HUNNY

SPIRIT!, the third LP from HUNNY, is all about embracing the weird. It’s an album born from uncertainty and built on instinct – a testament to breaking free, starting over and blocking out the external noise. Now solely the project of longtime frontman Jason Yarger, HUNNY has shed its past shape to become something more fully itself.

“There’s a lot to love about the spirit of collaboration,” Yarger explains when discussing the decision to transition HUNNY away from a full band, “but at the same time, approaching this album without having to compromise was such a freeing feeling. I could just let whatever ideas I had run wild.”

Fundamentally, the Epitaph-released SPIRIT! doesn’t reinvent the wheel for HUNNY as much as it keeps it rolling forward. Across its 15 songs, the album (co-produced by Yarger and former HUNNY bassist Kevin Grimmett, with drums by former HUNNY drummer Joey Anderson) leans into the sounds that have always lit the group’s fuse – hooky post-punk, gleaming synths and shout-along choruses that have earned rave reviews from outlets like Alternative Press, Kerrang! and Rock Sound – but now pushes HUNNY somewhere more abstract, more playful, more free.

Yarger wrote and recorded the album almost entirely in his LA-based home studio, emptying his voice memos and Notes app of in-the-moment observationalism and off-the-cuff inspiration. Whether he’s detailing the absurdity of spotting an iPad-toting nun at an airport bar (“POV ur dead and I’m checking my hair in your sunglasses”), marveling at the simplistic beauty of nature (the grungy, dynamic “i can see my house from here,” conceived and sung into his phone on a flight), lamenting his inability to smoke weed or consistently sleep (the pounding pop-rock “tired of u”) or firing a middle-finger salvo to telemarketers testing his sanity (“spam calls”), it all serves to strike the perfect balance between irreverent humor and indie-rock chic.

“I'm happily married with a child,” the singer says. “You know, there's not too much tortured stuff for me to write about anymore. I love that songs I’ve written have resonated with people, but I also loved the opportunity to just be a fucking silly guy and tell some weird stories on this album.”

But while Yarger’s focus might have shifted away from making grand statements, SPIRIT! is still stuffed musical moments that make you feel deeply: the opening strains of “title track,” complete with chippy cheerleader vocals and richly layered production; “horse w/ curse,” which soars with the life-affirming, communal spirit of a festival main stage; the garage-rock intensity of “all of a suddenly”; the sun-soaked shimmer radiating through pre-release single “catalina,” reflecting the easy, fleeting bliss of a perfect day; the album-closing “paintball,” inspired by Love On The Spectrum.

It’s yet another chameleonic turn for HUNNY, a band long known for shapeshifting through genres and decades with style on fan favorites like 2019’s Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. and 2023’s new planet heaven – all while still sounding unmistakably like themselves. That same dynamic spirit carries into their high-energy live show, honed over years of touring alongside acts like Joywave, Mom Jeans, Waterparks, and State Champs alongside festival sets at Shaky Knees and Four Chord.

For Yarger, the process of making SPIRIT! ultimately marks a pivotal shift, not just creatively, but in how he envisions the future of HUNNY. Free from compromise and external expectations, he’s able to follow his instincts completely, allowing the music to unfold in unexpected and unfiltered ways.

“I'm trying to be less precious with my songwriting,” he says. “At some point, every single song on this album was my favorite thing I’d ever made. So just because it doesn't fit into some certain mold, I don't think that that's a good reason to not let anybody else hear it and maybe think the same. I don't want anything to sound like HUNNY at this point – or, I simultaneously want nothing and everything to sound like HUNNY.”