On December 13th, femme power-pop rock band, The Dreaded Laramie released a new pop single titled “Breakup Songs.” Hailing from Nashville, Tennesse, this vibrant group creates a cleverly passionate track that sings all the feelings associated with going through a tough breakup. 

Recently signed to Smartpunk Records, the rock band consists of a talented group of friends who’ve known each other since their college days. Their sound is affectionate and filled with rhythm that will take you for a ride! You can enjoy and listen to their new single on all streaming platforms.

How did this band form? 

Friendship! We were all friends before we were bandmates. Zach (guitar), Drew (bass), and I all went to college together in Nashville, and we were a part of the same big friend group. The band didn’t actually form until after Zach and Drew had both graduated from college, and we’d all been friends for a few years by that point. Andrew was a later addition to the band, but the story’s the same there–Andrew, his wife Erica, and Zach all used to work at the same company, and the three of them were friends for a while before Erica parent-trapped Andrew and Zach (and the rest of the band) into playing music together. We’ve been bandmates for a few years, but we always try to prioritize the friendship part of our relationships. 

Who are your influences in music? 

If a band has over-indulgent guitars and simple, hooky vocal melodies, they’re probably on the list. The main influences that come to mind are Weezer, The Darkness, Rozwell Kid, Charly Bliss, PUP, and Frankie Cosmos. We each have pretty distinct musical backgrounds too–from prog/metal to hip hop, to bluegrass, to the most intense Barenaked Ladies fandom a human body can handle (not naming names)–which keeps things interesting when we’re writing together. On our new single, “Breakup Songs,” Haim in particular was a big influence. At the time I wrote this I had been listening to a lot of the Haim record “Women in Music Pt. III,” and I wanted to write something that sounded like a Haim song. I don’t know how successfully I achieved that, but I think the song is still fun. 

As noted before, you’re joining the Smartpunk Records label. How has that relationship been so far? And what do you hope comes from this relationship moving forward? 

Heck yeah we are!! It has been a real dream come true working with Smartpunk. They’re helpful, creative, and encouraging. I’m very stoked that they wanted to work with us. Their roster is great (Virginity? Taking Meds? The best), and they have been signing more great bands recently (Reconciler and Arcadia Grey, for instance). It’s cool to be included in such an artistically exceptional and kind community. 

As for what I hope comes from this label relationship: more trips to Florida (the most perplexing state in the union and my home state) would be ideal. Also to make money. 

In the press release, MC Cunningham, you describe this song as an “emotional liberation.” Could you talk a little bit more about what that means and why you felt that way? 

Sure, but only because you asked using my full name. The quality of my songwriting used to depend highly on whether I was in a relationship, and on the kind of person I was dating. At some point when I was single, I started listening to old voice memos of unfinished songs, and I noticed a pattern: all the songs I would write when I was dating someone were very timid and fully in the style of the other person’s music taste, and then in the gaps where I was single I was just writing uninhibited (and much better) rock music. I had been in a bad pattern of writing to please my partners. So, once I noticed that, I thought to myself, “Huh, what would happen if I intentionally wrote a song that I thought my exes would not like, or that I would’ve been embarrassed to show them?” and “Breakup Songs” is the result of that experiment. 

“Breakup Songs” feels emotionally liberating because it is the concrete product of me realizing a pattern of self-repression and choosing to break out of that. Thinking that way allowed me to experiment with vocal melodies that I would’ve otherwise shied away from out of fear of cringy-ness. I consider writing that song a crucial moment in my songwriting and emotional growth. 

I love the cover art! How did you guys come up with the design? 

Thank you! We did not come up with it at all. We’re fortunate to have a lot of friends who are talented visual artists. For “Breakup Songs” we asked our friend Jordan Lyn if we could use one of her beautiful pieces of embroidery as artwork. Zach and I both independently saw the piece that eventually became our single art, and thought “This looks so great and captures the 

aesthetic of our song so well.” Once he and I connected about that thought, we got in touch with Jordan, and the rest is history. Well, actually, the rest is that Smartpunk’s ace design team added some nice text to the photo of Jordan’s embroidery. We love our friends and our team.

What can fans expect from you in the coming future? 

Fans should expect to stream our new single, “Breakup Songs,” as much as their schedules allow, if not more, for the indefinite future. On top of that, we’ll be on tour supporting Smoking Popes at the beginning of 2024 around the western half of the US, which will be incredible. You can expect to see us continuing to tour aggressively in 2024. You might even expect some more new music from us in the new year. Maybe. 

If you could describe your sound in one word, what would it be? 

Oreos.