Rare Americans Announce New EP 'You're Not a Bad Person, It's Just a Bad World'

Rare Americans are thrilled to announce the You're Not A Bad Person, It's Just a Bad World, due out July 21st on EMPIRE. Today they share the EP's lead single "Love Is All I Bring" along with a post apocalyptic animated music video for the song.

Next week the Vancouver, BC group kick off their first ever tour of the UK and Europe, with dates already sold out in London, Birmingham and Manchester in the UK, and festival appearances set for PinkPop in the Netherlands and the Lovestream festival in Slovakia. Then this fall the band will return to the united states for a massive run of dates, playing even bigger rooms than they hit on their completely sold out first ever tour of North America this spring. Fans can find tickets and dates here.

"I live in Vancouver, and there is always rumblings of a catastrophic storm that is supposed to hit the west coast of Canada within the next 50 years," shares Rare American's James Priestner about the new single. "I live right near the water and have always wondered, what would it be like to live through such a storm? With that in mind, I just decided to try and write a song about from my perspective. The destruction, the helplessness, the willingness to doing anything to help others survive. It's a scary thought, but a very real one, and that's where this song came from."

Completely selling out a first ever North American tour months in advance (even after adding additional shows and upgrading venus in certain markets) is only one part of the incredible story behind the band, which has grown a massive and passionate fanbase with their all-in-it melodicism and inventive audio/visual storytelling.

Their music and message has resonated with a new generation of music fans, cementing them as a force to be reckoned with. Bandleader James Priestner and his gang of misfits draw inspiration from a myriad of genres while keeping true to what makes them unique: Telling crooked and catchy stories that relatably reflect the bizarre and sometimes heartbreaking realities of modern life.

Since their debut in 2018, the band has amassed over 350M+ global streams, 2M+ social media followers, 1.35M Spotify monthly listeners and 700K YT subscribers, a 2020 Juno for their song "Brittle Bones Nicky", a song featured in Warner's Scoob! The Movie soundtrack, and a spot on the Billboard Top 100 album charts for their album RA2.

A large part of the band's appeal has been their use of visual media to tell the gripping stories behind their songs. Rare Americans have gone all in on building an animated universe to pair with their musical output, making their fandom unique among other contemporary artists when it comes to how they engage with the group's catalog. Their fanbase is invested in the world Rare Americans have created across their various releases, following the group and their music in a way that could be mistaken for how devotees of the MCU or Rick and Morty obsess over those series.

Recently, Rare Americans announced an investment in this approach, launching Crooked City Studios in partnership with the award-winning Toronto based independent animation studio Solis Animation. The two parties had already collaborated on 16 animated narrative music videos for Rare Americans and have big plans for the future together, including two original animation projects "Crooked City" and "Brittle Bones Nicky".

Rare Americans began its journey while James and his older brother of 11 years Jared, a co-writer but not performing member in the band, wv write some songs together," to which Jared responded, "f that, what about an entire album?" A week and a half later, the two of them had created 15 songs in what would later become their eponymously-titled debut album. Since then, Rare Americans have rounded out the crew with the addition of Slovak guitarists Lubo Ivan and Jan Cajka, and drummer Duran Ritz.

Watch the new animated lyric video here:

2022 Tour Dates

JUNE
06 - Vienna, AT @ Chelsea
07 - Budapest, HU @ Akvarium
09 - Warsaw, PL @ Hydrozagadka
11 - Bratislava, SK @ Tehelne Pole Stadium (Lovestream Festival)
12 - Berlin, DE @ Privatclub
13 - Cologne, DE @ Blue Shell (Low Ticket Warning)
15 - Munich, DE @ Orangehouse
16 - Hamburg, DE @ Nochtpeicher
17 - Hradec Králové, CZ @ Rock For People
19 - Landgraaf, NL @ Pinkpop Festival
21 - Leuven, BE @ Het Depot
22 - Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie
24 - Manchester, UK @ Night & Day Café (SOLD OUT)
25 - Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute 3 (SOLD OUT)
27 - London, UK @ Camden Assembly (SOLD OUT)
28 - London, UK @ Camden Assembly (2nd Show Added! Low Ticket Warning)
29 - Dublin, IE @ Grand Social

SEPTEMBER
07 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos
08 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater
10 - Sacramento, CA @ Goldfield Midtown
11 - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop (Popscene)
14 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theater
15 - San Diego, CA @ Voodoo Room
17 - Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
18 - Tucson, AZ @ Hotel Congress
20 - Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
21 - El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace
23 - San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
24 - Austin, TX @ Antone's
25 - Dallas, TX @ Trees
27 - Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall Downstairs
28 - New Orleans, LA @ The Parish
29 - Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
30 - Orlando, FL @ The Social

OCTOBER
01 - Miami, FL @ Gramps
04 - Durham, NC @ Motorco
07 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
08 - Washington, DC @ Union Stage
09 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry
10 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Thunderbird Music Hall
12 - Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
13 - Columbus, OH @ The Basement
15 - Detroit, MI @ El Club
16 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
18 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
20 - Omaha NE @ Slowdown
22 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
24 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
25 - Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory

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