That conversation between the artist formerly known as T. Mills and Goldfinger’s drummer led to an even crazier idea. 

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“I was toying with the idea of how funny it would be if we wrote a song about Kendall Jenner or something and quickly realized that not a lot rhymes with Kendall,” Mills says. “I swapped it out and went into [producer John] Feldmann‘s front yard and just was jotting down things. I came back, and we had the verses of the song done.”

While the rhyming would’ve admittedly been tough with the supermodel’s name, the guys instead landed on the track title “Jessica.” The high-energy song comes from their latest self-titled album, released in October. And its video, directed by Effy Kawira, is premiering today exclusively on Alternative Press.

The pop-punk duo caught up with Alternative Press to discuss their new video, fan reactions to their new record and their recent livestream show from Los Angeles’ The Roxy Theatre.

Where and when did the idea for “Jessica” come to life? I’d imagine it was during those lockdown studio sessions you shared for the record.

TRAVIS MILLS: I think “Jessica” came toward the end of the record, to be honest. We were in the studio. We had a bulk of the record done, and we were listening through everything that we had recorded. And we’re like, “What is this missing?” And we wanted something a little more uptempo, a little faster. And we started jamming. And I was like, “Yo, I’ve never written a song with a girl’s name in it.” I thought back to the bands that I was super into when I was a teenager—like Forever The Sickest Kids had that song “Hey Brittany.” I was like, “Yo, that’d be sick for us to have a song like that.” 

The garage-band backdrop in this video is something we haven’t seen a lot of recently. Did you try to think back to some of the visuals you grew up on for this video as well?

MILLS: That’s where Nick and I started. We didn’t start together, but we were both doing the same thing, just in different places. And so it was cool to bring it back to where it all began for us, where it’s really just like a couple of friends with a shitty garage trying to do something. And it’s paying homage to where it all began for us. Some lonely kids stuck in the West Coast with nothing else to do, which is literally how we felt making the record. We really had nothing else to do but sit in a room and make music together. When we put that in the treatment, we just thought it worked. 

And whose idea was that heart prop in the video? How do you bounce around these visual elements?

MILLS: We got to work with this incredible director, Effy. And it was the first time that we’ve done a music video [solely] directed by a woman. We loved her work. We loved her reel, and we loved what she brought to the project. It was cool because with a song like “Jessica,” to have that female perspective on what a video would look and feel like. She just knocked it out of the park, and she was very specific and collaborative at the same time. 

NICK GROSS: The heart piece is the coolest part of the video to me. It ends the video on the exciting part. [It] gives it that rough, edgy, badass ending to this video. I think just having this thing end with a weird “aha” moment is going to make people really gravitate toward the video and hopefully watch it again. 

How do you feel the album has gone over since the October release? Is it what you’ve hoped?

MILLS: I don’t think we really had any expectations because it is the fucking weirdest time to drop an album. Usually we would have put this record out, and Nick and I would have packed our things up and been on the road for three, four months. It’s bittersweet because we worked so hard on this body of work, and the anticipation was so high for us. And then you put it out, and you’re just sitting back at home because everything is fucking closed. It’s like, “Well, what do we do next?” 

But at the same time, you’re seeing the tweets. You’re seeing the DMs, and you’re getting text messages about how these songs are resonating with people. And it’s really fucking cool. Especially for me, not having put out music in three or four years and the amount of people that reached out to me. Other artists, other producers and people that I’ve known from my solo project were like, “This is the best music that you’ve ever made.” That feels really fucking good. But at the same time, there is this hunger. There is this want and desire to go out on the road and see in person how these songs resonate with people and the energy that they can bring in a venue. 

What was it like to finally perform together, albeit virtually, last week at The Roxy? Nick, you mentioned that being the first venue you ever performed at.

GROSS: [During] that first performance when I was 13, I think we played for four people at 11:30 p.m. on a Tuesday. And it was the best thing ever, a highlight of my life type of thing. But it was definitely cool to, at this point in time that we’re at right now with COVID and just with the world being so crazy, have that be the venue to showcase what this new project is. I think this is definitely an ode to a great venue that deserves respect and a venue that Travis and I played a bunch before.

Did it help that hunger to perform?

MILLS: It was just so refreshing to be in a green room backstage and do a soundcheck and then perform and get sweaty. And to perform all these songs and get to see the reception of everyone watching this thing together. But at the same time, it’s like, “Fuck, I want to do it again.” Like, “What are we doing today?” It was definitely weird emotionally because, after a good show, you can’t wait for the next one.

Check out girlfriends’ latest video below.

You probably know him from his T. Mills days, with songs such as “She Got A…” and “Stupid Boy” soundtracking the early years of the 2010s. It sounded like hip-hop but was just a bit too complex to be pigeonholed into one genre. 

