Bully

A noisy indie rock band who deliver pop hooks with more than a slight grunge influence, Bully was founded by vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Alicia Bognanno. A skilled producer and engineer as well as a musician, Bognanno’s elemental guitar work complements the deeply personal, confessional nature of her lyrics, an approach established on 2015′s Feels Like that carried through on their second full-length, Losing, in 2017. Bognanno reworked Bully into a solo project with 2020′s SUGAREGG and 2023′s Lucky for You, with both albums digging deep into Bognanno’s personal experiences. Originally from Rosemount, Minnesota, Bognanno didn’t show a great interest in music when she was young, but she discovered that her high school offered elective courses through an alternative education center located at a nearby zoo, and one of the classes was in audio engineering. Bognanno signed on and discovered she had a knack for working with recording gear. She was soon creating loops and beats for friends who liked hip-hop, and the experience kickstarted her desire to write and sing her own songs. While studying recording at Middle Tennessee State University, she began working on her own material, occasionally sitting in with local musicians for recording projects. After receiving her degree from MTSU, Bognanno landed an internship at Electrical Audio, the Chicago recording complex founded by outspoken recording engineer and musician Steve Albini. While she described the experience as “the most calming, welcoming comfortable environment for me to be in,” she was also short on money in an unfamiliar city where she had few friends. The circumstances prompted Bognanno to work on her songwriting, recording rough demos in her apartment in her spare time. When her internship was over, she settled in Nashville, and joined a power pop band called King Arthur while engineering at Battle Tapes Recording and handling live sound at music venue The Stone Fox. When Bognanno met up with drummer Stewart Copeland (not the former Police percussionist), she decided it was time to form a band of her own to make use of her backlog of personal songs. With the addition of guitarist Clayton Parker and bassist Reece Lazarus, she formed Bully. Bully started playing out in mid-2013, and in April 2014, they released their first single, “Milkman” b/w “Faceblind.” By October 2014, the band had signed with Star Time International, an imprint of Columbia, which issued a five-song EP simply titled Bully. After steady touring in the United States and Europe (including festival appearances at Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits, and a string of dates opening for Best Coast), Bully’s debut album, Feels Like, was released on June 23, 2015. The album was recorded at Electrical Audio, with Bognanno helping engineer the sessions. For their sophomore effort, the group returned to Albini’s Chicago studio and Bognanno engineered the record. Sub Pop released the resulting full-length Losing in October 2017. Soon after, Bognanno was asked to pen a handful of songs for the movie Her Smell, which starred Elisabeth Moss as fictional rocker Becky Something. Following a string of festival appearances, the movie and its accompanying soundtrack EP received a wide release in 2019. Having parted ways with her bandmates, Bognanno opted to reconfigure Bully as a solo project that sometimes teams up with musicians on albums and tours without demanding long-term commitments. She recruited her longtime touring drummer Wesley Mitchell and bassist Zach Dawes (Lana Del Rey, Sharon Van Etten) to record Bully’s third album, which saw Bognanno working with an outside producer for the first time. (It also marked her first album after revealing she’d been diagnosed as bipolar in a profile in the New York Times.) Co-produced and mixed by Bognanno and Grammy winner John Congleton, SUGAREGG arrived on Sub Pop in August of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic prevented Bognanno from touring in support of the album, but she busied herself with songwriting. She produced and played guitar on the Mountain Goats’ 2022 album Bleed Out, as well as lending vocals to the self-titled 2022 debut album from Weird Nightmare, a side project from METZ guitarist Alex Edkins. 2023′s JT Daly-produced Lucky for You saw Bognanno once again delivering an album of big, crunchy guitar anthems that dealt with relationships, death, and her own experiences. Its lead single, “Lose You,” featured vocals from Soccer Mommy and the album made the Top 20 of Billboard’s Heatseekers chart as well as many critics’ year-end lists. The intimate piano ballad “Atom Bomb” marked Bully’s first release of 2024. ~ Mark Deming