Badflower is an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band founded in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The band is composed of singer/guitarist Josh Katz, lead guitarist Joey Morrow, bass guitarist Alex Espiritu and drummer Anthony Sonetti. The band is signed to Big Machine / John Varvatos Records and was named Artist of the Week by

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

after the release of their EP ''Temper'' in 2016. Their debut studio album, '' OK, I'm Sick'', was released on February 22, 2019. Their second album, '' This Is How the World Ends'', was released on September 24, 2021.

History

Formation and indie label releases (2010s–2014)

Badflower's earliest incarnation, the Cartunes, formed in 2015, when music school students, Northridge CA born Josh Katz, and Gilroy CA transplant, Joey Morrow, met at their Hollywood CA apartment building. The pair moved in together, and began writing songs for their 5 piece band. They released a self produced EP in 2011 but after losing their bass player and rhythm guitarist, reformed as rock band Badflower, recruiting Espiritu and Sonetti to round out their ranks. They played several shows in

including a weekly residency at The Key Club and gained attention from

satellite radio Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a '' broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than te ...

personality and former

NSYNC NSYNC ( ; also stylized as *NSYNC or N Sync) was an American vocal group and pop boy band formed by Chris Kirkpatrick in Orlando, Florida, in 1995 and launched in Germany by BMG Ariola Munich. The group consists of Kirkpatrick, JC Chasez, ...

member

Lance Bass James Lance Bass (; born May 4, 1979) is an American singer, actor, and producer. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the Bass (voice type), bass singer for the boy band NSYNC. The band has sold over 70 million records, becoming one of ...

. After a performance at The Troubadour, opening for Kongos, the band signed with former

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

Hundred Handed and began recording their first music release.

Major label signing and ''Temper'' EP (2015–2016)

Badflower released their debut single "Soap" via Hundred Handed records on March 4, 2015, and debuted its

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive i ...

the same day. Shortly after the release the band flew to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

to support

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pop duo The Veronicas and played to sold out venues including

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

's Heaven. Then, upon returning home to the US, the band headed straight back on tour to play several showcases in

Austin, TX Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

for

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

and South by So What?! in

Grand Prairie, Texas Grand Prairie is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Dallas County, Texas, Dallas, Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant, and Ellis County, Texas, Ellis counties with a small part extending into Johnson County, Texas , Johnson county. It ...

supporting

Circa Survive Circa Survive was an American rock music, rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that formed in 2004. Founded by singer Anthony Green (musician), Anthony Green and guitarist Colin Frangicetto, the band consisted of former members from This ...

. A demo version of the band's song "Animal" was also used in record label executive

John Varvatos John Varvatos (born 1954) is an American menswear designer. He has worked for both Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, and started his own label in 1999. Early life The Varvatos family is originally from the village of Poulata on the island o ...

's show during

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning seven to nine days when international Fashion design, fashion collections are shown to buyers, the pres ...

. The band was then flown out to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to showcase for Varvatos and head executives at

Republic Records Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, it was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially ...

with the prospect of making a deal. After the performance, the label immediately began negotiations which included a buy-out from their previous deal with Hundred Handed. Impatient with the negotiations, the band took it upon themselves to begin recording an album in their garage. On March 10 the band signed with

. When the conversation about making an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

began, the band confessed they had already begun making it in their garage and submitted a nearly complete version of "Temper" to the label. To the band's surprise, the label loved the self-produced collection and began preparing to release the unanimous favorite, "Animal," as the first

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

. "Animal" was premiered on

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists and fans of guitar-based music and trends. The magazine has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original a ...

website and released on September 1, 2016. Following the release of the single, the band performed across the US in support of

Billy Talent Billy Talent is a Canadian Rock music, rock band from Mississauga, Ontario. They formed in 1993 with lead vocalist Benjamin Kowalewicz, guitarist Ian D'Sa, bassist Jonathan Gallant, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk. There have been no lineup change ...

on the " Afraid of Heights" tour in September, 16. While on tour, the band gained attention from

active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...

radio stations Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a lan ...

and top programmers for

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

and

. The band's debut EP, ''Temper'' dropped on November 4, 2016 and Badflower was named Apple Music's Artist of the week. "Good, Old-Fashioned Rock n' Roll May Have Just Made a Modern Comeback," declares Nylon Magazine Active and Alternative rock radio began spinning "Animal" regularly and was added by stations such as SiriusXM Octane and was voted #1 on KROQ locals only for multiple weeks in a row. iTunes named "Animal" among the best

rock songs Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (formerly known as Rock Songs and Hot Rock Songs) is a record chart published by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. From its debut on June 20, 2009, through October 13, 2012, the chart ranked the airplay of ...

and ''Temper'' among best

rock albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

of 2016. A few songs from ''Temper'' were also featured on Spotify's most

streamed Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downloadin ...

music playlists including New Music Friday Following the buzz, Badflower was asked to headline KCRW's School night in West Hollywood, CA on December 19, 2016. The band recruited friend and ''

Big Bang Theory The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including the ...