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It took a random social media encounter to finally draw him back in, a connection with friend and Goldfinger drummer Nick Gross. The two met up over the holidays, and whatever was in their eggnog seemed to spark creative magic. By March, Travis and Gross created girlfriends, paired with Goldfinger vocalist and legendary producer John Feldmann. 

It was the perfect fit. Against the backdrop of the coronavirus, the trio crafted their 14-track album, which is set to drop Oct. 9. Two songs, “California” and “Eyes Wide Shut,” are already out. 

For this album to work, it couldn’t just be like everything Mills did when his first name was an initial. He had to be, in his own words, “something totally different.” With the help of the extremely versatile Gross, girlfriends sound like it’s exactly that. But you may be surprised what the two worked through to get there.

How did the formation of the band work? Was it as simple as Travis reaching out to Nick, and Nick being like, “Yeah, let’s do this,” or is there more to it than that?

TRAVIS MILLS: It was actually all thanks to Instagram. I’ve known Nick since, I want to say like 2014, 2015. He filled in on drums. This Christmas charity concert I was doing back with my solo project. We just hit it off. And we stayed in contact ever since. And [in] December, I was driving, scrolling Instagram. I saw Nick post a story with him playing drums with [John Feldmann] actually with Goldfinger, and he said, “I miss touring so much.” I felt the same way, so it was right before Christmas break. And I just called him immediately. And I was like, “Yo dude, I saw your post. We should do something together.” I wanted to make music again, but I wanted to do something totally different. 

Johh, with Nick being the co-founder of Big Noise and drumming for Goldfinger, was it a no-brainer for you to be involved with the project?

JOHN FELDMANN: It was absolutely a no-brainer. We wrote “Farewell” and “California,” and I thought this was something so special. I thought this was such a perfect fit for what I do…And I thought, I’ve known Travis for what, five or six years now, and Nick and I have a label together, and he is the drummer in my band. So I was like, “This is such a perfect fit for what I do as far as production.”

MILLS: I think it’s crazy. Feldy and I worked together back on my solo shit in 2015, but nothing ever came out. And this dude produced all my favorite records growing up. So when Nick and I talked about who we go in with, Feldy was the only guy.

Travis and Nick, both of you have experience in a variety of genres. girlfriends’ first two singles were pretty pure pop punk. What made you want to explore that subgenre, and is this the direction we can expect upcoming releases to go?

MILLS: I’ll speak for myself: That’s the scene I grew up in. That was the genre and the whole thing why I started making music in the first place. blink-182, Green Day and Good Charlotte, those were the bands that made me pick up the guitar and start playing with my friends in the garage. My musical evolution took me to certain places. But I always embraced [it]. Even when I was doing my solo project that was hip-hop, there were nostalgic influences in there. 

NICK GROSS: I’m the same. I grew up on blink and just idolizing Travis [Barker] and these guys that were just epic drummers in that space. And it was just great timing for us to get matched up with a guy like Feldy who is such a legend and is making incredible current records still today with those bands, just like he was doing in the ’90s. I had never had the opportunity to be in this style of music before…It all just clicked together. 

Travis, did pop punk feel like a 180 considering you’ve done so much in hip-hop? This is your first new music in four years. Why was girlfriends the best way to return instead of a solo release? 

MILLS: Dude, I hadn’t released music in four years. And I was on tour for nine months for seven or eight years of my life. And it got to the point where I was getting sick of playing those songs. I became uninspired. I knew if I came back to releasing music, I wanted it to be completely different. And I just wanted to write songs that I wanted to write. When Nick and I got together, it was super exciting. We were like little kids, and we can do this. And I have to say girlfriends is one of the top five band names of all time.

Did that name just pop into someone’s head?

MILLS: So I was driving to the studio to meet up with Nick, and this [was] when we had no songs yet…and I wrote down five names on my phone app…and the first one at the top was girlfriends, and Nick was like “That’s it. We don’t need to hear any other names.” So we had a name for the band before we had any music. Which I sometimes think is the most important part.

GROSS: It helped us figure out what lane I think we wanted to keep the music in. girlfriends helped us establish a name and a brand for what we wanted to do, which was also a thing in the beginning, at least for me. I think Travis had a whole idea for [how] he wanted this to sound. And when we were trying to figure out what direction we wanted to take this, for me, it wasn’t as clear. And I think Feldy helped us tie it in to this really awesome sound.

From what it seems, you started creating the album right when coronavirus broke out. So the process had to be very different from anything you’ve done in the past. 

GROSS: Yes, but coronavirus wasn’t the reason we created the album. Travis and I had been talking about doing this for a long time. And it thankfully allowed us to open up some time and be more creative. It just allowed us to get focused and spend time on creating what we wanted it to be. We just looked at it as a positive opportunity to create an amazing album.

