THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Bunky Becky Birthday Boy is the seventh album from Sleigh Bells — producer/guitarist Derek Miller and singer Alexis Krauss. A celebration of the pair’s unbelievable friendship, the new record also marks a brand-new (and every bit as explosive) chapter for the duo.
The record immediately bounds to life on the effervescent opener Bunky Pop, crashing in with gnawing guitar riffs and Krauss’s pulsing chants. “We wanted the track to sound like a dog having the best moment of her life without any of the burden of self consciousness,” Miller says. “Bunky Pop informed the entire record, and Bunky Becky kind of became a character woven into every song. We wanted to give her a friend, Roxette Ric, so we could play with a little bit of autobiography and fiction as well.”
Sleigh Bells are so many things: Era-defining, a sonic boom of energy, your favorite hyperpop musician’s favorite reference. But what are Krauss and Miller to each other? Take away everything else — the critical acclaim, the inexplicable clash of sweet and aggressive, birthed in the late 2000s on Treats and expanded across the next decade on five more albums — Alexis and Derek are simply best friends forever.
You can’t just have soulmate status; it has to be earned. Over the course of nearly two decades, ever since July 2008, when Derek asked Alexis if she’d consider starting a band with him, Sleigh Bells have been a bedrock and a creative guiding force for both artists. Whatever else may change — cities, jobs, partners, parenthood — Alexis and Derek have seen each other through everything. Now, the duo prepare to launch their seventh album this year, Bunky Becky Birthday Boy.
Following 2021’s Texis, Bunky Becky Birthday Boy blasts into the room with razor-sharp guitars, ultra-sticky pop choruses, floor-shaking rhythms, and indelible chants, which kick off on the album’s instant-classic opening track. The pair are in constant communication with each other; even when they’re not actively recording music, they’re sending tracks back and forth. And that’s how Bunky Becky Birthday Boy came to be.
The playfully alliterative title is a symbolic quilt, weaving together endings and beginnings while loosely looping in the band’s own history. “Bunky Becky was a nickname for Alexis’ dog Riz, who passed away in December 2023. When she passed away, Alexis and I had been talking about writing an anthem for her,” Derek says. “And then Alexis’ son Wilder was born, and he’s the birthday boy. Even though the title sounds a little ridiculous — and it’s totally okay to laugh at it — with a little bit of context, it’s actually life and death. We lost somebody that we love, and we gained somebody that we love.”
The story of Bunky Becky and Roxette Ric evolves in the swaggering Wanna Start A Band?, an irresistible collision of glam metal, stabbing synths, vocal whoops, and in-your-face beats. Just as Derek asked Alexis to start a band 17 years ago, Wanna Start A Band? finds the duo’s alter egos forming their creative partnership. On the rager-ready Badly, Sleigh Bells roll out a quintessential barnburner anthem in the vein of Beastie Boys’ (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) and like minded ’80s jams. Sleigh Bells seal off the record with Pulse Drips Quiet, which experiments with rhythm and tone and reflects the duo’s unshakable bond.”
