On Thursday, June 15, 2023, I sat down with Lydia Night of The Regrettes to talk on my show “Wrinkled Page Radio” for WXCI 91.7 about the band, how her creative process has developed over time, the upcoming tour, and more.

The Regrettes formed as a band in 2015, currently it’s led by Lydia Night on vocals, Genessa Gariano on guitar, Brooke Dickson on bass, and Drew Thomsen on drums. Since they began, the group has gone on to release one EP and three albums, with the latest being Further Joy.

Sonically, the group is known for a mix of influences, including rock, pop, and punk. Night herself is known for having grown up with classic rock music around the house. With her dad’s taste acting as a major influence. The artist has been in three bands across the span of her career, including LILA and Pretty Little Demons.

The Regrettes are a band that I’ve loved for years, and no doubt they could be heard blasting through my earbuds on the bus ride home in High School. So to sit down with the lead singer of a band I’ve grown up with was surreal. It was a rainy morning in LA, and at the early hour of 9:30 AM, Night still happily answered questions and had an open and honest conversation. 

When asked if each band had taught her something different, Night had this to say: “I think naturally, yeah, so many different things. They were all at such different ages and different times in my life that I think there’s so much learning to be done, and I mean, how can you not learn different things when you’re like eight years old? And then, you know, I’m learning first just like how to even step on to stage and do that at all and communicate with other people musically, and then, you know, I started touring for the first time in the second one and writing so much more, and yeah, and then now obviously, there’s just so many things that come from doing it like kind of professionally, you know, and that being my job, so it’s crazy.”

The artist definitely started touring at a young age, having only been twelve at the start of her first tour experience. “It was wild; it was really fun. I was really lucky that my dad was willing to tour manage us, so honestly, that was really safe feeling and comfortable, and I’m just so lucky I had that; I don’t think I could do it without him.” 

It’s clear that Night has remained very grounded and surrounded by good people throughout her time in the music industry, and her dad has been an instrumental part of making sure that she is safe on the road.

We then went on to discuss the creative process and what it’s like for Night to not only develop the sound of The Regrettes further but also work with her band, and what that dynamic has been like over time. “This last album was really special just because it was so different. I had a lot of fun letting go of a lot of rules I think in the past we had kind of given ourselves, but I don’t really have a favorite because again, they’ve been such different times in life. I learned a lot through recording this last one.” 

She then opened up about if her writing ability has developed over time, Night said, “100% I think my ability to co-write and just let other songwriters in has really improved, and also just learning how to navigate that and navigate writing with other people when I’m trying to tell a really personal story takes a while to find a balance and find a way to make that work, and I feel like now I’ve sort of gotten it down better than I had before.”

“I think it’s hard because it’s kind of fluid where a lot of my songwriting now is stuff that I start on my own and then we’ll take into a room with the band or with another songwriter or whatever with other people.” Night explained when I wondered if she prefers writing collaboratively versus solo at this point in her career.  

“And so now it kind of takes a lot of the pressure off when I’m writing not sitting there alone being like ‘okay I’ve got to finish this now’ and I want to finish this now it’s like I can start ideas in a different way whether I come back to them with other people or myself so that kind of works in more of a fluid way.” She said. 

 When speaking about the vulnerability presented in the music that’s put out and how Night maintains a balance between what she keeps to herself and what becomes public for the world to hear, she laughed, “I don’t really, I think I try to sometimes I’ll write a lyric and I’ll you know be like guys, is this too much? And I have honest people around me to be like, yeah, I don’t think you want to… maybe we don’t go there. So I definitely try to reel it in sometimes if it’s going to cause damage like I don’t know, but overall, I’m pretty down, to be honest, and out of pocket.”

Night clearly isn’t afraid to be open and honest throughout her discography. Not only detailing body confidence and self-love, mental health, and the search for happiness, but also falling in love and having a relationship be public. 

The singer has since been open about her sexuality following her previous “public straight monogamous relationship.” When talking about how she’s felt about opening up, Night seemed content with the decision. However, unfortunately it wasn’t all supportive feedback online that she received. “I mean It’s definitely funny you know? You don’t expect any like sort of hate surrounding that and there was definitely some criticism I felt at the beginning of coming out or making music about women.”  

Despite the criticism, Night doesn’t regret her choice, “It feels really good. I feel like it just feels freeing to be able to connect in that way.” The free feeling that being out has provided certainly translates into the music. When explaining if this freedom relates to the creative process, she said, Definitely. Just because that door has been opened so now there’s room for me to kind of explore writing about all sorts of things.”

The vulnerability that Lydia Night shows in her music and her expression over time clearly resonates with fans and allows them to also be vulnerable with her when they meet the artist. 

Fan experiences also came up and if any have stuck with her, she explained, “I have a lot, but I think I have a lot of memories of conversations I’ve had with fans after shows about certain songs and when the song helped them in their lives, and you know, just people getting really vulnerable with me, and that feels… it feels important all of a sudden, like our music feels important in ways that it’s hard to remember it can be for people.” 

