion.

So what’s next for Bad Omens?

KARLSSON: Well, obviously, the world needs to get back on track, but then we’re just picking up where we left off. We have an album to do. We haven’t recorded. We haven’t gotten into the studio yet, but we work from our studio, so that can be at any time we feel like we have an album ready to now hop in and do. I guess next for Bad Omens will be to do that and hopefully get back to touring this year.

SEBASTIAN: Our long-term plan and ambition is to create our own path as a band and have our own following and name—to not just be in and out of this fishbowl of bands that tour together and ride off each other’s backs. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a great way to grow your audience and make friends. But I want a committed fanbase that just loves our band because they love our music and it makes them feel a certain way—not because we tour with another band they like and they bought some merch one day. I want it to be deeper than that.

Read more: 10 artists who bring together elements of alternative and hip-hop

When did you decide you wanted to become an artist? What makes Jaden, jxdn?

When I was 5 years old, I graduated from pre-K, and they asked the kids to write down the things they want to be when they grow up. I wrote down a preacher, rock star and artist. Nineteen years later, I’m standing where I am right now being a rock star and an artist. I guess I’ve foreshadowed it since I was a kid.

Genres are constantly being redefined. Where do you feel like you fit in with it all? What do you use to inspire your sound?

Travis [Barker] and I were just talking about this in the studio. We were trying to identify what wave of punk this is: “Is it the second or third?” You can take it all the way back four generations, but we say this is just another wave of punk. My music is punk music. Whether it may be pop punk, whether it may be a little bit alternative rock, however we go about it, [it’s] still punk music.

As an artist, what do you stand for?

I just want to stand for what’s right. To say what that is is really hard—to define that line of what’s right and wrong. It’s a battle that every human searches for their entire life. What I know is right, without a doubt in my mind, is loving people. I think there’s just so much room for error that people are quick to judge, quick to get angry really fast but not quick to forgive, which saddens me because I feel like in this time in this world, we really just need to understand that we’re all going through it. I need people to understand that music is so much more than just words on paper or words that you hear. It’s real life. I’m not making music hoping that I get [a] No. 1 hit. I’m making music so I can grind and be dedicated endlessly [and] to go on tour to show people around the world that they’re not alone.

You’ve shared a string of singles over the past year, with your most recent being a cover of Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license.” Can you share any details about what you have planned next?

I’ve been working on [my album] for the past five months. There’s a bunch of amazing debut tracks on there that are going to be world-shocking. Me and Travis really just wanted to take our time [for] each of the songs and listen to it and ask ourselves if the world was ready to hear it. And we’ve come to the answer that yes, they are ready to hear it. So, we’re pumped. It’s like a throwback [to] 2003 to 2008 pop punk. It’s literally a mix of All Time Low [and] Taking Back Sunday. We’re getting [back] to the roots. We’re bringing it back and making it more charming than ever.

jxdn’s interview appeared in our 100 Artists You Need To Know issue, available here.

We caught up with Vicuña about all of his upcoming projects and what it’s like to live your dream as a result of hard work and dedication. 

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How would you describe yourself as an artist?  

I’m an all-around artist. I don’t necessarily make one genre of music, but I guess most of my popular songs are on the indie-rock, post-punk side of things. But I also do SoundCloud rap stuff and produce hip-hop music for my friends. I’m not just a singer-songwriter. Sometimes I know when to step back and just make the music. I’m like a DIY artist. Most of my videos, if I’m not directing, I’m really involved. I also add my two cents into everything, even with merch and clothes I design. 

How did you start to make music and become an artist? What got you started? 

When I was younger, I would play in bands, and one of those bands I started playing [in] wanted to make songs that would get on the radio, whatever that meant. It was when I was in my 20s, when I started trying to compose just your normal pop song structure type songs, like chorus-verse-chorus-verse. I was 22, and I got picked up by [XL Recordings] in London. It was the same label as Adele and Radiohead, but they gave me my first break. 

