BUTCHER BABIES have been performing their cover of “Best Friend” at their recent live shows.

Speaking to Spain’s EMP about their decision to cover “Best Friend”, BUTCHER BABIES co-vocalist Heidi Shepherd said: “It’s basically a song about (me and fellow BUTCHER BABIES singer Carla Harvey). ‘Cause we’ve been best friends for so long. We were a band together prior to BUTCHER BABIES. It’s a cover, and we figured we can’t think of two better people to cover this song besides us. So it’s fun.”

At this year’s Brutal Assault festival in Jaromer, Czech Republic, Shepherd and Harvey spoke to Metalshop about the band’s upcoming fourth studio album which was recently completed with producer Josh Schroeder (LORNA SHORE, KING 810) for a 2023 release. Heidi said: “We released a barrage of singles throughout 2020 and 2021, and we’re gonna follow that up with a full-length album in 2023. But we’re also going to finish out the rest of this year with a bunch of singles from that album. So we’re very excited. We played one new song today from that album, called ‘Best Friend’. And it’s been going over really well. So we’re very excited. I know it’s been a while, but it’ll be worth the wait.”

Asked why it’s better to release singles than a full-length album in 2022, Carla said: “I think we live in a time where people want things right now; they want new stuff all the time. And I also think that when you release a single, people have a chance to digest that song, fall in love with that song before they skip to the next one and the next one and the next one. We really like developing a song on its own, making a video for that song, telling the story of that song, because every song is special to us.”

Added Heidi: “We put our heart and soul into every single song that goes on the album. We don’t just half-ass any of the songs, and so we want to make sure that it gets the life and the attention it deserves. And so I think we’re just gonna continue this way and just leak it a little bit at a time and keep it going.”

In a separate interview with Bloodstock TV, Carla stated about the recording process for the new BUTCHER BABIES LP: “It was a really cool experience. We got to sit together for about six weeks in the middle of nowhere — a very, very small town in Michigan — and just create together. And we had an Airbnb with animal skulls all over the place. And we just sat there in the snow and created probably our best album to date. So it was a great bonding experience.”

Heidi confirmed that “Best Friend” will be included on BUTCHER BABIES‘ new effort.

“We’ve been playing one of the songs on these (European) festivals,” she said. “One of the songs that we’ve been playing on these festivals, it’s called ‘Best Friend’ and it’s a cover from the hip-hop artist Saweetie featuring Doja Cat. And for us, being best friends, we thought it would be the best way to do a cover — a hip-hop/metal cover — since we’ve been best friends for, man, nearly two decades.”

When Oran O’Beirne of Bloodstock TV suggested that some BUTCHER BABIES fans might object to such a diverse combination of musical styles, Carla said: “We haven’t changed at all, because some of our earliest songs were similar. We’ve always run the gamut throughout our music; we’ve never stayed with one style. Most people love about BUTCHER BABIES that we have a death metal song and a thrash metal song and then a poppy radio song, and whatever mood they’re in, we’ve got a song for them.”

Added Heidi: “What I love about being in a band like this and being around musicians that we all see eye to eye is that we can do different things; we’re not pigeonholed to one certain sound. Sometimes we wanna get up and we wanna scream and we wanna be angry bitches, and then sometimes we wanna sing and we want people to hear what we feel from our hearts. And I think that that’s important as an artist, to be able to do both.”

Carla continued: “And judging by the audience reaction when we go from one very, very heavy song to one lighter song, they love it. They have literally the same energy for both kinds of music. They want it too. People want the freedom to be able to like different types of music.”

BUTCHER BABIES‘ latest album, 2017’s “Lilith”, was produced by Steve Evetts (THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, SEPULTURA, SUICIDE SILENCE) and marked the band’s recording debut with drummer Chase Brickenden, who replaced Chris Warner in 2016.

In July 2019, longtime BUTCHER BABIES bassist Jason Klein announced his departure from the band. He has since been replaced by Ricky Bonazza.

Last year, BUTCHER BABIES embarked on a headlining tour, “Butcher Babies Vs. Goliath”, which saw the band performing its debut album, “Goliath” — released in 2013 via Century Media Records — in its entirety along with recent hit singles and new material.

Hailing from the City of Angels, BUTCHER BABIES have released two Eps and three albums to date, with “Lilith”, debuting at #1 on iTunes Metal chart and #7 on iTunes Rock chart. The band kicked off 2021 by independently releasing a handful of newly energized singles produced and co-written by Matt Good (FROM FIRST TO LAST),including “Bottom Of A Bottle”, “Sleeping With The Enemy”, “Yorktown”, “Last Dance” and “It’s Killin’ Time, Baby!” The latter was inspired by the DC Comics character Lobo, a heavy metal bounty hunter.