During the pandemic’s more-isolated days in 2020, Bad Bad Hats asked for song prompts from their Patreon supporters. The suggestions rolled in: “write a new wave song,” “write a song with a wordless chorus,” “write a song where the chord progression doesn’t change.” These requests forced the Twin Cities indie-pop duo to work outside their creative comfort zone. Turns out, freeing themselves from sonic limitations and personal expectations sparked some of the best songs of the band’s 12-year career.

“We were kind of pushing ourselves and trying to be like, ‘Okay, you're not Bad Bad Hats right now. We're the Lonesome Three and we are trying to write a country song,’” says the group’s singer and primary songwriter Kerry Alexander.

It’s a sunny spring day at the cozy home studio in St. Paul that Alexander shares with husband and bandmate Chris Hoge, who plays bass. We’re sitting in a tight circle, Hoge on the drum stool, in the heart of their intimate recording space. It’s so packed with gear that there’s barely any room for anything that isn’t musical. “Even so, some of the songs we were writing sounded downright Bad Bad Hat-sy. Sort of to our surprise, we were like, ‘I think we actually might be on our way to making an album.’”

Out today on Philadelphia indie label Don Giovanni Records, their self-titled record is affectionately known as as “The Flower Album,” due to the daisies on the cover. The sun-drenched collection was recorded by Alexander, Hoge, and longtime drummer Con Davison during two frigid, snowy weeks in January 2023. “I do feel it is kind of funny that much of this album came from a fairly dark time for ourselves, and the band, and the world,” Alexander reflects. “But it is a pretty cheery album overall. So yeah, maybe that was my yearning for a different mindset.”

Bad Bad Hats is the first full-length record Alexander and Hoge have produced themselves, which gives the songs a more personal, homegrown feel to them. “A lot of what we were doing was kind of like copying what our producer Brett [Bullion] did [on past albums],” says Hoge with a modest chuckle. “He is just a genius, and he mixed this record for us eventually, too. It was a fun process. We put guitar amps into different parts of the house, and just tried stuff we had been meaning to try over the years.”

Their charming two-story is nestled in St. Paul’s old-school, family-centered West Seventh neighborhood. Their neighbors likely have no idea about the music that has been created in this basement since they moved there in 2019. The decor doesn’t give too much away — until you see the signed Liz Phair tour poster on the steep stairs leading down to the recording studio.       

“The last time we made a record ourselves, the [2013] It Hurts EP, Chris and I made that in our little apartment bedroom with nothing but one microphone, an acoustic guitar, and a kazoo,” Alexander says wistfully. It Hurts was reissued in expanded form for its 10th anniversary in 2023. “So in that way, it feels fitting that the record is self-titled. Sort of like back to basics, back to the basement, back to where it all began.”

Alexander (who grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and moved to Tampa for high school) and Connecticut-bred Hoge had met as students at Macalester College. They formed Bad Bad Hats in 2012. “I’m not even sure I had seen any indie shows by the time I went to college,” Alexander admits. “So I was very new to any idea of a music scene. And when I came to Macalester, Minnesota basically opened up that whole world to me. And it was so inspiring because I didn’t have any concept of what an indie show was or what it meant to be an artist in the scene.”

“It’s a great-sized city for running into people you know at the grocery store and feeling like a community,” jokes Hoge affectionately. “We really do talk about the radio stations here when people ask us about Minneapolis across the country. That stands out as a reason we felt we could reach people. Just getting played on The Local Show the week we released our first EP. When we released it, it was like, ‘Holy crap! People have heard it already.’ We were getting immediate feedback. And when there is interest and support like that, it really makes you want to keep going.”

That nurturing support of a Twin Cities fan base and music community has meant a lot to them as their career has blossomed beyond Minnesota. After It Hurts, came three full-length albums, the most recent being 2021’s Walkman. Bad Bad Hats have toured with fellow local breakout band Hippo Campus, along with the Front Bottoms, Margaret Glaspy, the Beths, and Michelle Branch, who is a clear inspiration for the band as well as an artist from Alexander’s beloved CD collection.

