“It felt like the desire to drink alcohol or do drugs was lifted from my chest.”
Two Feet – the alt-pop artist born Bill Dess, known for hits like “I Feel Like I’m Drowning”, “Love Is a Bitch”, and “Go Fuck Yourself” – said of the moment he realized it was time to get sober for good. He’d woken up in the hospital after being beaten up on the streets of New York late one night. Drinking had damaged his liver, kidneys, and heart, and doctors had a harrowing message: “They say, ‘You’re gonna die.’ They didn’t say ‘you might die.’”
This wasn’t the first time Two Feet tried to stop drinking and doing drugs – but it stuck this time “because of all the other times that I tried… because you learn something each time.” Deep in the throes of addiction, he admits he was privileged to “just coast on royalty payments and the fact that I had a cult following” – all the while, “I’d play a show and then the crew would take me and drop me off at the hospital.” Once he’d personally committed to staying clean, “It takes a while to get people around you to trust that you’re actually sober. Like, it took three months to get my family and best friends to trust me, right? And then it took a few more months to get new management and [everyone at] the label I work with to trust me. And then it took a couple more months to get my most immediate cult following fans to trust that I’m sober, and that’s kind of where we are now.”
On November 4, Two Feet put out a public statement via a video on his Instagram where he announced his sobriety to his fans. Ten days later, he released the EP Drunken Fits of a Modern Age – his first release since getting sober. “I hadn’t really written anything in like six years that was serious,” he shares. “I needed to wrap my head around creating music again…. I just wanted to make a project so I could re-get used to actually completing something and putting it out.
Drunken Fits was a necessary step in reestablishing trust and support with his fans – but Two Feet is even more excited for Songs for February, his newly announced EP (out February 6) that serves as “the real welcome back party” to making music. “I started writing it all [when] I was sober and actually had a head on my shoulders, and had relearned my craft and relearned how to ride a bike and play all my instruments again,” he says. Songs for February is lead by “Lost Your Ghost”, a melancholic, piano-driven track that sees Two Feet waxing poetic, desperate not to lose a cherished memory. The title of the EP is a nod back to classical music pieces that would be named after a month, season, or time of year. It’s a fitting title for an EP that moves past the contempt of tracks like “Remember Us” on Drunken Fits, into a deeper pit of sadness where even lines like “I’m still alive” (on the opening track “Stay Away From Me”) are seeped with despair. “These songs all have a rather dark overarching sound to them.” Anger – as demonstrated on Drunken Fits – is “a secondary emotion, but it normally comes first when you’re trying to analyze something that’s happened,” he acknowledges. Being angry is easier than working through things to uncover a deeper, more painful emotion – and figure out how to move through it. On the evident sadness of Songs for February, he says, “So I think, that’s a good observation to me, that’s a good sign. That means I was at least emotionally moving through, more, something, getting closer to a state of happiness, at least using the music to get something out, you know?”
Sonically, Songs for February sees Two Feet moving into “a more open-ended, universal-ish rock sound” – akin to “stuff that I listened to as a high school kid”. He cites Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, and Tim Buckley as influences, as well as Kings of Leon and Coldplay. But although the transition makes complete sense, it hasn’t come instantly. As Two Feet moves through creative rediscovery, he’s realized just how much there is to learn – “And part of that is putting out projects. That’s why we’re doing all these EPs, like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.”
“Lost Your Ghost” and Songs for February kick off what’s set to be “the biggest, busiest year” Two Feet has had “since before I got addicted”. On March 4, he’ll be hitting the road all across North America for the appropriately-named Next Steps Tour. It’ll be his first sober tour since 2019 – and before the tour was announced, nerves started to hit. “I almost wanted to cancel it, because I was like, ‘Holy shit, I’ve been fucked up on stage, and I haven’t put out a hit song in a while.’… But the ticket sales that we’ve seen have been incredible. To be honest, I’m shocked. I have to say something or do something nice for all the fans, because I’m really blown away.”
The prep for this tour has been “extensive”. On past tours, he’d played guitar; this time, he’ll be playing piano as well. There’s also a brand-new light show and stage set-up, all fit to showcase seven new songs – four from the EP in February, the other three still unreleased. But while it’s easy to get access to any drink or substance you want on the road, he’s not worried about staying sober: his touring band and crew have all been with him for several years, having been by his side through the worst of his addiction, “And then they’ve all seen this internal, wild turnaround…. and the last thing that these guys want is me to get drunk or on anything. I’ve talked to them briefly about it, but I’m not even worried – they’re not going to let anything in the green room or anything near me, drug [or] alcohol wise, nothing. I trust the people around me completely to help.”
The North American Tour will wrap on May 15 in Santa Ana, California; a UK tour will be announced this spring, with another EP to come in May. Lyrically, he’s unsure of where the next EP will go – “but sonically, I would say everything’s a lot more upbeat” than Songs for February, describing the sound as “Block Party drums, but more Coldplay, Radiohead-esque”. “It’s a lot more rock, faster paced, and kind of bigger sounding – closer to the song ‘Lost Your Ghost.’… The songs sound more inevitable.”
