Beauty School Dropout on Their Upcoming Album, Songwriting Process, and Spinal Tap
Since their founding in 2020, Beauty School Dropout has been creating music that is nothing short of addicting. The band includes Colie Hutzler (vocals), Brent Burdett (bass), Bardo Novotny (guitar), and Colton Flurry (drums). Two years ago I caught their headlining show at The Mercury Lounge. The show ultimately left a substantial lasting impression on me, from the amount of people singing their lyrics back to the band, to the energy between the audience and the stage. From the beginning of their set, which began with “Beauty School Dropout” from Grease, every person in the room was eyes-peeled entertained.
Since then it seems they haven’t slowed down. BSD released their 2023 album, READY TO EAT, and have continued to exponentially grow their fanbase.
Ahead of their next release, Beauty School Dropout has been one of the featured bands on the Second annual Idobi Radio Summer School Tour, and the coveted Warped Tour.
On September 5th BSD will be releasing their latest album, WHERE DID ALL THE BUTTERFLIES GO?
If someone doesn't know who you guys are, what would you say to them as to who your pitch is for the band ethos and why they should listen to your music?
Colie: Oh, we're super fun, super exciting, super loud, super obnoxious.
Could give a brief insight into how this version of the band formed?
Brent: It all started a long time ago when Colie slid into my ex-girlfriend's DMs and she said, “I'm going to bring my boyfriend.” And then we fell in love, and then I joined a band called Strange Faces, in which Colton was the singer and Colie was a guitar player. I was another guitar player, and we broke up as most bands do. And then we found Bardo two years later when Colie wanted to start another band. We called ourselves Beauty School Dropout, and as of eight months ago, Colton is the lead singer.
You're back!
Brent: I mean, Colton is the drummer, right? Sorry, I've slept terribly. He's the drummer now. But as all bands do, everyone just trades members until you get your final lineup.
Well, maybe you guys can trade again and [Colton] will be the lead singer.
Brent: Well, like Spinal Tap, our drummers keep exploding. That's like the Bible. That's our Bible. We are the real life Spinal Tap. If you want to put that as the header, “Spinal Tap is Beauty School Dropout’s Bible.”
You have a new album coming out in the fall, WHERE DID ALL THE BUTTERFLIES GO?
You said in other interviews that it is loosely inspired by the New York music scene and other early 2000’s bands. Could you talk about the inspiration behind the album and how that first got started?
Bardo: We were at the top of 2024, we watched Meet Me in The Bathroom, the documentary about the New York music scene. I feel like it was in that moment that we just, the right inspiration hit just to see how they did it. But it wasn't until we watched that, we wrote “FEVER.” “FEVER” was the catalyst for the rest of the album.
Colie: Yeah, I think the movie itself was just like, I mean I'm sure you're probably pretty familiar with it being a New York native, but it was just seeing how raw and visceral and DIY the culture was around that scene. I think that is something that we really wanted to hone in on and try and create, not only sonically with this album, but also just culturally bringing people together that way. And I think we've always kind of stood out a little bit in the way of being like, we don't necessarily fit in with the heavy bands, but we also don't necessarily fit in with the pop bands and we're so ambiguous to this whole spectrum of rock that we're in, and I think we wanted to just carve out our own little home inside of that.
Well, speaking from when I saw you guys two years ago and I wasn't familiar with your music in that way, I remember the show itself. I remember being there, and the energy.
The first single you dropped was “ON YOUR LIPS.” So how did you choose which single to release first and is there kind of an intention to hook an audience with that first release?
Colie: I think it felt the most unique sonically, especially for what's coming out of the rock space specifically. I think the drums and more heavy guitar-led choruses coming back to these crazy production filled verses, I think we just thought it was unique in a different direction from what I think a lot of our peers are doing. And we just wanted to swim upstream for a little bit.
“SEX APPEAL” I thought was a little bit different from some of your previous releases. It was very melodic. I was interested in this song. Is it signifying maybe a bit of a sonic change for this album compared to some of your other releases? And if so, where did that songwriting process change?