I was only 22, and they flew me out to London. I was back and forth for a year or two. It was interesting because I was just a bedroom musician at the time. I was doing electronic music and just doing that from my room, and it was crazy when they flew me out because they started having me open in opera houses and huge 1,000-cap venues. I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time. 

After that experience, I stopped working with them, and I got signed with another label, which is the label I’m working with now called Lex Records. They’re known for putting out MF DOOM records. It was interesting that they picked me up because I always saw them as a hip-hop label, but I know they also fuck with indie bands. It just made sense, and I’m a big MF DOOM fan. I approach my music in a hip-hop producer way. The way I see my music is like making beats, and hopefully one day hip-hop artists will sample me. 

I bring hip-hop in because a lot of my favorite hip-hop producers sample a lot of psych rock and ’60s and ’70s records. I just try to make music like that, old ’70s, ’80s-sounding songs. 

I’m not original, per se. I just pay homage really, and I try to make a good song despite the style not being anything new. 

Read more: 40 new artists you need to hear in March

What’s your approach to the visual side of your work? How do those visual mediums translate to your music? 

Most of the time my approach is lo-fi, so I have a lot of VHS videos. There’s something about nostalgia that really draws my aesthetic. I’m really into old films even, and I feel like movies directed by Stanley Kubrick would resonate with the kinds of sounds I’m trying to make. Take The Shining, a really beautiful horror film, but it was shot in a really surreal, beautiful hotel up on the mountains. I try to make my music dreamy and surreal. 

Out of all the music you’ve released, is there a particular track that you think really encapsulates who you are as an artist and what you’re about? 

The one I’m most known for right now is the song “Jealous,” and I think that whole song and the video reflects who I am lately. I’m a skater, so you see in the video I skate, and I’m wearing a Death Row sweater. I grew up in the hood. Just like a mixture of skate culture and punk rock. I think that song lyrically represents me. It was only a couple of years ago, but I was a little immature. I still feel pretty youthful even though I’m 30 already. I just try to keep that spirit of being creative alive, and I’m never really trying to lose sight of that side of me. Music’s always been something I did for fun. It’s crazy that it’s become something I can make a living off of. I’m just grateful. Music for me is just a therapeutic thing [where] I get to vent and get things off my chest. 

Read more: Matt Heafy’s Trivium and MCR mashup was inspired by Michael Bublé

What are you working on in the future for fans to look forward to? 

I’m just working on my brand right now. I’m dropping a new collection. My brand’s called Paranoia. I dealt with a lot of mental health issues growing up, but I’ve somehow managed to turn it into a brand. I have a lot of side projects coming out. I have an album with my friend YUNGMORPHEUS, which will be coming out this year. It’s more like lo-fi hip-hop beats. My friend MORPHEUS does all the rapping. I’m just a producer. My band the Simps are dropping an album this year as well. It’s like an indie, synth-pop-type band. 

I got another Eyedress record on the way full of all types of different songs. I’m all over the place. Right now I’m working on a song called “Mulholland Drive” because I live down the street from Mulholland Drive, and I’m just trying to make a sick, dark ’80s song about Mulholland Drive. I make music with my girlfriend Elvia, but we just release it as Elvia. We recently released a new video. It’s a song about our son called “Cotton Candy Skies.” 

Can you talk a little bit about that song? What’s it like making music together? What’s it like making music in a family project? 

We just wanted to express how grateful we were that our son was born during this pandemic. It was scary for us at first. All these obstacles were in the way. I think this is just like a song of appreciation for him and our family. Usually [with] music these days, I don’t really hear a lot of songs that talk about that kind of stuff, so we just wanted to tap back into our values. 

That’s awesome. Is there anything else you think would be important to say about who you are as an artist? 

My song “No Love In The City” is a really angry punk song, but you can see where I’m coming from. I was born in a third-world country. I was born in the slums, and I didn’t really think anything that I’m doing now could happen to someone like me. It’s a privilege to do music, and I grew up in America and the Philippines, but when I moved back, it’s very classist out there. 

I’m from the streets, so I represent that you can come from nothing and still make something out of yourself. I feel like that’s something I’m really proud of as an artist and as a person. I really didn’t have much growing up, so it’s a blessing, and it just goes to show if you really keep at something and stay passionate about it, your dream could come true. 

