On “Running Off The Track (ROTT)”, Bobo.Xx Finds Freedom in the Pain
Rockstar, photographer and trailblazer, Bobo.Xx’s new single embraces the mess of it all.
Taylor Nguyen
Summer might be winding down, but you can still crank up the heat (and noise) thanks to Bobo.Xx’s new single “Running off the Track (ROTT)”. This is the punk singer at his best: punchy, loud as hell and sounding like he’s ready to throw fists at any moment. Similar to some of Bobo’s most satisfying tracks, “Running Off The Tracks” takes a microscope to the singer’s pain and blows it up. “I walk right off the deep end,” he nearly shouts in the pre-chorus, “and drown myself in secrets”.
“Running Off The Track” follows two excellent singles from Bobo, “PAIN” and “LOVE ME”, and demonstrates how he is one of the best students of punk music. The singer thrives on the brash sound of pop-punk music that blasted through skate parks in the mid-aughts. But as with all of his music, Bobo puts his own signature twist on the genre. HIs voice can sound like a growl or a howl depending on the verse, and his lyrics are unusually physical, often describing pain in striking detail.
On “Running off the Track”, Bobo channels his rage into scenes of madness. He asks for novocaine while laying on the bathroom floor, and warns, “I don’t wanna start another war against me.”
Perhaps what makes Bobo such a compelling artist is how unafraid he is to embrace the mess of it all. His music regularly captures him on the edge of it all, daring us to wonder – will he jump? Often he does, and the result is music that crashes through the speakers with an unhinged frenzy.
His new music takes this dare literally: Bobo leans deliberately into the narrative that he’s going crazy. Some of this is almost metaphorical: Long before he found success, Bobo told me, his family thought he was crazy for pursuing a career in the arts. “I was the family fuck-up for years,” he remembered. Here, Bobo explores what it looks like to lose your shit. He runs away from trauma by indulging in his vices and bad behavior. As his voice reaches a fever pitch, Bobo sounds as if he’s grabbed a knife to see how far he can plunge it before he draws blood. Yet this drive to feel something, to turn his pain into art, is what has made him stand out. Bobo’s learned that forging your own path can hurt – but it can also be liberating.
“There’s no one that represents me and I had such a problem with that,” Bobo told me in May. Taylor Nguyen
As his music has climbed to greater heights, Bobo’s career has similarly taken flight. This year he was invited on stage to perform with Josh Pan at Head in the Clouds in Los Angeles, and he opened for Epik High at select dates to promote his single “PAIN”, a collaboration with the group’s leader Tablo. Bobo is mulit-fasceted, too. Along with being a skilled musician, he’s also one of the most prominent photographers working in music.
Bobo is one of the few Asian Americans who is ripping apart rock tracks, and his mission has always been to show others like him that there’s a freedom in losing it all. “There’s no one that represents me and I had such a problem with that. There’s just these people that I can’t relate to,” he told me in May. “I’m not one of those crazy smart Asians. I didn’t grow up rich.” On “Running off the Track, Bobo continues to be a trailblazer, and one of the most arresting forces in music today. With “Running off the Track” Bobo is here to remind you, he can go farther than you ever expected.