“I still have my giant CD binder that I worked very hard to organize,” Alexander shares proudly.
“Even though we don’t really have a way to play CDs anymore, I just can’t bring myself to get rid of it. One day I had a thought to myself like, ‘When I go, who will I bestow this prized possession on?’ That thought made me laugh because who would really want my CDs? But also, they mean so much to me that it would be given from a place of love and admiration to give someone my CDs. So, I had that line in my head that I would love to include in a song.”

That retro-tinged love song on the new album that holds Alexander’s sentiment is “My Heart Your Heart.” It features a music video filled with throwback images from film, TV, and animations with the lyric “When I die, I want you to have my CDs.”

While recording Bad Bad Hats, Alexander shared a Spotify playlist of influential songs by Madonna, Brigitte Bardot, Paul McCartney, Herman’s Hermits, Scritti Politti, and the theme song to the British comedy Are You Being Served? Alexander also credits the false ending on “Meter Run,” to the saucy J. Geils Band pop-rock romp, “Centerfold.” Working through the Patreon suggestions has unlocked a newfound boldness to the Bad Bad Hats’ songwriting.

The album starts with the pulsing bass-driven swing of “Let Me In,” which hits like the Breeders’ “Cannonball.” It recalls John Cusack’s character Lloyd Dobler’s iconic moment in ’80s rom-com Say Anything. “Well, it threw me / ‘cause I thought we were groovy / I love you like the movies / I’m standing in the front yard with the boombox playing.” At the song’s end, a soundbite Alexander found in the Library of Congress archives plays featuring Orson Welles saying, “That will always be our song.”

The Welles sample is emblematic of the album’s freeform spirit. Just as catchy as their past work, this collection is also filled with sonic surprises and creative left turns from their own archives. Alexander and Hoge found old, unused riffs from discarded song fragments to collide with freshly recorded moments.

The rollicking lead single, “TPA,” features dueling guitar parts inspired by the classic XTC jam, “Wake Up.” Named for Alexander’s childhood home of Tampa, Florida, the song is a snapshot of driving around an imperfect paradise (“Tampa will suffice”). “I need no atlas / Streetview or Mapquest / ‘cause whichever street I’m on / it’s a strip mall with a nail salon,” Alexander sings.

Along with comical clips featuring endless rows of strip malls, the music video for “TPA” features cameos from Alexander’s mom and stepdad in Florida filmed during a Thanksgiving visit. “I knew my mom would be down because she’s a ham like me,” Alexander says with a laugh. “I was talking to my mom on the phone before we flew down. [I asked] if we have all the props we need and if they are going to be good with taking us out on the boat. And I can hear my stepdad in the background asking, ‘What’s going on?’ And I was like, ‘Oh god, no one told Terry!’ But he was a great sport. We found all those nail salons in about five minutes. I remember them from my time living in Tampa, but I was happy to discover that my memories were correct, and they are ubiquitous.”

Alexander and Hoge are about to head out on tour again. The run includes an April 12 in-store at Electric Fetus; April 26 at Earth Rider Brewery in Superior, Wisconsin; Chatfield Center for the Arts on April 27; U.S. dates in May with Brooklyn-based indie rocker Pronoun; and a European leg at the end of May. The final show of that run brings them to First Avenue on June 8, with support from their friends Raffaella and Ivers. “We've never done a big blowout grand finale homecoming show. So I'm excited for that,” Alexander says animatedly.

The new album reflects a band totally comfortable with who and where they are. It comes at a time of gratitude for Alexander and Hoge to still be able to share their music with an audience that stuck with them and helped support the process.

“Coming out of 2020, and being at home reflecting on the industry and what we were missing, it’s one of those moments that you don't always get in life,” Alexander says. “You’re like, ‘You know that show that you just played in Cleveland? You had no idea that you weren't gonna play shows for like a year after that.’ … So there was a lot of time for reflection and wondering ‘What's next? Do we want to continue?’ I think I always knew we would definitely continue. But what would it look like on the other side? I feel like the self-titled album kind of makes sense. Because it's like, we're here. We’re back. And we're not going anywhere!”