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

Johnny Galecki John Mark Galecki (born April 30, 1975) is an American actor, In television, he played Leonard Hofstadter on ''The Big Bang Theory'' (2007–2019) and List of Roseanne and The Conners characters#David Healy, David Healy in ''Roseanne'' (1992–1 ...

to join them on stage to close the show. On December 31 "Animal" entered into the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart and peaked at number 28. In addition, by March 2017 their single "Animal" from Temper had cracked at 1 million

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

streams and as of 2018 has garnered them over 2,000,000 streams. Soon after the release of ''Temper'' EP on December 12, 2016, Badflower began touring to promote the release. Josh Katz of Badflower by Melanie Mae Williamson

Josh Katz of Badflower by Melanie Mae Williamson

]

Touring and debut studio album (2017–2020)

Badflower as well as American rock band

Red Sun Rising Red Sun Rising was an American rock band from Akron, Ohio that is currently on hiatus. The band has released two studio albums through the Razor & Tie record label; their first, ''Polyester Zeal'', in 2015, and their second, ''Thread (Red Sun R ...

would be opening acts for

Pop Evil Pop Evil is an American rock band that was formed in North Muskegon, Michigan, in 2001 by Leigh Kakaty. The band's roots reside in TenFive, a group formed in the late-1990s by Kakaty and guitarist Jason Reed. Pop Evil has several songs that to ...

on their "Rock 'N' Roll Now" Tour from January to February 2017. After the tour, they would be the supporting bands with

Bleeker Bleeker is a Dutch occupational surname. Bleeker is an old spelling of ''(linnen)bleker'' ("linen bleacher").Beware of Darkness, as well as two additional shows with

, playing at various music festivals like Buzzfest, Rock on Range and River City Rock Fest. They would also put on a summer tour with the rock group

Goodbye June Goodbye June is a rock band from Nashville, Tennessee. The band is composed of cousins Landon Milbourn (lead vocals, tambourine), Brandon Qualkenbush (rhythm guitar, bass, drums, backing vocals), and Tyler Baker (lead guitar). History Goodbye ...

from

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, and In addition, it was announced they were to do several more headlines at major festivals like Louder Than Life Festival in Kentucky They have opened for Of Mice & Men, Greta Van Fleet, IDK, From Ashes to New, The Struts, Pop Evil, Bleeker, Beware of Darkness, The Wrecks, and Red Sun Rising During the tour, a previously unreleased track, "Move Me", was released on the band's

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page. Katz explained he wrote the song while heartbroken at his Thousand Oaks, CA home in 2015. However, four days after the release of "Move Me", their tour van was broken into outside a venue in

. Their backpacks, wallets, laptops, cameras, gear etc. were stolen and they were forced to cancel two shows in Santa Cruz and

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

, California. The tour reconvened soon after, and their track "White Noise", from their ''Temper'' EP, reached 1 million plays on Spotify. On September 9, 2017 it was revealed on Facebook they were to start recording for their first full length album with their record label

Big Machine Label Group Big Machine Records is an American record label, distributed by Universal Music Group. Big Machine is based on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee. The label was founded in September 2005 by former DreamWorks Records executiv ...

, being the first rock group to sign a deal with the label. Badflower began preproduction for the new album in Fall 2017 and began recording at Ocean Studios in Burbank, CA alongside producer Noah Shain. More than a year later, on December 6, 2018, the band re-released their official music video for the song "Heroin", featuring the current version of the song, which had been added to the album. At the end of 2017, Badflower had over 1,000,000 fans from 61 countries playing over 312,000 hours of their music from their

alone. On November 1, Badflower announced their debut album '' OK, I'm Sick'', would be released on February 22, 2019. Josh Katz said the following about the single 'Ghost': "I was depressed and thinking about self-harm. So I just wrote it. I played out the whole scenario and put it into a song because that's what writers do, I suppose. I didn't even know if it was gonna go on the album. I was sorta hesitant to even show it to the rest of my band, But everyone heard it and loved it". The group released a single called "30" on July 17, 2020, coinciding with Katz's 30th birthday. It features lyrics centered around reaching the milestone age of 30 years old and being uncomfortable with it.

''This Is How the World Ends'' (2021–present)

On July 6, 2021, the band announced their second album, titled ''This Is How the World Ends''. The singles "Family", "Don't Hate Me", "Fukboi", and "Johnny Wants To Fight" were released in that order leading up to the album's release on September 24. It was elected by ''

'' as the 38th best rock/metal album of 2021. Toured with Incubus and Paris Jackson in 2023. New Singles & 3rd Studio Album (2024 - 2025): On June 28, 2024, Badflower returned after a 3 year break from dropping new music and dropped the Single "Teacher Has A Gun" with a music video releasing the same day alongside it. This was followed almost a month later with the single "Detroit" on July 26, then"Haunting You" in October 2024 and their single "London" releasing on January 24, 2025. Then on April 4, 2025, the band would announce the release of their forthcoming 3rd Studio Album titled "No Place Like Home" set to be released on June 20, 2025 with the Album's 5th Single "Paws" also being released on April 4.

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

* ''About a Girl'' (2013) * ''Temper'' (2016)

Singles

Music videos

References

External links

{{Authority control 2013 establishments in California American hard rock musical groups American post-grunge musical groups Big Machine Records artists Hard rock musical groups from California Musical groups established in 2013 Musical groups from Los Angeles Rock music groups from California