# BEST EX Channels Darkwave/Synthpop With “Die For You (Soft Faith Remix)”

- Link: https://www.nyrdcast.com/best-ex-channels-darkwave-synthpop-with-die-for-you-soft-faith-remix/
- Published: 2024-02-15T13:30:00-06:00
- Author: Eugene Tierney

### **BEST EX**⏎ **Channels Darkwave/Synthpop With**󠀁[**“Die For You (Soft Faith Remix)”**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=b8a016f2bd&e=615f2b8493)󠁿

#### **Out Now _󠀁[With A Smile](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=cbfac49e43&e=615f2b8493)󠁿 _Debut Album**⏎ _**via**_** Iodine Recordings/Alcopop! Records**

**FEBRUARY 14, 2024 (NEW YORK, NY) –** “When **Kenny** [**Fletcher**] pitched me
the idea of a collab with his new synthpop band [**Soft Faith**], it was an immediate
yes,” says** Mariel Loveland** of NYC-based indie-pop band** Best Ex **about the
[**Soft Faith remix **of](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=38e44c1c0b&e=615f2b8493)**
[ “Die For You”](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=10be32424d&e=615f2b8493)**(
out today). 

[[

**Best Ex’s “Die For You (Soft Faith Remix)” Artwork**

While the original version of “Die For You” is taken from her debut album [**_With A Smile_**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=0ad19e5486&e=615f2b8493)(
out now on **Iodine Recordings/Alcopop! Records**) and is driven by airy pop rock
sensibilities, the Soft Faith remix twists it into darker synthpop territory, finding
strange bedfellows with bands like CHVRCHES, Wolfsheim, Visage, and even Depeche
Mode. 

“I have never done anything like this before. I’ve always been attracted to a darker
sound, and this was finally the opportunity to explore it,” she says. “It’s like
the polar opposite of the music I used to make when Kenny and I first met. I’m so
proud to see my career constantly evolving, and I couldn’t be more in love with 
the remix.” 

Featuring Mariel and collaborator **Luxtides** (moniker of singer songwriter **Danni
Bouchard**), “Die For You” unabashedly calls out many of the (largely male) music
industry gatekeepers who manipulate bright eyed neophytes to the music scene into
doing their bidding. Getting Kenny of Soft Faith involved who has been right alongside
Mariel since her early Candy Heart days and witnessed this practice, felt perfect.

“We went to college together, but I never knew him,” she says. “We actually met 
when he filled in as a guitarist on one of Candy Hearts’ biggest tours. It was a
leap of faith. He was a stranger who became my lifeline.”

**Listen/share: **[https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/bestex/die-for-you-soft-faith-remix](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=ffdcb12652&e=615f2b8493)

[[

**Mariel Loveland of BEST EX**

While their tour together was during a “pretty tumultuous” time in her life, they’d
stay up driving overnight to the next city, and when everyone else was sleeping,
their late night conversations  really helped her put everything into perspective.“
I left that tour a way better person than I was when I went into it,” she recalls,
reflecting on the internal growth she experienced from their talks. “I feel like,
since then, he’s seen so much of my experience in the music industry—all the highs,
lows, and double standards—that he really understood where ‘Die for You’ was coming
from.”

She adds that the song can be summed up by the lyrics in the bridge: “_They don’t
see the things you do behind the doors you opened that I walked through_.”

Throughout it all, _With A Smile_ marks dramatic life changes that forced Mariel
to re-examine her life. “I feel like I’ve aged a decade in three short years, and
I think that’s all reflected on the album,” she realizes. “I met my husband and 
moved in with him almost instantly. We eloped. I became an aunt. I lost my grandma.
When I listen, I literally hear myself coming of age.”

[⌊best ex⌉⌊best ex⌉[

_**With A Smile**_** Album Artwork**

_**With A Smile**_** Album Artwork**
**Tracklist:**

 1.  With a Smile
 2.  [Tell Your Friends](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=831aa4f78c&e=615f2b8493)
 3.  Give Me a Break
 4.  Salt On Skin
 5.  [I Promise To Ruin Your Life](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=a238a0b107&e=615f2b8493)
 6.  Stay With Me
 7.  [Die For You](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=0707e081d5&e=615f2b8493)
 8.  Cut Me Out
 9.  What The Hell
 10.  Joyride (Glad You Found Me)
 11. [The End](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=4411de5528&e=615f2b8493)
 12. Daylight  

Living in the shadow of NYC in Northern New Jersey, Mariel Loveland got her start
battling it out in the rough and tumble suburban scene with her nostalgia-tinged
punk outfit **Candy Hearts **in 2010. Within two short years, she went from playing
basements across the East Coast to sharing the stage with pop punk heavyweights 
like **Man Overboard,** **New Found Glory **and **Weezer**. After a final stint 
on **Vans Warped Tour** in 2015, she adopted the moniker **Best Ex**, trading energetic
guitars for fuzzed-out synths, dreamy acoustics and a melodic sweet tooth that rivaled**
Carly Rae Jepson**‘s or **Sky Ferreira**‘s.

Loveland’s previous two EPs—_**Ice Cream Anti-Social **_(2017) and _**Good At Feeling
Bad**_ (2020)—were met with critical acclaim from publications like **Billboard**
and **Alternative Press**, even landing airplay on **BBC Radio 1**. After inking
a new record deal with **Iodine Recordings**, the singer-songwriter is overjoyed
that her debut Best Ex full-length album _**With A Smile**_ is out now.

**Best Ex**’s [**_With A Smile_**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=8c321f163d&e=615f2b8493)
is out now _via_** Iodine Recordings/Alcopop! Records**.

Vinyl is available from Iodine and Deathwish Inc. in the U.S. [HERE](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=8bc7df9f98&e=615f2b8493)
and Alcopop! In the UK and EU [HERE](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=72d3dbb3bf&e=615f2b8493),
including a limited edition vinyl pressing of 250 copies on half orange and half
midnight.

**Social Media:**
[Website](https://www.bestexnj.com/) | [X](https://twitter.com/marielxloveland)
| [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/bestexnj/) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/bestexnj/)
| [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/artist/5e1bKhywUuMGHafddmBW6u)

[⌊Reybee Inc⌉⌊Reybee Inc⌉[

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