ANAHEIM, Calif. — During the early days of the pandemic lockdowns in 2020, Lit began working on new music.
The band — known for rock hits like “My Own Worst Enemy” and “Miserable” off its 1999 sophomore album “A Place in the Sun” — had spent the last few years experimenting with country music. Lit released a more alt-country leaning album in 2017 and vocalist A. Jay Popoff and guitarist Jeremy Popoff embarked on a country side project, The Popoff Brothers.
But something was missing.
“Jeremy and I had written so much of the country stuff, but when it came time to start making music again for Lit we had a discussion about, well, maybe we should just keep that country sound separate from what Lit is,” A. Jay said during a recent video interview along with the rest of the band.
“We decided to really hone in and focus on making an old school record and going back to our roots,” Jeremy added. “So this record is going back to Lit circa 1999-2001.”
The end result is “Tastes Like Gold,” Lit’s seventh studio album and one that captures the rock feel of that era with a modern twist. They’ve already released several singles including “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,” “Mouth Shut,” “Do It Again” and “Kicked Off the Plane.” The band will celebrate the official release of the record on June 17 with a headlining hometown show at House of Blues Anaheim and they have already been testing out the new songs on live audiences while back out on tour.
“They are feeling great,” A. Jay said of the new material. “We haven’t really had this sort of feeling with new music on stage since we were playing the ‘A Place in the Sun’ record back in the day. You can immediately tell from the response, ‘Yeah, that should be a single’ and the energy from the crowd is incredible.”
For the record, Lit collaborated with songwriter and producer Carlo Colasacco and singer-songwriter and producer Eric Paquette, who goes by the moniker Youthyear.
“We didn’t want an old school producer to come in and help us recapture the old school days,” Jeremy explains. “We wanted a new flavor and had this idea, like why don’t we get some of these younger people that were influenced by us and who grew up on our stuff and get their take on what Lit means to them in today’s world. Both of those guys grew up on Lit, so it was a good vibe and I think we inspired each other in the process, which is exactly what we wanted.”
The album also features special guests including No Doubt’s Adrian Young on drums with “Mouth Shut,” American Authors on “The Life That I Got” and Butch Walker and Jason Freese on a cover of The Cars’ “Let’s Go.”
“With The Authors on ‘The Life That I Got,’ that song sounds like a summertime in Southern California anthem,” Jeremy said. “We’ve got one of those on every record, but we talked about our roots, where we grew up and it references how we lived on Happy Hours at Kelly’s Korner and played warehouse parties in Anaheim to pay our rent. It’s a fun, light-hearted song about appreciating the life that you’ve got.”
The album will be available for streaming but the guys put in an endorsement for the vinyl versions of the record.
“When we mastered the record, we always make the albums in a similar fashion as we make set lists for a live show,” Jeremy said. “We come out of the gate swinging and we end on a high note and we go for a little roller-coaster ride in the middle. With streaming, you lose that. Most of the people are going to stream it, but if they wanna know the way we intended it to be heard, get the vinyl and go front to back for that ride.”
“The vinyl I had as a little kid, I still have it and I’ve amassed quite a bit more vinyl, but I enjoy putting it on and listening to it,” bassist Kevin Baldes added. “Today, we get all the pictures on social media immediately, where back in the day you had to wait for the album and the liner notes. We come from that school, so I love vinyl and the idea of still holding it.”
Last year, Lit was the subject of a four-part documentary-style podcast, “My Own Worst Enemy, The Podcast,” which focused on the origins and impact of the band’s biggest hit. Since 1999, the song received tons of play on MTV and radio stations around the world, it was included in the “Rock Band” video game and it has been covered by artists like country star Dustin Lynch, rapper and singer-songwriter Post Malone and pop star Kelly Clarkson sang it on her daytime television show. It’s also often played at karaoke bars, weddings, restaurants and even the grocery store.
“We’ve been living that song since 1999 and we haven’t stopped playing it in the set,” A. Jay said. “We hear it everywhere we go, too, but it took something like this podcast for us to be able to look at it from a different perspective. They talked to our peers and different celebrities about what it meant to them and at times I was getting choked up. It made us look back and go, ‘Wow, that was a pretty cool achievement.’”
“I’m going to be honest, it brought tears to my eyes listening to it and hearing stories from our manager from back in the day when we were four guys in a garage,” Baldes said. “The fact that we are here this many years later … we’ve made our mark on the industry and we’re still out doing it with a new album coming out, it makes you stop and think that we really did put something special together.”
Both Jeremy and A. Jay relocated to Tennessee early on in the pandemic in 2020. Baldes still resides in Orange County and Taylor Carroll, who joined on drums in 2018, lives in Los Angeles. Despite the distance, they make it work and treat each other like family.
That dynamic is what has been key to keeping the band together. Jeremy said that when they were writing the new songs, they were talking about the albums and music magazines that initially brought them together as friends back in the ’80s when they were attending junior high school in Anaheim.
“The basis of this relationship and the foundation of our band is that we’re just die-hard rock and roll fans,” Jeremy said. “We started this band in high school and that’s all we knew. We get on each other’s nerves and we’re dysfunctional and we do the same stuff families do, but ultimately we sit around the dinner table and we hold together.”
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