In 2013, Canadian shoegaze outfit No Joy earned raves for their sophomore album Wait to Pleasure. That was their breakthrough in terms of audience, but their upcoming third, More Faithful, just might be their breakthrough in terms of sound.
“For us it feels really big,” No Joy’s Jasamine White-Gluz says, speaking to Billboard from the band’s current European tour. “It’s the first record we’ve done fully as a four-piece band. It’s a way more calculated album. On other records we would take an idea and experiment in the studio. These songs we practiced or played live and made sure we knew them inside and out before we went to the studio.”
Aside from listening to a lot of Ross Robinson productions lately (At the Drive-In, The Blood Brothers), White-Gluz says one of the album’s tracks, “Holllywood Teeth,” has an unlikely, tangential inspiration: Hilary Duff.
“We always come up with working titles that are sometimes embarrassing,” she admits. “We have a song where the working title is ‘Taking Back Sunday,’ and we can’t seem to change it from that now. But ‘Hollywood Teeth’ is something Laura [Lloyd, co-founding member] came up with when we were looking at Hilary Duff and she had the crazy teeth, Hollywood-style.”
ICYMI, Duff’s teeth have been subject to many “before and after” posts on the Internet. A Google search for “Hilary Duff teeth” yields half a million results.
“But it was just a phrase we liked,” she assures Billboard. “The song is not precisely about her teeth — it’s not totally related to the song.” Incidentally, she tells Billboard she’s a fan of Duff’s latest single, “Sparks.”
UPDATE: No Joy tweeted that “Hollywood Teeth” is “in no way inspired by Hilary Duff.” The above quotes pertaining to Duff and “Hollywood Teeth” are direct transcriptions from the interview.
“Hollywood Teeth” is in no way inspired by Hilary Duff, but we were watching her new music video before the billboard interview
— NO JOY (@nojoy) May 26, 2015
As for what the song is actually about, White-Gluz says a pleasantly clean breakup inspired “Hollywood Teeth.” “It was about breaking up with somebody but I was like, ‘Everything’s cool, let’s have a party!’ Nobody has hurt feelings, it’s all fun.”
Listen to the exclusive premiere of “Hollywood Teeth” — which pits lovely, understated harmonies against atmospheric, expansive guitars — below. No Joy’s More Faithful comes out June 9 via Mexican Summer, and they return to the U.S. for a tour in June.