Real Beaut unleash a fit of provocative fury with the ‘Politics’ EP
Boston guitar-rock quartet with dudes from all the other bands you love deliver an incendiary and adrenalized new record on Friday, April 4
NOW PLAYING: Listen to the ‘Politics’ EP on Spotify
Lead single ‘Paying Attention’ is now playing on Bandcamp
BOSTON, Mass. [April 4, 2025] – Urgent times call for urgent music. And Real Beaut are waiting anxiously on the line.
The Boston alt-rock band, composed of all those other rock and roll groups that soundtracked the gritty and messy underbelly of the city’s music scene over the past several years, unleash new EP Politics on Friday, April 4. The official record release party goes down the following night at the band’s unofficial home base, The Middle East in Cambridge, leading a sparkplug bill alongside American Ethos, Dwelley, and Bad at Drawing.
And regardless of where one may be on that Saturday night, the might and magnitude of Politics should be audibly heard far and loud. A powderkeg of a four-track record and the follow-up to 2023 debut EP Gentle Messages, it finds Real Beaut’s four members – guitarist Andrew Doherty; drummer and producer Benny Grotto, bassist and vocalist Johnny Northrup; and vocalist Keith Pierce – shifting into creative overdrive and embracing a new creative gear after years of collaboration, chemistry, and friendship.
And what the audience may hear could startle those not strapped in.
“Our excitement around releasing Politics is fairly boundless,” says Pierce. “We have been trying hard to keep this record under wraps. Creating new interesting guitar-driven music in a relatable, communicative way is difficult but Real Beaut is one of the finest rock experiments I’ve ever been a part of. This new EP is very different from some of our earlier productions but we tried to retain the speed and ferocity of our youth through practice, recording, and respect for the listener.”
Even with each of the four blistering tracks all assuming its own sonic identity – confrontational opening banger “Politics on the Internet,” abrasively addresses what the title implies; the seismic “Paying Attention,” which hit Bandcamp early as an aural appetizer and has been described as a sort of grunge take on Van Halen; the hypnotic rock murkiness of ”Profane and Pedigree”; and the suffocating guitar assault of closer “Islands” – there is a cohesion that flows across the EP’s breathless and impatient 12 minutes of runtime.
“Real Beaut always strives to find ways for building tension and allowing opportunity for release,” says Doherty. “Sometimes this is achieved by riding the line between discord and melody, or by letting the song sit in a sustained, dark pocket… festering or incubating, before breaking through and emerging as something new. These new tracks are a continuation of a process from our early work, but with more identifiable Real Beaut qualities.”
What has emerged is a spectrum of emotion and modern-day observation through the lens of four people with a lot to say and not a lot of time to say it. Politics was produced by Grotto at his Mad Oak Studios in Allston, Massachusetts after the band cultivated the songs at Doherty’s home space just outside the city. And as usual, the seeds of the song were planted by a riff.
“Andrew and I had worked together in a band called Mellow Bravo for years,” Pierce reveals. “We still do sometimes but people moved away so after that fizzled out we started writing newer material together. I don't think there was an effort for a specific sound but I know we were not trying to repeat ourselves. There were things we were not trying to do. We wanted this project to be darker, more angular, maybe with a deep perspective on life…? We are still the same goofballs just with more love and responsibility. Less booze, more attention to sonic details for a refined palate.”
Bands like Idles, Queens of the Stone Age, and Cave In, representing the heavier side of music but with a more calculated approach to melody (and a little less screaming) served as a loose blueprint. Sprinkle in all the stress and tension involved with just existing in today’s panicked society, and the moment was ripe for Real Beaut to explode out of the speakers with a clear and concise fury.
Lyrical themes of personal emotion, attention spans, anxiety, and frustration and futility permeate through the record, but so are more optimistic approaches, like holding family close, appreciating the good in the world, and showing dedication to loved ones when they suffer their own turmoil. And after all, kickstarting an EP with a track titled “Politics on the Internet” proves Real Beaut aren’t shying away from difficult issues.
“‘Politics on the Internet’ is about caring for yourself enough not to engage in the beast battle all the time,” Pierce admits. “You can talk to your brothers, parents, and friends. There are minds you can change in this world if you disagree with them, but some dope on the other end of a keyboard isn't going to open their mind because of the intelligent quip you made on the socials. Prioritize your family and fight locally. Flinging verbal excrement at a screen isn't the way. Love yourself, love others. Love, sex, being strong through kindness, the weight of political turmoil and technology on what is human in humanity.”
The lyrical reach only grows louder from there.
“Paying Attention,” a microcosm of society as a whole, centers on friendship and checking in on people, as we watch those around us lose their mental balance as they lose their friends, jobs, mothers and fathers, and grapple with how to acknowledge their suffering. “Profane and Pedigree” deals with devotion to spouses and family, and how one can be classy and dirty at the same time and how that duality is attractive to the point of entrancing. Closing the EP out with an overwhelming alt-rock embrace, the explosive and provocative “Islands” centers around powerlessly watching family or loved ones weather a storm we can do nothing about, but having the strength to be the island they land on when it is all over.
“Real Beaut allows me to express my musical self in its purest form – writing without external considerations,” says Doherty. “Being able to share it all with some of my favorite friends and musicians and be really proud of the shared effort and input in the end, is pretty magical.”
Pierce agrees. While none of us are the young kids raging at the party anymore, the urge to create, to communicate, and to collaborate still flows through our livelihoods. And beyond all the lyrics and the riffs, the accusations and the confessions, the highs and lows of life, remains a desire for camaraderie.
For Real Beaut, this is not Politics as usual.
“Getting together with some of my oldest friends once a week to hang and actually make something with our time here on Earth besides making our employers happy is the best thing about being in Real Beaut,” Pierce concludes. “Every musician playing mostly original music needs some kind of job. We do that so we can do this our way. I don't care if anyone comes to the shows or listens. I love this recording and that is cool for me.”
‘Politics’ EP artwork:
Real Beaut is:
Andrew Doherty: Guitar
Benny Grotto: Drums
Johnny Northrup: Bass, vocals
Keith Pierce: Vocals
‘Politics’ production credits:
Written by Real Beaut
Lyrics by Keith Pierce
Produced recorded, and mixed by Benny Grotto at Mad Oak Studios in Allston, MA
Mastered by Jeff Lipton at Peerless Mastering, Boston MA
Assistant Mastering Engineer Costanza Tinti
Album cover art by Jason Zucco
Press photo by Morgan O’Meara
