Los Angeles ska-punk band The Interrupters return with their first album in four years, with Tim Armstrong, Jesse Michaels and Travis Barker contributing to a deeply personal record about recovery, survival and personal change.
The Interrupters will release their fifth studio album, Battle Scars, on January 29, marking their first full-length release in four years. The Los Angeles ska-punk band have also unveiled the video for new single Back From The Dead, a song that finds frontwoman Aimee Interrupter reflecting on a personal battle with alcohol and the changes that followed.
Back From The Dead uses the band’s familiar ska-punk energy to frame a story of survival and renewal. Its accompanying video places the band in a hospital setting, reflecting the song’s themes of death, recovery and rebirth.
Aimee describes the track as a personal reckoning with her past.
“‘Back From the Dead’ is a reawakening,” she says. “I had a near-death experience, and now when I look back on it, I realise that the version of me that died is truly gone. But that’s a good thing and something I celebrate. This is my letter to alcohol, the worst friend I ever had: you tried to kill me, you tried to hold me down, but I’m back from the dead.”
Battle Scars follows 2022’s In The Wild and brings together several established collaborators from the band’s punk and ska circles. Kevin Bivona and Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong produced the album, which was recorded to analog tape.
Operation Ivy’s Jesse Michaels co-wrote two songs and provides guest vocals on Stranger. Travis Barker co-produced three tracks, playing drums on Wild Heart, Unbreakable and Warrior Spirit. Armstrong also makes a guest appearance on One More Trip, alongside The Slackers’ Vic Ruggiero.
The album expands The Interrupters’ established ska-punk foundation with elements of new wave, post-punk and synth-pop. Opening track Warrior Spirit, released in October, introduces that direction with a new-wave influence, while Unbreakable returns to a more guitar-driven approach.
Other songs explore different aspects of the album’s emotional territory. Stained Glass Window takes a more reflective approach, while Wild Heart and Harboring Vengeance address themes of recovery, forgiveness and mental health.
Aimee says the record is among her most personal statements to date.
“On this album, I’m speaking my truth, and some of it’s deeply personal,” she says.
The sequencing is also deliberate. Warrior Spirit opens the album with a statement of resilience, while closing track Legacy looks towards what remains after the struggles documented throughout the record.
“We start as warriors, and we end with the legacy, hopefully, leaving the world a little better than we found it,” Aimee explains.
Formed in Los Angeles in 2011, The Interrupters feature Aimee alongside brothers Kevin, Justin and Jesse Bivona. The band built an international audience through their energetic combination of ska, punk and rock, with their 2018 single She’s Kerosene becoming a major radio success in the United States and Canada.
That song appeared on Fight The Good Fight, the album that helped establish The Interrupters as one of the leading contemporary acts in the ska-punk revival. Their 2022 follow-up, In The Wild, broadened their musical palette with elements of punk, doo-wop, gospel and dancehall.
Battle Scars continues that development while placing Aimee’s personal experiences at the centre of the songwriting.
The Interrupters’ fifth album, Battle Scars, will be released on January 29 and is available for pre-order now.
Battle Scars Tracklist
Warrior Spirit
Scorpion
Wild Heart (feat. Travis Barker)
Vampire
Stained Glass Window
Unbreakable
Harboring Vengeance
Back From The Dead
One More Trip (feat. Tim Armstrong & Vic Ruggiero)
Stranger (feat. Jesse Michaels)
Legacy
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