- 2025-08-04
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MUSIC
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Reneé Rapp Releases New Album “BITE ME”
American singer-songwriter Reneé Rapp released her sophomore album “BITE ME” on August 1, 2025 via Interscope Records.
This marks her first album in two years since the 2023 debut album “Snow Angel”.
Also it is her first release since coming out and is her most personal record.
The album comprises 12 tracks, on which Reneé Rapp worked with American singer-songwriter Alexander 23 again, who executive-produced her debut album, alongside Carter Lang, Emile Haynie, Henry Kwapis, Julian Bunetta, Omer Fedi, Ryan Tedder, Solomonophonic and Vaughn Oliver.
The album features Alexander 23 on guitar, Ryan Tedder on keyboards, and Travis Barker on drums, as well as Omer Fedi on guitar, Julian Bunetta on drums, Carter Lang on drums, Solomonophonic on guitar, Emile Haynie on drums, Paul Cornish on keyboard, and Henry Kwapis on vocals.
Reneé Rapp said of the album, “I live in my head and I tweak 24/7 lol. I've always been that way, too. It's incredibly hard for me to catch a break- and even harder to claw out a few moments of mental clarity. The whole time making this I felt equal parts confident and equal parts embarrassed. I wanted to be brutally honest but I didn't want to be judged too hard. I wanted to poke-fun but I also wanted to be taken seriously. Sometimes, I think I'm a walking contradiction but regardless I'm going to talk my shit.”- She continued, “There are stark differences in this record from my first. I have people in my life who actually love me. I started calling my friends. I found friends I don't have to watch my back around. I fell into the most amazing relationship. I started trusting my gut. I got rid of people that didn't serve me. I started fucking partying god forbid. (!!) And most importantly I set out to impress myself-not anyone else. Point is this shit was written for me and was made for you.”
She added, “I know that I come across tough, and I am. However this music is a time capsule of the last two to three years of my life. Every part. The good bad and the ugly. But I've never been so proud of myself. I listen to it and cry because I know I made what I wanted to. Whether you like it or not, I love it. Obviously I'd love for you to but frankly I'm just happy that I do. I made this with my friends and damn do I love my friends. I would like take it or leave it I'm drunk. You are everything to me.” - Reneé Rapp said “23 to 24 has been such a massive difference for me. It's about this and to this point, a reflection on my 23rd year specifically. It was so bad, and I thought 22 was insane for me. I remember just feeling so overwhelmed and thinking I needed to do something with all this negative energy. So, I sat down in a corner, closed my eyes for about 10 minutes, and just let the thoughts flow. It was like a form of mental escape, a way to process everything without having to vocalize it directly. I think the rawness of those emotions adds a layer of authenticity to my music. It's like, in that moment of vulnerability, I can tap into something deeper and more genuine.”
She added, “Every artist has their own way of dealing with their emotions, and for me, writing has always been therapeutic. Whether I'm having a good day or a bad day, writing helps me make sense of my experiences. It's like every song is a snapshot of what I was going through at that particular time.”
Reneé Rapp explained some tracks for the album.
“Leave Me Alone” via Apple Music
“I mean, honestly, when we made it I was like, 'This is the worst thing ever.' So, I actually had a terrible time making it. I was like, “This is ass, what are we doing?” And then I was like, 'I think this is really good.' It was weird because I'm not really singing in this song and I kinda feel like that's my thing. I made [the song] in Nashville, randomly. It was me, Omar, Alexander, Julien, and Steph Jones. I was so confused and this was so hard; it's not a ballad and we're not saying anything intense or exaggerated. They were like, 'You have to start listening to pop music more.' And then one of my favorite songs became 'APT' and I was like, 'Wait, I actually think Leave Me Alone fucks.' And then I was like, 'I get it.' I was so pissed about so many things in my life and I was like, 'I've had enough of it.'”
“Mad”
“'Mad' is probably one of the like quickest writes I think that we had on like the whole project. Super fast. I think I just like it was in the beginning of we were like getting things that we actually liked for the project and I think sonically we were like oh this makes so much sense. We wrote it in Malibu and I feel like I just like do better if I'm like by water just in general I'm happier yet. No, I mean we just like we wrote it so fast which I think sometimes means that it's bad and sometimes means that it's really incredible. And I felt that it was really incredible and I was really excited about it. Um, and it felt like it had like 50% attitude and like 50% like vocals.”
“I Can't Have You Around Me Anymore” via Apple Music
“Emotionally difficult to write, I think, was 'I Can't Have You Around Me Anymore,' 'cause I really wanted to, I wanted a song like that so desperately. One that felt like if I didn't write it, I would kill myself. That was a song that I was like, 'If anyone else had wrote this song, I'd be livid I didn't write it first.' I was so proud of it. That's one of those songs I think that you can't really conceptualize, how someone went in and wrote that song. You're like, 'How did that even?' And it's divine and it just happened and it was exactly what it should be and it's really bittersweet.”
“Shy” via Apple Music
“The hardest like definitely like without question was 'Shy' because 'Shy' started as a ballad and one that I had spearheaded and I like wrote this whole hook for it that was actually called 'Handle with Care,' that was like about me falling in love with my girlfriend and being so uptight and scared because I had just gotten out of a really tough relationship. I was telling her to handle me with care 'cause I was freaking out. I was so tweaked out. I was in a relationship that I was really difficult and I had just gotten out of it and I was falling in love with her unexpectedly and I was like, 'Holy shit.' Like, if I'm actually going to jump into this, like I'm going to have to completely jump into this and be like, 'Can you please help me 'cause I'm nervous,' and she made me really nervous and I'm not. I don't deal super well with being nervous.' So, we like flipped the song completely. It went through so many different iterations, but we believed in the song so so much. So many different writers took stabs at the hook. So many different tempos and we cut the song damn near like ten times. Different keys, different everything. I was like, 'I know this is going to be important to me.' And then finally, it turned out being exactly what it was always meant to be and should have been, which is like a record being cheeky and being like, I want you to, excuse me, dick me down and also be nice to me 'cause I'm a little shy, but I'm so in love with you. So, 'Shy' was hard because it was just actually hard to write.”
“At Least I'm Hot” via Apple Music
“It's like it's sarcastic and playful, but I really wanted to say everything without actually saying the like actual thing. Like I wanted to use the secondary emotion. So I was incredibly depressed, but I was like, 'Damn, at least I'm fine, right?' So like that's the secondary emotion, but you can still feel the like this is coming from a place that's like, 'Woo.'”
Photo by Zora Sicher - source : Apple Music
