by mariah estran
photo by becca hamel
A lot can change in a matter of two years. For alt-pop duo Bestfriend, that concept became remarkably familiar. They began working on the follow-up to their 2021 sophomore EP, places i’ve lived. While making new music, they were also experiencing changes in their lives, because it just does not stop.
On May 9th, they released their response to these feelings, appropriately titling the project: BESTFRIEND HAS AN IDENTITY CRISIS. “I feel like when people say that so much of your life happens between the ages of 21 and 27, I believe them now,” lead vocalist Stacy Suyeon says about this stage of adulthood. However, it was not simply about growing older but understanding the personal discoveries made when looking through an introspective lens.
Stacy, alongside guitarist-producer and singer Kaelan Geoffrey, found themselves diving further into those layers that make life tricky. From heartbreak to grief and evolving in self and identity, the two touch on those honest topics through each of the six tracks.
“We wrote all these songs around a time when we both had gone through a heavy teardown of ourselves and our lives,” Stacy explains about the EP.
Songs such as “HEADSTART” describe the feeling of infatuation through an electric soundscape, while tracks like “YOU LOOK JUST LIKE ME” reveal the discovery of traits we discover and find similar to others.
The EP holds the same charm that Bestfriend has continuously developed — that indie-pop excitement that has you singing along.
Their vulnerability is still at the center, but it is now stronger as they embrace the chaos and beauty of it all.
After the release of BESTFRIEND HAS AN IDENTITY CRISIS, the two spoke with us about the project. They tell us more about writing for the EP, the new production process, and what they have learned about themselves over the last couple of years.
Both of you are known for music that creates a connection through vulnerability. These feelings of anxiety, grief, and heartache are not a singular experience. “HEADSTART” is a perfect example of bringing these feelings forward. What was it like writing this track?
Stacy: “It is about vulnerability, but at the same time, when we were writing it, it was a lot of having to pull back when writing it. The thing about vulnerability in our songs is that I tend to shout it in a lot of words — Bestfriend songs are very wordy.
We are trying to keep it nice and simple. You can be honest, without having to cover yourself by talking endlessly.”
Kaelan: “We are people who need to say everything about a thought. It is like, ‘Oh, I need to feel understood,’ but that is not always necessary. At the very base of it, there's truth in keeping things simple, and there's truth in finding your message and delivering it.”
Years prior, Bestfriend was a project you would produce from afar, in different geological places. With this new EP, you two worked in person a lot more. How was that experience, and if any, how did it help develop the creative process?
Kaelan: “It changed everything. It is a helpful skill to do this remotely; it is good that it is available to us. It is certainly not the easiest or the most fun way to do it. It is so hard to have a genuine conversation, where you are going back and forth, talking with body language.
Once we started doing this together in person, we did not see stopping as an option because it is much better.
It is just neat to see what the music can sound like and feel like in real life. This sort of translation of ‘online bestfriend’ to ‘real-life bestfriend’ has been the journey of the past year or so.”
How do you feel when you have seen each other grow after being alongside each other for so long?
Stacy: “Your 20s, like, everything happens because there is less structure in your life, right? When you are younger, in high school or at university, there's rhyme, instruction, and reason to your life. The minute that goes away, you are a free-floating person trying to shape yourself into something tangible.
It’s a hard thing, and it's a work in progress. It is going to be something we are working on our whole lives. In these six years, we have not been immune to that rule.
We have seen each other through a lot of different life events. We have seen each other grow in musical ways, but also, personally.”
Kaelan: “It has been interesting because we both watched each other fall apart and rebuild. We've both been through that process and supported each other through that as well.
We saw a lot of pieces, and the pieces that didn't work. The pieces that do work, and the pieces we want to see more of. It is nice getting to watch that overtime, especially as friends. But it is also cool that we see it represented in this capsule, the music we make during this time is neat.”
Tell us more about the title of the EP.
Kaelan: “We have been writing these songs over the past two years, and a lot has changed in two years. We have been shifting and transforming into something that we do not know. These songs are all over the place.
There is this one song on there — it is the opposite of ‘HEADSTART’ — where we are trying to be simple and concise. Then there is another song that's five minutes long, where we just do not shut up the whole time. It encapsulates how we do not know who we are right now, as a duo, as individuals. We are having an identity crisis — there is the EP name.”
Stacy: “The last couple of years have been wildly transformative for both of us. We have been so many people throughout our lives. We wrote all these songs around a time when we both had gone through a heavy teardown of ourselves and our lives. Just a bit lost, and much of the music started to feel that way. It ended up being a good descriptor for the whole period.
It is calling out the thing that we have been afraid to talk about and afraid to live.”
The EP highlights your continued fun, alt-pop sound. Working alongside Aidan Hogg, how did it help you develop the soundscape of this EP?
Stacy: “It is interesting to see how much each person has their language; also, how much it crosses over.”
Kaelan: “It is such a fun time when we get together and write. Anytime we can work with someone with whom we get along and want to make music with, it is great.”
How do you think this project will continue to inspire connection or even help those feel less odd in this era of self-discovery?
Stacy: “I am speaking for myself, but I feel like people are lonely. I do think that there has been this feeling of individualism, more so than ever. I am trying to get to this feeling that we are all kind of reflections of each other, whether we like it or not. Like this invisible expectation of being some perfect person, or the reflection of some of your best parts.”
Kaelan: “We have a song about feeling completely lost. We have a song about staring down the parts of you that you hate the most, and you see it in other people. We have a song about admitting a crush. We have a song about moving on past suicidal tendencies.
Every song on the EP is about something that no one knows how to talk about, and societally, we do not talk about. The topics we chose to write about are personal.”
