Travers, Ben (January 26, 2020). " 'Hillary' Review: Hillary Clinton's Hulu Documentary Pursues a Definitive Take on the Divisive Figure". IndieWire . Retrieved August 15, 2022. Woolsey, Brittany. "The Interrupters Learn to Fight the Good Fight From Bands Like Green Day and Rancid – OC Weekly". When you play live is it important to make those connections with the fans? We’ve seen you in the crowd, holding hands with people, and looking right in their eyes, and it feels like a huge celebration.

Aimee: “Yeah, I had been running from myself for a really long time and numbing myself and medicating myself and not wanting to look at myself. Because I was afraid of what I might find. What if I was to blame for all these things, what if it was my fault? When you have to do a personal inventory, that's scary. All that work was very difficult. I started writing In The Mirror 10 years ago, but I wasn't able to finish it until I did all of that work. I had the first verse and then I was like, 'Oh that's heavy, I don't know what I'm going to see when I look in the mirror, let's come up with another song and sing about something else.' It took me a lifetime really to write that song and to really find peace with who I saw in the mirror.” On this record, I wrote from the first person,” says Aimee. “Like, this is my story. I’m going to tell my story. And what we realized in wanting to make an album, as we were writing songs during the pandemic, having all that time for reflection — I realized and that we accidentally wrote my life story.” (Jimmy Fontain) Aimee, in the This Is My Family film which Kevin Kerskale shot in Tokyo, you talk about live music being escapism and letting you forget about your troubles for an hour. With these deeply personal songs, does it make it more of a gruelling or even traumatic experience? More importantly perhaps, Aimee finally had time to step away from the touring whirlwind that had kept her mind in motion for the past two years. Having that imposed pause also meant she had no real choice but to consider the distance travelled and, inevitably, its starting point – the childhood trauma that had mutated into a constant but publicly submerged depression. Aimee: “It's nice that we're a family band. Kevin and the twins grew up together, they started a band when they were 10 years old. Really to come into this beautiful family unit, it feels like the family I've always wanted.”

Follow Us

Though Aimee has never been shy about sharing her struggles – growing up in an abusive household, her battles with trichotillomania, years of self-medicating with alcohol – her music in The Interrupters has always had that fictional buffer. Even when making In The Wild, the group had songs left on the editing floor because they didn’t fit in with the overall narrative. He has now since outgrown that shirt,” says Kevin, “but he brought it to show us. He’s 17 now. And we were like, ‘How old were you with that show?’ And he’s like, ‘I was like nine or ten or whatever.’ And we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cool that we’re growing together.’ And that’s something we definitely don’t take for granted.”

The Interrupters Announce New Album Produced by Tim Armstrong". Epitaph.com. May 2018 . Retrieved May 4, 2018. Billy Kottage, formerly of Reel Big Fish, has been touring with the band as a featured musician since early 2019, playing the Hammond organ and trombone. With lyrical content mostly swirling around themes of mental health and impostor syndrome, “In the Wild” is a vulnerable insight into Aimee’s past, mind, and, at times, relationship with husband and guitar player Kevin Sweatshop. Featuring collaborations with some of ska’s biggest superstars, In the Wild revisits personal memories of loss and poverty of the past reimagined into inspiring themes of both resolve and redemption immersed in the highly nuanced, HUP! HUP! hooligan sound they’ve come to be known for. Payne, Chris. "Meet The Interrupters, the First Female-Fronted Ska Band With an Alternative Radio Hit Since No Doubt". Billboard . Retrieved August 30, 2018.

Credits

Tours: Rancid / Tim Timebomb & Friends / The Interrupters". Punknews.org. June 10, 2013 . Retrieved February 17, 2017.

I looked for that feeling my entire life and I never found it, until this family,” she says, her voice catching. “When I met Kevin we became fast friends, and with the Bivonas I felt that I was surrounded by people that loved me. There was a lot of support. I felt like we were kindred spirits. I didn’t even have to say anything – I just felt understood. There was this really comfortable, safe feeling.” Deciding not to flee but to face down this shadow, Aimee underwent two types of therapy – Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) which uses magnets to ‘target’ parts of the brain, and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), an interactive technique that focuses on one segment of trauma at a time. Us being this close-knit family, working and isolating in our own space is why the record’s called In The Wild,” says Kevin. “I almost felt like we were in the woods camping, and we only had each other to rely on. Once we started, it became our whole life and all-time fell away.” In The Wild may not be the record The Interrupters intended to make, but it’s the one they ultimately believe they were meant to make.

Similar artists

The three Bivona brothers met Aimee Allen, a solo artist at the time, in 2009 while touring with their band Telacasters supporting The Dirty Heads and Sugar Ray. In 2011, Aimee and Kevin started writing songs together and brought Kevin's brothers, twins Jesse and Justin, in to play drums and bass. That led to the four forming The Interrupters. [2]