Beach Bunny Hopped From Graduation To TikTok Fame — Now It's A Honeymoon

Lili Trifilio felt nervous. Each year ago, the DePaul University senior was bracing for graduation in a number of months, gripped by the looming post-collegiate necessitates that materialize once the final semester kicks off — work, cash, that wide-open void of the future. What gave the journalism major a slight edge, though, was her preferred extracurricular activity, fronting the bubbly indie rock outfit Beach Bunny.


They had no record deal or hit song although) — just a strong string of EPs and snug homemade recordings Trifilio created by herself. They’d just began working with managers, also. Despite the promising begin, that postgrad anxiety nagged, exacerbated by questions from friend and relative. Trifilio's fears were specific.


"I was debating how I was going to prepare music a career or if I required to get a nine-to-five, or what the heck was going on," she told MTV News. Nevertheless it's been a good year for both her and Beach Bunny. "I'm a lot far less stressed about my livelihood now."


She should be. Beach Bunny, which she started alone in 2015 and expanded into a full musical group two years later, has since played Lollapalooza, had a hit blow up thanks to TikTok, and used that viral leverage to land on a label roster alongside Sleater-Kinney and Courtney Barnett. In April, they'll hit Coachella and could even cross paths with Trifilio's fave Charli XCX. ("I CANT BELIEVE WERE PLAYING THE SAME DAY AS @charli_xcx omfg igxgixgixgixgixgizgixgixgix," she tweeted immediately following the announcement.)


However Coachella is the future, and graduation is the past. Now, Trifilio is living in the present — and for Beach Bunny, the present is a Honeymoon phase. The group's debut album, a delightful variety of sunny indie-pop in the vein of Alvvays and Charly Bliss, dropped on Valentine's Day, complete with romantically entangled song titles like "Cuffing Season" and "Dream Boy." It's the sort of heartbreak pop that can take you deep into a well of feelings, and "Ms. California" finds Trifilio singing her lovelorn blues: "Every time you cross my mind, the words come out in figure eights." Nevertheless ultimately, it ends triumphantly on "Cloud 9."


"I just wanted to prepare ensure that I wasn't just repeating the same song over and over again, although it's similar themes however different angles," she mentioned. "Like, oh, I'm sad, however this time, I'm jealous, or this time, I'm rageful."


Trifilio and her musical group recorded Honeymoon in May 2019, right around the time of her graduation. It was already a lot to juggle; then came the TikToks. Beach Bunny's 2018 tune "Prom Queen" was concurrently blowing up among users, thanks to its lead-off lyrics about body image. Trifilio's deadpan beginning, "Shut up, count your calories / I never looked good in mom jeans," gave an anthem to the short videos, which started as likewise fretting examinations of self (young folks consuming food salads and stepping on scales) and have since grown to include more innocuous activities, like painting a playroom and doodling at school.


"Prom Queen" has jangled its way through nearly 430,000 different TikToks. Add that to the currently 41 million streams it's enjoyed on Spotify and also you have quite the ammo for a musical group prepared to level up. It's leverage Trifilio used once it came time to sign with a label, and she went with Mom + Pop Music. "The possibility to work with the label seemed more appealing because we had a very solid fanbase," she mentioned of the energized audiences who hit the Beach Bunny gigs willing to mosh politely and even go all in on a wall of death. "We could negotiate terms more and make them super artist-friendly, where in the past, the deals weren't that wonderful in our favor."


Beach Bunny first assembled as a four-piece for a noteworthy gig: a local battle of the bands that noticed Trifilio competing against an ex-boyfriend. "I think at the time, I was like, wow, we sound so good! Nevertheless then looking back, I'm like, oh my god, none of us are in time," she mentioned. "Our guitarist's out of tune. It was very exhilarating though." Matt Henkels, who plays guitar, recalls it the same way: "We did not have a bassist and we were so new, so it probably sounded awful, yet I remember feeling like we were killing it." Drummer Jon Alvarado actually played in both Beach Bunny and Trifilio's ex's sort ("I was like, 'You traitor!'" She joked); despite their then-rudimentary stage presence, he was willing to go big: "I felt incredibly happy and very fulfilled and couldn't wait for the next show."


When you visualize the entire musical group — those three, plus Anthony Vaccaro on bass — onstage right now, it's hard to picture any undergraduate jitters. They're tight, like any time once they rip through a "Party in the U.S.A." Cover and as soon as Trifilio uses the power of advice to lower the crowd to the floor for a slower, strummy number without any drums. Any time we've toured with more punk bands, everyone's just down [to mosh]. Nevertheless some days at a headlining show, I think people, their first time seeing us, are like, 'I am not really sure what to do,'" she mentioned. "I feel I judge how good the show is based on the movement."


That can also include more covers, potentially even "Bennie and the Jets" (which should ceremonially be retitled "Bunny and the Jets" if there's any justice). Maybe Trifilio will string with each other her three songs called "February," "April," and "July" for some sort of month-centric suite, or maybe she'll leave those (and the nine more to be written) for a future "collector's edition" EP. In the meantime, there's Honeymoon, spanning quiet ballads, massive choruses, and the correct pop-punk bangers to bounce to.


A month ago, Trifilio was riding out another Chicago winter, attempting to beat cabin fever as she counted down the days until the album's release by writing more songs (and some days jogging and meditating). Although it just arrived — and possibly in keeping with the involves of an ever-accelerating industry — she's already looking past the Honeymoon period. She's shared snippets of new songs, including lyrics, on Instagram and Twitter. "I still love Honeymoon, yet the songs are almost old to me right now, although they're new to each person else." Vaccaro, who joined the categorize per year ago (well right after that fabled first show), mentioned he feels like he's finally locking into what Beach Bunny means and will mean going forward. As soon as we are learning new stuff, I feel that we right now get what sound we want. I feel I just finally get what works and what doesn't."


Trifolio recently returned to DePaul to speak about her songwriting. She's not thinking about the people who asked her about the financial stability and long-term viability of her musical plans each year ago. "I guess I just have more street cred right now she mentioned, "and I feel confident expressing it."