poptropicaslutz!
Leaning into the myriad of artists that influenced 21-year-old Christian Cicilia and 22-year-old Nick Crawford’s individual music tastes, they both draw considerable inspiration from a variety of genres and decades. Imbuing their auto-tuned melodies with traces of Fall Out Boy, Hellogoodbye, Juice WRLD, Kelly Clarkson, and ‘10s SoundCloud rap, their debut EP Just In Case The World Ends (2022) showcased their penchant for blending maximalist production with pop-punk for a highly danceable fusion of “hyper-punk”. In Face For The Radio, they up the distortion levels, leading with fuzzed out guitars and a sprinkling of alt-pop synths, with sugary melodies and emphatic rhythms that get you on your feet.

Face For The Radio is sonically and thematically their most cohesive collection of songs, crafted and conceptualized over the course of a year with many studio sessions throughout that timeframe. Production flourishes from kodeblooded (Connor Kaufmann, Sueco) add glitchcore elements to form eleven sonically rich, textured tracks. By giving themselves the time to think out every aspect of the album ahead of time, the band was able to conceptualize the project before ever hitting the recording studio. Exploring themes of love and love lost, the dark side or “underbelly” of success and what/who you’ll sacrifice to get there, the duo utilizes their confessional style of storytelling for effective songwriting.

Since signing to Epitaph, poptropicaslutz! have been on an upward trajectory that has propelled them from releasing a handful of standalone singles, to their breakout debut EP ‘just in case the world ends’, and most recently a split EP ‘Gossip Team’ with their friend, labelmate, and producer aldrch. As their infectious tracks garner over 1.3 million monthly streams across the board, with each release the band grows more confident in their status as a burgeoning alt-pop force. Now entering the next stage in their careers with their first full-length, they’re ready for their time to shine. The band muses, “Having a 'face for the radio' has historically described those better fit for something else….those setup for success, but not in their own lane. At times, that’s’ been us, but not anymore.”