She needn’t have apprehensive. Bognanno has gained a legion of followers whereas placing out music as Bully for a decade now, earlier this yr touring with the Pixies and Franz Ferdinand. Which doesn’t imply her life is all rainbows now — simply that she’s mastered the artwork of turning angst into bangers.
Nothing is extra rock than loving your canine. Bognanno’s newest album, “Fortunate for You,” facilities on the grief of shedding her “soul mate” canine Mezzie. Bognanno had the mixed-breed pup for 13 years earlier than Mezzie died in March of 2022. “When that occurred, there was nothing else that I might actually write about,” she stated. Bognanno, 33, grew up in a busy family and felt like she didn’t all the time slot in along with her friends, however with Mezzie she felt unconditional love and acceptance: “I felt safe and guarded and empowered, and I had simply by no means skilled feeling like that earlier than.”
Bognanno’s feelings don’t simply overflow for her canine companion; she has an overabundance of compassion and is consistently affected by the world round her. “I really feel like I’m, simply as a human being, manner too delicate and burdened by pointless empathy,” she stated. This unbridled wealth of feeling pours into her music from all instructions: When she feels one thing deeply (as she typically does), she needs to course of that have lyrically.
After the autumn of Roe v. Wade in the summertime of 2022, Bognanno wrote “Ms. America,” through which she laments the constitutional lack of abortion rights for her and different ladies, singing: “I suppose every little thing falls aside / Discovering hope in a brokеn coronary heart / All I wished was a daughter / Strive my bеst to boost her proper / However the entire world’s caught on hearth / And I don’t wanna train a child to battle.”
“I used to be, [along with] a bunch of different individuals, feeling actually horrible and unhappy about the entire thing,” stated Bognanno, who was shocked by not simply the lack of abortion protections however what it meant for girls’s rights as a complete. “I really feel like, having been within the music trade for 10 years, I’ve all the time been attempting to show myself a bit bit as a lady. And I simply felt possibly that I wasn’t really taken critically or we haven’t been taken critically as a gender.”
She understands that audiences share completely different opinions however is not going to water herself right down to please those that disagree along with her. “I simply don’t actually care what different individuals assume. This mission is simply an extension of me, and I don’t need to silence any half about myself to cater to what someone says,” Bognanno continued. “I’ve already handled individuals saying actually horrible issues, and I nearly really feel like one thing like abortion is greater than a political problem.”
Sept. 24 at 7:30 p.m. (doorways open) on the Black Cat, 1811 14th St NW. blackcatdc.com. $20-$25.