The band recently had a cover release for the song “Dancing On My Own” in which they got to feature fans dancing throughout the entire music video, she explained that the project “was so fun and something I knew I wanted to do pretty early on into recording that song just because I feel like the song lends itself to that so well it’s something I’ve seen other artists do and think it’s so sweet and always warms my heart watching and yeah it’s really special that we getting even have people who want to participate and do that like it’s so cool.” 

When discussing if the music videos are an extension of her creativity when it comes to the music, the artist explained that she definitely tries to let it be an extension and she tries to be “as intentional as possible with them.” She went on to describe it overall as a really cool thing that they get to do as a band and an interesting way to express themselves. 

Newer inspiration for the artist when it comes to new music that they may be working on includes Dijon, who recently played RESET with Clairo and Boygenius, The Clash, The Replacements, and Taylor Swift. She described her inspiration as “artists who are brave enough to explore things very simply.” 

We also, beyond the vulnerability with fans, got to talk about the bond between the band members themselves and the way that they have been able to open up with each other specifically while creating Further Joy, an album that was made during COVID-19, and if the pandemic affected the bond with the band. 

“Yeah I mean, naturally I think it pushed us to be more intentional with each other when we needed to bond creatively as a group because it wasn’t just a natural occurrence since we weren’t seeing each other so we took a trip to Joshua tree to really talk about the album and write some missing pieces of the album and just connect in a different way and I think that taught me a lot about being intentional with each other and you know it’s so easy with any relationship when you’re in a routine and you get pulled out to be like wait what what? Like we have to really put in more work than we thought, but it was I mean it’s like family, you know?” Night explained. 

In another interview with Scott Lipps, the artist also mentioned that the use of mushrooms helped to really open up the door to more creative expression, but more than anything, it helped to connect the artist to herself therapeutically, and it’s something that she would do occasionally moving forward.

When asked about writing with the band and that process, she explained, “I would say it begins in a lot of places that I don’t expect it, like I will be going on a walk and have a melody or a lyric, and a lot of times I’ll take it in later with the band or whoever, and that just sort of feels like pulling a string of a sweater that has been waiting to come undone, or I’ll be in the shower or having a conversation and take out my phone and look like a crazy person and start making voice memos, but it’s always very bizarre. I don’t know, I just try to let it happen when it happens.” 

When discussing Joshua Tree and how that impacted the process, Night said, “It inspired a lot of where we took the music because a lot of the songs were written, but the approach to them was really before we went in to record, definitely inspired by the kinds of music we listen to and got into on that trip and the visuals we kind of brainstormed and just the path we really wanted to take with it.” 

Many artists appear to have a love for Joshua Tree and the atmosphere that it can provide for their creativity, while it is uncertain what draws each artist specifically to the desert. The National Parks themselves explain that “Joshua Tree Forests tell a story of survival, resilience, and beauty borne through perseverance.”

The band certainly has resilience themselves, as one of the craziest tour stories the artist mentioned in the interview was that the band had everything out of their tour bus stolen, including Night’s passport and personal documents.

Despite such a difficult experience, touring and the aspect of playing live with the band are another key aspect of The Regrettes and Night’s experience getting to fully live out the creative experience that comes with each album. “Oh gosh, it’s all so different from recording, but I feel like just the pace, and I think just I mean just playing live, like playing and connecting with people you’re not doing that when you’re recording, you’re imagining doing it, but there’s nothing that really beats that connection on stage.” The artist revealed on if the dynamic differs heavily from getting to perform the music versus getting to create it.

 “Definitely, hugely” Night began talking about if the group dynamic on stage is therapeutic, “I think that it’s kind of that moment I was talking about before of people connecting to your songs like that happened in such an intense way on stage it’s such a insane high that I feel when we play it’s really honestly like out of body and then it’s it just takes me out of my head in a way that it’s hard for me to do in real life.”

Going back to the imagery of the pulling of the sweater that Night, so perfectly described, she said that performing definitely does feel like that final pull or final piece.  

When asked about support touring and working with other bands, Night mentioned Twenty One Pilots in Europe and described it as one of the coolest things that she has ever gotten to do. She described it as “magical” and “brutal,” but rewarding.

The Regrettes are currently starting a support tour with artist Yungblud. Night explained that she is very excited and that it is a different crowd than the band is used to. She explained that support tours can be very fun especially because there’s less pressure, and it can be a super fun experience to get to work with other artists.

 You can now get tickets to see The Regrettes for as little as twenty dollars. Be sure to check out any nearby shows because they are sure to provide an electric experience. ” Playing music about my life, even though it can be hard sometimes, it really is therapeutic and doing that with my best friends on stage… It all sounds cheesy, but it’s just the truth; there is no cooler thing.

The Regrettes clearly have a beautiful connection and creative relationship together that can be witnessed through the magic they create together on stage. To get more information on where you can get tickets or find more of their music in the future, you can check out the band’s Instagram or Lydia Night’s. 

To hear the full interview, including how Lydia Night keeps her energy up on tour, you can tune into the show on WXCI 91.7 on Saturday at 1:00 PM or listen to the full audio at this link. It was an honor getting to speak with Lydia, and the passion that she has for the music they create bled through in every question that she was asked.