Candy Hearts have changed their name to Best Ex, lead singer Mariel Loveland said the name change is for the best to represent everything about who she is now. Best Ex have released their new song “Girlfriend” via Billboard and will be releasing their debut EP Ice Cream Anti Social this summer. In the article, a statement from Loveland about the name change was released:
Candy Hearts has always been an extension of everything I am. I came up with the idea for the band when I was a teenager, and I think it was deeply empowering at the time to be able to be in a punk band, shout on stage, and still own the fact that I felt like such a shy, insecure girl. That was always my thing — I’m powerful despite my anxieties. I think over the past five years — after the amazing whirlwind my band has been through that I still can’t believe even happened — it really transformed from an extension of myself to an extension of my anxiety and not much else.
To me, Best Ex is taking everything that Candy Hearts is — everything that I am — and giving it a breakup makeover. Only I didn’t break up with a lying, good-for-nothing human being, I broke up with my lying, good-for-nothing anxiety. To me, this record is that light at the end of the tunnel I’ve been trying to find for the last two and a half years. Making it felt like falling and figuring out my wings actually hadn’t been clipped like I thought. I’m so happy to have this finally be out there and to have it stand, where it belongs, alongside all of our other songs, which I consider a deep part of who I am.
This summer Best Ex will be co-headlining a tour with Promise of Redemption (featuring Valencia’s Shane Henderson), Baggage, June Divided, Kozi and others to be announced. Tour dates are listed below.
June 25: Metro Gallery, Baltimore, Md.
June 26: Canal Culb, Richmond, Vir. ^
June 27: Milestone, Charlotte, NC
June 28: New Brookland Tavern, Columbia, SC ^
June 30: TBD, Tampa, Fla. ^
July 1: Backbooth, Orlando, Fla. ^
July 2: Siberia, New Orleans, La.
July 3: Dirty 30, Dallas, Tex.
July 4: Dirty Dog Bar, Austin, Tex.
July 6: Rebel Lounge, Phoenix, Ari.
July 7: Beauty Bar, Las Vegas, Nev.
July 8: The Holding Company, San Diego, Cali.
July 9: Viper Room, Los Angeles, Cali.
July 10: Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, Cali.
July 12: Loading Dock, Salt Lake City, Utah
July 14: Vega, Lincol, Neb.
July 15: Subterranean, Chicago Ill. *
July 16: Mahall’s, Cleveland, Ohio *
July 17: Smiling Moose, Pittsburgh, Penn. *
July 19: Middle East Upstairs, Boston, Mass. *
July 20: Studio at Webster, New York City *
July 21: Foundry, Philadelphia, Penn. *
* with Baggage
^ with June Divided
