This interview is part of a collaboration with Loveless Festival 2026, which takes place this July 25-26. To buy tickets for Loveless Festival, click here.

New York’s Bubble Tea and Cigarettes are capturing what it means to be young and in love at the end of the end of the world. The duo are headlining Loveless Festival on July 25th, bringing tunes inspired by their favourite late-night haunts in the Big Apple and every place they’ve ever called home. 

After the release of their second album we should’ve killed each other on November 1st, 2024, Kat and Andi have been busy touring around the US and Canada. While the pair are popular with listeners of Cigarettes After Sex, their most recent record showcases a variety of influences that range from bossa nova all the way to Japanese indie. “I think we’re more inspired by bands like Beach House, Sigur Rós, [and] some post-rock,” says Andi about the resemblance. Kat chimes in, “I love [Cigarettes After Sex] a lot, so it feels like an honour to be compared to them.” To me, Bubble Tea and Cigarettes have absorbed the best parts of CAS’s sound and run with them: sweeping synths, dreamy vocals, and expressive guitar lines. They’ve capitalized on the emotion while still staying true to their own influences. Sure, they might share a portion of their name, but the comparison needn’t go any further.

While Bubble Tea and Cigarettes don’t necessarily write from their personal lives, the places they live play a key role in the stories behind their music. Their debut record, There’s Nothing But Pleasure, captures the “really dramatic and overstimulating” experience of being recently graduated from university and trying to make it in the big city. “Everything felt really new. We were always out. We were always exploring, meeting people, going out, drinking too much, and kind of living in chaos,” says Kat. Some of the pair’s biggest hits are named in direct response to these wild nights on the town, including “5AM Empanada With You.” In the same way the constant activity of New York shaped their debut, the comparatively quiet nature of Seattle and Los Angeles shaped their second record. we should’ve killed each other has a noticeably more mature tone, which Kat attributes to the long drive times in both of the aforementioned cities due to traffic. “It’s more about nature. There’s more solitude to the music. [We were] probably a bit depressed at the time too,” she admits. 

Interestingly, the band takes the most inspiration from whatever environment they’re not currently in. Andi explains, “Music is a way for me to escape. Yes, we did write a few songs about New York, but we also wrote a song called “Santa Monica.” We wrote a lot of songs that are very vast, [full of] nature, because that’s where I want the music to take me to. And similarly, when we were in Seattle, we actually wrote a lot of songs about [New York] because we were missing that.” Whatever city the band calls home becomes integral to their creative process, and it seems like absence really does make the heart grow fonder. Since moving back to New York last year, the band have realized that they’re definitely city slickers at heart. Perhaps as Bubble Tea and Cigarettes continue to expand their sound, the challenge will be to strike a balance between the introspection motivated by nature and the connection of the city.

Both albums neatly trace the trajectory of coming-of-age, and the weight of their second album has its roots in moments where “the overthinking start[ed] to hit,” according to Andi. Having moved past the uncertainty of the pandemic, the recklessness of being young, and finally settling steadily into adulthood, Andi thinks that they’ve “lost the fun” of the first album in the process of getting older. While their influences may have expanded, Bubble Tea and Cigarettes are faced with a kind of double-edged sword on we should’ve killed each other. There was some uncertainty involved in the creation of the album that mirrors the turbulent nature of getting older. The process involved a lot of trial-and-error (including a scrapped electronic EP) before the band eventually found their footing, which was sparked by the tracks “French Movie” and “Room 907.” “I remember right after we were done with the first album, we were feeling like, ‘Oh my God, there’s so many possibilities of things that we can do,’” Andi says about the process. While these early stages did allow a lot of creative freedom, it was time consuming to find something that really worked. Kat explains that, “We spent almost half a year just figuring out the lyrics.” The band needs to come to a consensus on what the song is about before they can consider it done, which often results in a considerable amount of back-and-forth between the two. Another time suck also comes from the fact that the duo now have to work around the active subway next to their Brooklyn music studio. “We recorded most of the vocals in the closet. When I’m recording and feeling the right emotion, suddenly the train is coming or the trash truck is doing its thing, the pipes start to make a sound, or our dog starts barking,” says Kat. While Andi’s perfectionism and tendency to do up to 20 takes keeps them out of the studio, the pair have resorted to recording in the wee hours of the morning. What’s more New York City than that? 

As they iron out their recording set up between releases, there’s also been time to consider what Bubble Tea and Cigarettes is going to do next. Some of their inspirations stick to a consistent sound over ten or more years, but the pair aren’t sure if that’s what they want to do. Andi believes that “People change and life changes. The stuff we liked ten years ago isn’t the stuff we like anymore. We’re constantly balancing between wanting the band to have a consistent image and having life experiences that change us.” Kat adds, “That’s why we’re doing music, because we’re constantly trying to find the answer. I think we should just take it as the fun part and [use it] to motivate us.” Some of the difficulties behind the band’s ever-burgeoning evolution stem from not having anticipated the success they now welcome. Having started as a pandemic project, Kat and Andi admit that they wouldn’t even have picked the same name if they knew they’d end up touring the world. Still, they’re beyond grateful for everything they’ve gotten to experience as a result. Kat reminisces on a heartwarming interaction with a fan in Korea: “She found our music through one of her best friends, and even though they graduated and now live in different countries, she still listens to our music. We speak different languages and it’s really hard to communicate, but she got the vinyl that we brought and she wanted me to sign it for her friend. It kind of makes me want to cry, because I really felt that the three of us actually bonded at that moment.” Those intercontinental connections are part of what makes the experience so special. 

Bubble Tea and Cigarettes aren’t stopping anytime soon. The band are hard at work on their next project, and perhaps even releasing an acoustic EP in the coming months. Despite having been everywhere from Asia to Europe and the United States, the band still looks forward to coming back to Toronto this summer. According to the band, we’re some of the best fans out there. The time to prove it is at Loveless Festival!