Bad Bad Hats

It’s been a full decade since Psychic Reader introduced Bad Bad Hats to the world, and the indie-pop trio is imaginatively celebrating that milestone by sharing the mic with others. A new covers project, Psychic Readings, reinterpreted the seminal album with plenty of special guests—including Hippo Campus, Squirrel Flower, The Ophelias, and more.

Kerry Alexander recently sat down with us to discuss how Psychic Reader's songs have evolved over the years, what it’s like to hear them reimagined through someone else’s voice, and what lies ahead on the road for the band in 2025.

Analogue: Lots of avenues I want to take, but with the celebration of the 10th anniversary of Psychic Reader. I wondered how much your relationships with the songs have changed.

Kerry Alexander: It’s funny because I can't remember the last time I’d listened through the album itself. Obviously, we play the songs live fairly often, so it was kind of a thrilling and bizarre experience to listen to the album via all the covers as they were coming in.

I especially loved the Squirrel Flower cover. It was amazing, because when I first wrote that song, I had recorded a little video of myself playing an early version, which was just me on my classical guitar, sort of in my living room, very spacious and reverby and lo-fi. So when Ella shared her cover, and it really evoked sort of that early demo, I was like, ‘How did she know? How did she go back in time to when I first made this song and just kind of perfectly captured it?’

It is all very nostalgic. I think if anything, I’m even more proud of the songs than I was in the past. I'm just so happy that the album came together the way that it did, and that it's resonated with people. That's sort of all I've been reflecting on, trying to, in the midst of the logistical things that need to happen to release something, also enjoy the nostalgia and celebration of the 10 years that have passed.

Analogue: How many songs on the album are still in a decent rotation in a live show?

Kerry: Definitely. “Midway” has been played at every show we've ever played since it came out. That one will probably be a hanger-on for the foreseeable future. But then we often play “Psychic Reader”, and we actually often play “Joseph”. That's been one of our favorite songs to play live for a long time. It got pushed aside when the Walkman album came out. It sadly got booted for a time, but we even brought it back for a set recently because we missed it so much. So we're always playing about three to four songs from Psychic Reader in the set.

Analogue: Is there one song from Psychic Reader that you're like, ‘Yeah, we never play that live and I’m not sure we ever will’?

Kerry: Well, yes. Our song “Corella” from Psychic Reader is probably the one where it’s been the longest since we played it live, but we are planning to do the top-to-bottom thing on future tours. So for all those “Corella” fans out there, it's coming back. She's back. She'll be hitting the stage. We'll be playing all the songs, so no song left behind. [Laughs]

Analogue: Where did the idea for guest covers come from in the first place?

Kerry: I feel like I've had this idea for a while, but I know for sure that Sharon Van Etten did a 10th anniversary covers compilation for one of her albums. Samia did something like this, too. Not a 10th anniversary, but soon after she released her album, The Baby, she did a reimagined version. So I don't know if the Sharon Van Etten one is the one that gave me the idea for something I was already thinking would be cool or what.

Also, I feel like I used to subscribe to Spin magazine, and they were constantly sending downloads of various playlists and stuff. I remember there was a Prince covers compilation that I got, and there was a mariachi band playing “I Would Die 4 U” that was one of my favorites. And they also had a Beatles one. So I've always loved the concept of a cover and what's lost or gained in translation. To apply it to myself has been a very selfish honor that I was happy to take advantage of.

Analogue: What is your favorite cover to play or perform?

Kerry: I think the one that comes to mind is from a very long time ago, since my open mic night days in college, but I do a very earnest, yearning interpretation of “All the Small Things” by Blink-182. That has always gone over pretty well.

Analogue: That’s interesting! Last year brought the self-titled Bad Bad Hats. The self-titled usually comes early in an artist's career. Was that, looking back, a statement that you’d found the sonic place you want to be? Is that reading into it too much?

Kerry: No, I don't think that's too much. To be honest, we got there for less thought-out reasons, and mostly just because none of the titles we had felt right. So we were like, ‘Well, you could always self-title it.’ It's always been on the list.

But when we got to that conclusion, the more I thought about it, the more I thought basically what you're saying, which is that it was the first album we made ourselves in our home since the It Hurts EP, which was our first official release.

We were emerging from the pandemic years. It just felt fitting for that album—the way it was made, how we were feeling about the band. It also happened that our longtime drummer left the band after making the album, so it also felt like returning to just Kerry and Chris. It kind of all made sense.

Analogue: Does that open a new chapter for you?

Kerry: Yeah, I do kind of feel like we're in a new era where nothing feels too different, but we’re a little less manic and seeking and a little more reflective. There's a somewhat slower pace, but also a knowledge of how things can go and will go. We’re feeling confident in what we do and what we bring and not needing much more than our art and our fans.

Analogue: So when you say reflective, you mean more than just lyrically?

Kerry: Yeah, I think we've been running a small business basically this whole time. Thankfully, we’ve had the help of labels and booking agents to get us on the road and release our albums, but we've been mostly self-managed our entire career.

In the early days, everything felt a lot more hectic, like the whole world was before you in a very exciting way, but it's also kind of hard to parse out what you actually want from it, which is how I felt in my twenties in general. I felt like I had to go to every single event that was presented to me, and then you're just tired and stressed.

Now, settling into an older age in the industry, I keep forgetting that people on stage next to me are like 22. I feel like I get into cool indie aunt vibes in the scene, and I'm really relishing that. There's still a great unknown in the music industry—you never know what people resonate with or where it will take you—but we're feeling very confident in the thing that Bad Bad Hats does, how we like to tour, and how we like to run our business. That feels nice to settle into.

Analogue: You made reference to maybe some tour dates coming with it where you'll play the album front to back. What else is on the horizon for you? Are you spinning a lot of plates?

Kerry: We are imminently close to finishing our fifth album, which is very exciting. We started working on that before the self-titled album even came out. We kept forgetting that that album wasn't out yet—we had to remember to release that and learn how to play all those songs—but we had a break in our schedule, and we always love to fill a break with recordings.

In late 2023, we took the opportunity to try working with some different producers and see how that went, because we made Bad Bad Hats ourselves with our former drummer, and the earlier albums we made with our friend Brett Bullion, who still mixes all of our records. So it sounded exciting to just travel around and play with different producers in different studios and little by little work on the album.

Recently I was like, ‘Well, we should probably actually finish this’, so we've been trying to complete it in our basement. A few days ago, we're like, ‘Wait, did we accidentally finish this?’ It feels endless when you're doing it at home, but I think we are wrapping it up, so that will hopefully be out soon.

We also started another band with a friend, like an early 2000s rock band energy, called Megasound, and that album is done as well. Hopefully that will come out soon, too.

Analogue: You may be in promotion mode for a while.

Kerry: We’ve got nothing but plates, and they're all spinning.

VISIT: Bad Bad Hats

Photo: Zoe Prinds-Flash