Best Coast's instant-classic debut album Crazy For You recently turned 10, and core band members Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno are celebrating with a guest-filled livestream later this month. They're also celebrating the album, and today's Bandcamp Friday fundraiser, when Bandcamp waives its cut of all purchases, by releasing a new version of "Boyfriend" to benefit The Trevor Project, a national organization which provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ young people. Here's more from Bethany about the reimagining:
When I was 22 years old I wrote a song about a guy I was quite literally, obsessed with, called “Boyfriend.” This obsession took up a lot of my time and mental energy. In the decade since writing this song, I have had a lot of time to reflect on not only that obsession, but the way in which I have at times, glorified obsessive and toxic romantic relationships in my songwriting. This song in particular started to feel problematic to me around the time I really started working on myself at age 30. I would listen back to my lyrics and think about how much I was neglecting myself and how I made this guy the protagonist of my own life and story.
Somewhere down the line, I started noticing that this song in particular seemed to be a bit of an anthem for the LGBTQ+ community. I would get tagged in social media posts of guys proposing to their boyfriends with the song in the background, I would get countless messages from Queer fans about how they put this song on a playlist for their crush and then their crush became their partner, I met lesbian and gay couples at shows who told me they had their first kiss to this song. Suddenly I realized that it had a whole new meaning than the one it did when I first wrote it. That is one of the most special parts of art - what the artist creates can be interpreted in so many different ways by the people who experience it - and the experience of this song through the eyes of the LGBTQ+ community of Best Coast fans, is truly the way I want it to be experienced.
With all that being said, here is a new, reimagined version of “Boyfriend” that includes everyone. For TODAY ONLY, this version will be available to buy on our Bandcamp, with all proceeds going to The Trevor Project, an organization that focuses on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth. The core of Best Coast songs have always been about struggling with your identity while trying to keep your head above water, so I deeply care about any organization that focuses on mental health awareness.
Thank you so much to the people who have messaged me or told me their stories in person over the years - you are what inspired the new version of this song and I hope you enjoy it.
love + gratitude,
Bethany