The Used frontman Bert McCracken surprised fans with the debut of his solo project, robbietheused, which explores much more poppy sounds than the “Bird and the Worm” rockers do. With the debut robbietheused album, due out Friday, McCracken teases even more twists and turns.
“It’s a little different,” McCracken tells ABC Audio of the record. “It’s kind of all over the place. But I think it’s very vulnerable.”
McCracken adds the self-titled album features “a lot of different feels,” ranging from “desperate love songs” to “confidence in the moment.”
Despite its pop sonic coating, McCracken can still get dark on robbietheused, with songs like “Terrible” and debut single “Just a Little Bit,” on which he sings about feeling “dead inside.” Indeed, the name “robbietheused” represents McCracken’s musical dichotomy between his love of pop and harder rock.
“My family and my friends call me Robbie, so I kinda wanted to put that out,” McCracken explains. “Bert seems like he’s the crazy frontman of The Used, and Robbie seems like the more gentle pop guy.”
“But yeah, I wanted to definitely pay homage to the band that I’m in,” he adds. “My favorite band in the world is The Used, so thought I’d throw that in there.”
McCracken plans to play most, if not all, of robbietheused on his first solo tour, launching Oct. 30 in Anaheim, California.
“It should be fun,” McCracken says of the run, laughing, “I’m scared s***less.”
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