MILLS: We had sessions before everything obviously became super serious. We would do two days a week, and then we would have a week off. So when the whole lockdown thing happened, everyone had to stay home. Well, we said instead of staying home, let’s stay at Feldy’s house and live in the studio. We were very fortunate that we just locked down in one place and focused on the music.

Travis, you’ve said the songwriting process came very “organically” and is “genuine.” And that is super clear in both singles. What are some of the big themes you’re hitting on with girlfriends, and how cathartic was it to put pen to paper? As a group, what influences sonically and lyrically have you pulled from?

MILLS: Dude, the whole big recording process was like one therapy session. Like, I went through the most traumatic time of my life in January. It was the only place I wanted to be because when you sit down with John, he’ll start the session by asking how you are feeling today. And there were some days I walked in there [and] I’d be crying, and there would be some days I’d walk in there and I’d be OK. So it was taking advantage of everything I was feeling and everything I was processing and letting it come out in the songs. When you listen to the record, it’s the most vulnerable I’ve ever been, the most transparent I’ve ever been.

What do you hope fans take away from the upcoming album?

MILLS: I want them to know this isn’t a side project for me and Nick. And when you listen to the album, it is talking about my demons that I’ve had. Being in this industry for 10 years and experiencing the high highs and the low lows and how to make the best of it. I think a lot of people can get into the position where they get successful and lose who they are. And that definitely happened to me, and this record is all about finding it again.

Pull back the curtain and give us a sample of what the song creation process was like. 

GROSS: We created the whole album. girlfriends don’t have a guitar player, a bass player and a key player. It was just me and Travis. Feldy was kind of the third member of the band. To get in there and play the guitar on parts, play the keys on parts….but to have Travis being so quick and efficient on the songwriting, it’s really cool. Just these three amigos creating a band. 

MILLS: It’s cool to have this honesty and trust with people like Nick and John. There would be days that I’d write something, and Nick would be like, “That’s not good enough.” You know, you could beat it, or I show Feldy a lyric, and he’s like, “That’s it.” I’ll be like, “I don’t think that’s good enough,” and he’ll be like, “I think you are overthinking it.” 

I remember when we started making the record. I was scared to write and sing in front of Feldmann just because of how much I love the songs he writes. So once you get over that and it’s just me and him on an acoustic guitar and we can get a song done in 30 minutes, it’s almost effortless. 

Then Nick comes in, and he has such a vision for how he wants things to sound. It’s cool being in a room with those two because there are no bad ideas. And like John says, “The best thing for the song always wins.” It’s cool to bounce ideas off people you can trust, and they will give you honest feedback.

The first single is “California,” and the music video is super entertaining. Travis has an acting background, but I thought John and Nick both did a really good job. How much fun was that to shoot?

GROSS: It only took a thousand takes. On my one-thousandth take, we figured it out. 

MILLS: John is a fucking natural, dude. I actually swapped places with the director for John. [The director] came up to me, and he said, “I think you should direct, John” ’cause he’s like a fan of Feldmann, and he was nervous around him…so I got up to [Feldmann] and was like, “Now you are excited! Now you are throwing the paper!” John was the best of the video. 

GROSS: He is!

MILLS: My dad even called me, and my dad is like 73, and he doesn’t know punk rock, and he was like, “Oh, my God, Travis, the casting director when he throws the paper…I laughed so hard.”

FELDMANN: Yeah, I’ve had lots of experience smackin dudes’ butts. I always beat the shit out of bands I work with, so it was pretty easy to beat the shit out of these guys in the video. It was fun. It was really fun.

John, you’ve been such a backbone for this scene as a musician and just the ultimate pop-punk record producer. How do you feel when you see new bands continue to produce this kind of music and younger generations fall in love with a genre that you really helped build decades ago?

FELDMANN: I mean, look, let’s keep it coming! I’m not going to complain at all. You know, I was trying to throw a little ska into girlfriends in the first week, do a little “Let’s pick it up,” and they shut that down really quick. 

MILLS: I threw the saxophone at him, and he just picked it up and chucked it. 

FELDMANN: The jazz flute didn’t work out well…but in all seriousness, I think there is always going to be a place for great songs with simple chords. That’s what I’ve done since I was a kid. I was never really a musician in the dictionary sense of the word. I can sort of read music. But I’m not the greatest player. I’ve always tried to focus on songwriting. But this girlfriends record…we couldn’t keep it [at 28 minutes]. We have 14 songs now because we are so stoked on [them]. I think at the end of the day, I say, “Song is king.” I think we just have these amazing songs, and I wouldn’t even classify girlfriends as pop punk. I think it’s like pop-rock, and there is definitely like a wide spectrum…but these songs are timeless. 

No one can really promote new music with big tours because of coronavirus. How are you adapting to the way the music industry has shifted?

MILLS: Since we have no way of knowing when this is going to end and [when] the world is going to open back up, might as well make as much music as we can. Maybe we will have two albums out by the time we can go back on the road again. That’s the goal, for sure.