F.E.A.R.

I didn’t go looking for this band. Apple Music put “deathwish” in a playlist, and the first thing I noticed was Bonnie Fraser’s voice.

Their earlier songs sound like a band trying to fit into the pop-punk scene, figuring out what a pop-punk band is supposed to sound like and then doing that. By F.E.A.R., they went all out. That don’t-give-a-shit attitude makes me happy.

The title stands for Fuck Everything and Run. That’s about all you need to know going in.

“van gogh” is the one I picked to close the episode. Bonnie has said she’s “a people pleaser, to everyone else but myself.” The way I hear it, Van Gogh cutting off his ear is the metaphor: cutting off the noise, the toxic stuff, and all the expectations that come with trying to make everybody happy. Which is pretty much the whole album in one song.

In 2023, Mike Shinoda pulled Bonnie into a session in Sydney to play his solo song “Already Over.” She said the imposter syndrome hit her so hard she almost backed out. She didn’t, and on Linkin Park’s “Bleed It Out” that day, she sang Chester Bennington’s parts.

What I like most is getting to hear them grow. Go back to the Sidewinder EP, then put on F.E.A.R., and it barely sounds like the same band. They stopped trying to sound like what a pop-punk band is supposed to sound like and started sounding like themselves.