Bardo: Honestly, this album has, we create a lot of, we call them sister songs. We wrote, I don't know what the number is, a hundred songs plus for this project, and when we were in the picking process, picking songs that felt like they belonged together. So yeah, you're exactly right. “SEX APPEAL” I think is the first little appetizer of what a part of that album is.
How were you able to really pick and choose what to put on an album?
Colie: We just AI everything and then we throw it into chat GPT and ask to narrow down to the top fourteen songs for us. We do this. We're so proactive in our work. We write and produce as our means of survival outside of the band too, so we're just constantly creating. And I think that by the end of the process, I don't know, it's kind of like a drawing. You hit a wall where you're like, “I don't know if this needs any more.” And we got there, and I think from there we kind of had a pretty solid understanding of which songs spoke to us. It was really, there were 10 or 11 that we were like, “okay, this is for sure, these are the ones we all agree on.” I think it was really the last three that we were having trouble picking just because we all had our groupings outside of that that we liked the most. But Neal [Avron] was actually a really instrumental part of narrowing that down just because I think especially after working with him in the studio and seeing how decisive he is, it was really easy for us to be like, “oh, he's never wrong.” Anytime we were like, “oh, what do we do here?” He's the guy who always comes in and is just like, “Nope, that one.” And then afterwards you're like, “oh, he was right about that.” So that was how we narrowed it down.
Brent: Interestingly enough, “FEVER” was the first song we wrote and “ON YOUR LIPS” was the last song we wrote.
And what were the last three that you had trouble paring down?
Colie: “DADDY DON’T CRY.”
Brent: I think the title track, “WHERE DID ALL THE BUTTERFLIES GO?”
Colie: That one sits a little bit more than that, it's kind of in the “SEX APPEAL” boat, right? It's a little slower, softer.
Brent: I actually think that one is something we've never ever touched on before.
Colie: It's a way more intimate side of our personality sonically, and so I think that we were almost afraid to be that vulnerable. But I think it's a good thing that we ended up choosing to be that vulnerable.
You worked with Neal Avron on this album. Comparing the recording, producing and engineering process from your other sophomore releases to this one, what has really changed?
Bardo: It's a way more patient process and it caused us to really nail our parts and really give a shit about guitar tones and bass tones and drum tones and more than I think we ever had. Not that we didn't care about it before, but we were just always used to working so quickly and this is the first time that because we were using all real amps and real pedals and everything was just so analog- and I don't want to say old school -but it was kind of the OG old school process. It forces you to take a step back and make sure you get it right because once you get it, that's it. That's the take.
Colie: I think anything that could have been done before with a preset for us now has a lot more personality to it because of whatever artifacts or mistakes or certain little nuances of our playing came out through that process.
Bardo: Yeah, I think that's the coolest thing. This album is, I would actually say, the most imperfect album or project we've ever done, but I think that's why it's the coolest thing because it sounds so real.
What does a typical songwriting process for you guys look like?
Colie: We do that game where you have to put your head to the bat and spin around 30 times, and then whoever pins the tail closest to the donkey's ass, they end up getting to pick up the guitar first.
Bardo: In all seriousness. It is kind of like that. It's really like us throwing spaghetti at the wall until something sticks. Maybe a lyric will start a little idea or riff or synth part or whatever. And then inspiration strikes and everyone gets really excited. Then we just add things for four hours.
Colie: Then we hate it for two hours.
Bardo: And then you listen the next morning, you go, “actually this is genius.”
You're on Summer School Tour and Warped Tour. What's that experience been like and what do you anticipate happening with the next couple shows?
Brent: I think it's cool. It feels like, not to use the word old school again, but it feels like old school, just getting a bunch of bands together to tour. It feels like a mini Warped Tour being on Summer School, which is dope. And then obviously Warped Tour is so iconic. Dope to be a part of it.
Collie: The energy is crazy.
Besides the tours that you have going on, my last question is what's coming next?
Colie: Tour after this, then we go to Europe to do a headline tour. Then we come back and tour with letlive. And we got a lot more shows to come touring all year next year. What we're saying is that we like to play shows. We'll be in a city near you soon. Come crowd surf and mosh with us.
Follow Beauty School Dropout on Spotify and Instagram. Find tour dates here.
All photos by Tori McGraw (@afterr.hourrs)
