By Indi Tejeda – July 28th, 2026
Creative breakthroughs rarely announce themselves. More often, they begin with a question, a frustration, or the quiet realization that the old way of doing things no longer fits. For XBYRDX, Anthems for the End Times began with exactly that kind of realization.
What started as a response to an increasingly divided world soon became something much more personal: an opportunity to rethink how he writes, records, and collaborates. Instead of entering the studio with every detail locked into place, he embraced uncertainty, allowing the music to evolve alongside the people helping bring it to life.
That willingness to loosen the reins became the thread running through our conversation. While Anthems for the End Times wrestles with political tension and social unrest, XBYRDX spoke just as passionately about creative trust, the influence of the artists who shaped him, and why stepping into unfamiliar territory ultimately became the most rewarding part of making the record.
Q: There seems to be a moment where this stopped being just another record and became something much more personal. When did you realize Anthems for the End Times was taking you in a completely different direction?
XBYRDX: Honestly, it feels like both. I had never really made a politically focused record before, but I reached a point where I felt like I couldn’t stay quiet anymore. I was watching everything happening around me and wondering why more artists weren’t responding to it. At some point I realized music was the way I could contribute to the conversation. Once I committed to that direction, the whole album started to come together.
Q: The album never loses sight of difficult realities, but it also refuses to surrender to cynicism. How did you find that balance between confronting the world as it is and still leaving listeners with a sense of hope?
XBYRDX: I’ve always leaned toward optimism. The artists I grew up listening to wrote honestly about people’s struggles, but they weren’t preaching or pretending they had all the solutions. I found that satire became a useful tool. It let me point out what’s broken while still leaving room for hope instead of just anger.
Q: “Hand & Hand in Hell” carries an emotional weight that’s easy to interpret in different ways. What story were you hoping listeners would uncover beneath the surface?
XBYRDX: People sometimes think it’s about solidarity, but it’s really about loving someone who’s ultimately bad for you. You know the relationship isn’t healthy, but you keep choosing it anyway. The song came from a documentary about a couple struggling with addiction. One partner tried to save the other and eventually fell into addiction themselves. That willingness to walk into someone else’s darkness because you love them became the heart of the song.
Q: Your songwriting draws from a long tradition of artists who documented the lives of everyday people. How did those influences shape your decision to turn outward and write more directly about the issues affecting those communities?
XBYRDX: I grew up around blue-collar workers, so artists like Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, and Tom Petty always felt familiar to me because they were writing about people I actually knew. This record shifts away from individual stories and looks more at the issues affecting those people. Punk music also played a role in that because those artists weren’t afraid to challenge what was happening around them.
Q: This record also marks a shift in the way you approached making music. What happened when you stopped trying to have every answer before stepping into the studio?
XBYRDX: Normally I’d walk into the studio with everything finished. This time I only had demos. That meant the songs had room to become something else. It was uncomfortable because there wasn’t a blueprint anymore, but it also opened the door to ideas I never would’ve found on my own.
Q: Bringing Lydia Loveless and her band into the process meant inviting other perspectives into songs that began as your own. What did those collaborations reveal that you couldn’t have discovered by yourself?
XBYRDX: Absolutely. I’ve admired her music for years, so getting to work alongside her was incredible. Instead of trying to play everything myself, I leaned into what the other musicians could bring. They heard things differently than I did, and those perspectives made the songs stronger.
Q: Listening to you describe the recording process, it sounds like the biggest creative breakthrough wasn’t technical. It was learning to trust uncertainty. Was that the lesson you carried away from this album?
XBYRDX: That’s exactly it. You spend years creating rules for yourself without realizing they’re there. This project reminded me that sometimes the best thing you can do is stop trying to control every outcome. There’s always the chance things won’t work, but there’s also the possibility you’ll discover something far better than what you originally imagined.
Q: Now that you’ve experienced making a record this way, what parts of that mindset do you hope follow you into whatever comes next?
XBYRDX: Definitely. I don’t necessarily want to become a completely different artist, but I do want to keep experimenting. I want to leave room for surprise, for collaboration, and for sounds I haven’t explored yet. This record showed me there’s still plenty left to discover.
By the time our conversation wrapped up, we weren’t talking much about politics anymore. Instead, we kept circling back to process. To unfinished demos. To trusting other musicians with songs that once would have stayed entirely his own. To the uncomfortable realization that creative growth rarely arrives when everything goes according to plan.
Maybe that’s the thread running through XBYRDX’s Anthems for the End Times. Not certainty, but curiosity. XBYRDX never claims to have solved the questions that inspired the record. He simply chose not to look away from them. And somewhere between the rough demos, the unexpected studio moments, and the willingness to let go of old formulas, he found a version of his music that feels alive. Sometimes that’s all a record needs to do. Leave the door open and invite the listener to walk through it.