“Someone said to me, the more polished our sound became, the less polished my image became.”
Jenna McDougall and her Tonight Alive bandmates just dropped their forth album, and the frontwoman is dead-on in describing this divergence. Underworld -- released Jan. 12 on Hopeless Records -- finds the quartet tearing down the pop-punk trappings of their past and joyriding through glistening, groove-heavy soundscapes. As for that image un-polishing, McDougall’s been working the baggy pants and beanie look for some time.
“Through my childhood, I always had my mom saying, ‘Why can’t you dress more like a girl?’" the 25-year old remembers. “Going through the whole major label thing, they wanted me to be more conventionally beautiful… Whenever I wanted to challenge people with my image, it was always thrown back in my face.”