HEIDI SHEPHERD Says New BUTCHER BABIES Album Is Finally 'Finished': 'We've Been Working On It For A While'

In a new interview with Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire", BUTCHER BABIES vocalist Heidi Shepherd spoke about the band's plans to release a full-length album following the arrival of two new singles, "Lost In Your Touch" and "Sincerity", via Judge & Jury Records. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "There's a whole album behind ['Lost In Your Touch', which came out in early March]. So, yeah, this year there will be a brand new BUTCHER BABIES album. It is dunzo, it is finished. And we've been working on it for a while.

"When we released a song called 'Sincerity' a little bit back, the idea was just an EP with Judge & Jury," she explained. "And we were having so much fun working with them, and we had so much to say, and I was just basically purging all my emotions on to paper and putting it into these songs. And Henry's [Flury, BUTCHER BABIES guitarist] in the studio writing super fast to keep up. We were off tour finally. It's been on tour, off tour, on tour, off tour, in the studio, out of the studio. So we had a little bit of time at home and we just started just writing like crazy. And we talked to our homies at Judge & Jury and said, 'Hey, do you guys wanna maybe turn this into an entire album?' And they said, 'Yes.' So we held off on all the other releases and decided to just create a whole album."

Regarding the lyrical inspiration for BUTCHER BABIES' upcoming LP, Heidi said: "There's 12 songs on this album. And we're so excited for people to hear it. A lot of it is in the vein of things that happened in my life from 25 years ago till now.

"I was married when I was really young," Heidi revealed. "And I've never really talked about it. I've been married and divorced. I don't talk about it. I never really have, but I think now I can talk about it. There's a song on there about the exact moment that [my then-husband and I] both decided this was over, and the exact moment driving in his truck through the mountains of Utah and decided that this is done. And so that exact moment is on there. And that was 20-something years ago. And then there's a song on there about a really special person in my past life who has since passed away. There's a lot of really special things on this album, so I'm very excited to unleash it to everybody and let everyone hear these stories."

Asked if BUTCHER BABIES' upcoming album will once again contain a mixture of "the melodic songs and the brutally heavy songs", Heidi said: "Yeah, we still got the mix for you. There's gonna be a song coming out. We have the single after 'Lost In Your Touch' lined up already, and that one will be a neck breaker for you. [Laughs]"

She added: "These songs — even 'Sincerity' and 'Lost In Your Touch', they still hit so heavy live too. And there's really heavy parts to, I think, every song on the album."

Judge & Jury Records is a powerhouse record label and production company founded by multi-platinum producer Howard Benson (MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, SEETHER, SKILLET, OF MICE & MEN) and Neil Sanderson of THREE DAYS GRACE.

The instrumentation for BUTCHER BABIES' new LP was meticulously crafted by Benson and Sanderson at West Valley Recording Studios, Benson's studio in Woodland Hills, California.

Last November, Heidi wrote on social media about BUTCHER BABIES' upcoming album: "These songs are incredibly personal and hands down some of my favorite of my whole career. We're going to take a deep dive into the last 25 years of my life. This album is an autobiography, touching on early-life moments that I've never spoken about publicly.

"As always, [BUTCHER BABIES guitarist] Henry Flury and I have locked ourselves away in our studio for months. It's our confessional, our church, our therapy.

"I can't wait to let these songbirds fly, and finally introduce you to this part me".

In November 2024, BUTCHER BABIES released "Sincerity", a song rooted in wishful thinking. The lyrics dive into trusting someone to be delicate with your feelings, but rather having used those emotions to feed their own ego and benefit. "Sincerity" marked BUTCHER BABIES's first release since the departure of co-founding co-vocalist Carla Harvey.

BUTCHER BABIES is Heidi Shepherd on vocals, Henry Flury on guitar, Ricky Bonazza on bass and Devin Nickles on drums.

BUTCHER BABIES played their first concert since the official departure of Harvey on July 27, 2024 at the Stonehenge festival in Steenwijk, The Netherlands.

The band announced Harvey's exit in a social media post on July 20, 2024.

In the fall of 2023, BUTCHER BABIES completed a European tour without Carla, who sat out the trek in order to undergo emergency surgery on her left eye.

BUTCHER BABIES released a double album "Eye For An Eye..." and "…'Til The World's Blind", in July 2023. The double album celebrated the tenth anniversary of BUTCHER BABIES' critically acclaimed debut, "Goliath", released on July 9, 2013 via Century Media Records.

BUTCHER BABIES' previous album, 2017's "Lilith" was produced by Steve Evetts (THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, SEPULTURA, SUICIDE SILENCE).

Photo credit: Jesse Shepherd (courtesy of The Syndicate)