It’s a cliche story, but that’s the only thing I got. That’s all I’m proud of. Most people that I’ve known in music are pretty privileged. I couldn’t even afford to go to college. I stuck to this because my best friend was like, “You should do music and treat it like a job,” and eventually taking it seriously really paid off. 

I hope kids growing up in a similar kind of context can relate to that because anything’s possible, and it just takes time for people to see that, but eventually, it pans out.

You can read the full interview in issue 391 featuring 100 Artists You Need To Know.

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What will be remembered as one of the most difficult years in recent history, 2020 saw the music industry and all of its artists unable to connect with their audiences through concerts. From canceled tours and festivals to postponed albums, the industry went digital, but it lost the personal connection we were all accustomed to.

After a year without concerts and the feeling of being stuffed into a small room with a bunch of sweaty strangers, going into 2021, we asked ourselves, “What do we all need right now?” The answer was undoubted—music. Rebranded as 100 Artists You Need To Know, issue 391 is dedicated to the best of the best in music. For each of the four cover artists, the Alternative Press staff pushed to represent all angles of what it means to be alternative.

Read more: 10 bands you won’t believe never played Warped Tour

With their third album, Beauty In Death, set for release in March, Chase Atlantic have been working to dominate the intersection between alternative, pop and R&B since their debut in 2017. Demonstrated on their 2019 release and promised on their upcoming album, the trio have found their corner of the alternative genre and have marked it with their names.

While many artists made the decision to postpone albums in 2020, Rina Sawayama boldly released her debut album, Sawayama. Twisting together dark pop, R&B and nü metal, Sawayama leads a genre market all her own and continues to push that through her imagery.

Read more: Chester Bennington’s widow Talinda files for divorce after getting remarried

The key to putting together the 100 Artists issue this year was to not chain ourselves to the constraints of alternative. Ranging from metalcore and alt-indie to pop punk and pop, the 100 Artists issue highlights every corner of alternative. Regardless of what your favorite genre is, the 100 Artists issue has something for every listener and music lover.

Here’s to a year filled with the best of the best that music has to offer.

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Highlighting acts such as All Time Low, Hey Monday, the Maine and more, the acclaimed 100 Bands issue was essentially released as the soundtrack of your summer. It was the perfect binge playlist ahead of Vans Warped Tour each year. But as playlisting grew and streaming services dominated everyone’s iPhone, the 100 Bands issue seemed less necessary in a music world that was run by social media and instantaneous playlists.

After the tougher-than-hell year we all collectively experienced in 2020, we sat down and considered that what we all need right now is music. What better way to provide that than to resurrect the 100 Bands issue, appropriately rebrand it as the 100 Artists issue and give the people what they want—music.

For all four of the 100 Artists covers, we selected artists who hit opposite ends of the alternative spectrum. In a special 100 Artists release, two covers will be made available Friday, Jan. 29, and two covers will be made available Monday, Feb. 1.

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Throughout 2020, alt-rock darling Maggie Lindemann spent the year releasing singles from her debut EP, PARANOIA. Landing on the Most Anticipated Albums of 2021, PARANOIA arrived Jan. 22 via her own label swixxz audio and Caroline Records. If you haven’t let yourself slip into Lindemann’s debut, prepare to get stuck there for days. PARANOIA is endlessly addictive and reminiscent of ’90s grunge and dark pop.

Carefully centered around their acoustic release FGBGFM Unplugged, Bad Omens highlighted the softer side of their metalcore musings. Glued together by six fan-favorite tracks, their stripped-back release offers a new perspective on the group’s intensity and vocalist Noah Sebastian’s meticulous precision.

Across the pages of the 100 Artists issue, you’ll find artists ranging from metal and alt-rock to indie and punk. There were no rules and no limitations when selecting the 100 Artists to lead the charge in 2021. But we have one guarantee: There is something for everyone in our 100 Artists issue and some surprises that you’ll certainly get hooked on.

Here’s to a year filled with the best of the best that music has to offer.