If you thought Twerp Verse was just another indie rock record with a quirky name, Sadie Dupuis would like a word — preferably one you can’t quite make sense of on first listen. “I like the expression you just used: lyrical mystery,” she says. “I’ve always viewed getting the lyrics right as a big puzzle. They have to surprise me — I want them to be fun to read on the page.”
Sadie’s version of fun, of course, includes ditching an entire finished album. Speedy Ortiz recorded 11 songs — mixed them four times — and then Trump happened. “The election was the final straw,” she shrugs. “It just felt like putting out a time capsule from 2014 was pointless. Those songs didn’t say anything about what I’m worried about now.” So they started over.
The new record trades stale time-capsule nostalgia for a tense, teeth-bared look at harassment, optimism, and the daily horror show. The song Villain sat in a drawer for four years because Dupuis wasn’t ready to release a track about sexual assault. Now, she says, “It seems like consent is much more a part of our national conversation — so it felt like time to let that song out.”
But don’t expect a dreary soapbox record. Speedy Ortiz still loves monsters — literal ones. “We’ve always done monster videos,” she laughs. “The metaphors just come easier now. There are some real scary ones out there.” Apparently horror is best served with jokes. “I watched Paranormal Activity last night and slept with the lights on,” she admits. “I can do Scream, Happy Death Day, the campy stuff. But if it’s pure horror, I cannot function.”
Twerp Verse thrives on that same balance: the serious next to the surreal. There’s a new guitarist, Andy, who plugs fuzzy textures into Sadie’s wall of guitar chaos. There’s “Lucky 88,” a single that I keep mishearing as “Rocket 88” — the world’s first rock song, by some trivia nerd measure. “Not the worst mondegreen,” she laughs. “Sometimes you land on the right side of the misheard lyric.”
And the politics. It’s there, but not like you think. “It’s not just an anti-Trump record — it’s about the horror of this time,” she says. “But also about celebrating the people pushing back. Philly has actions almost every day. There’s plenty to protest, but there’s also so much to affirm.”
So yeah, Twerp Verse is a protest record in disguise. Or maybe a horror comedy. Or maybe just a puzzle box of lines to scribble on your bedroom wall. Whatever it is, Sadie Dupuis wants it to be weird enough to matter. “I really like for a record to exist in its own world,” she says. “I’m psyched on that.”
Listen to the interview above and then check out the video below!
