BRKN LOVE Breaks the Mold with The Program: Justin Benlolo on Reinvention, Rock Revival, and Finding Creative Freedom
BRKN LOVE frontman recently Justin Benlolo sat down with Skratch N Sniff and SNSMix.com to talk about their recently released new album “The Program”. When Benlolo flew to Charleston, South Carolina for what was supposed to be a casual weekend of writing with a friend, he didn’t expect to end up staying for over two months. Charleston’s charm and its unexpected role as muse fueled the fire. The Southern city, not typically known as a rock hub, offered an environment where expectations fell away. But what emerged from that nine-week creative bender is The Program, BRKN LOVE’s most fearless and sonically liberated album to date.
“It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. The last album cycle had ended, and I had nothing to do. It’s very rare to get these long periods of time between tours. That’s typically when you have to write music anyway. I had it in my mind that I was going to start writing, but I hadn’t fully committed to the idea yet. After my friend convinced me to come down, I figured I’d bring all my stuff—guitars, speakers, mics, all that—just in case. Literally the first night there was so much fun. We immediately met this group of people and became fast friends. I kept extending the trip, like, “Okay, maybe I’ll stay one more week.” The vibes were just good. I was having a great time.”
He continues, “My friend was in law school, so he’d leave every morning, and I’d have the house to myself. I’d just sit at the computer, plug into my interface, pull up Logic or ProTools, and start treating it like a job. When he’d come home, I’d be like, “Here’s what I worked on today.” It created this in-the-moment feedback loop that was really cool. I just couldn’t leave, man. The city was inspiring. The only reason I came back to Toronto was because we had a tour offer with Badflower.”
With The Program, Benlolo made the conscious decision to abandon the idea of what a BRKN LOVE song “should” sound like. The result is a diverse and raw collection of tracks that are both intensely personal and wildly unrestrained.
“There’s that infamous quote—something like “a band doesn’t really last until they make it past their third record.” There’s this idea of a third-record curse, and I felt like we needed to make a conscious shift and be more ambitious this time around. We already have two records out. I feel like the second one is usually a more polished version of the first—kind of finishing the idea you started. But this time, I wanted to do something different. I realized I needed to stop worrying about what people expect from us or what they think we’re supposed to sound like, and just do what I like.”
“In the past, I used to worry a lot. Like, if we made a song that sounded too different, would people still think it’s cool? A great example is our song ‘Like a Drug’ from our second record, Black Box. Anton and I wrote it, and I freaked out—it felt kind of poppy and dancey. And while I love pop and dance music, I wasn’t sure if that was us at the time. But years later, it’s become our biggest original song. That made me realize that genre is kind of meaningless now. That’s one of the best things about modern music—people don’t care as much about genre lines anymore. Nobody’s out here saying, “I’m only a punk rocker” like they did in the ’70s.”
This new approach didn’t just affect the sound—it shaped the spirit of the album. The title itself, The Program, was born organically from the writing process.
“My best friend, who I was staying with, started saying this phrase: ‘Let’s go here tonight—it’s good for the program,’ or ‘Don’t do that—it’s bad for the program.’ It became this inside joke. Eventually, we named our group chat The Program. We started referring to ourselves as ‘the programmers,’ like, ‘Hey, programmers, tonight we’re going to such-and-such.’ It just became this funny, cute thing we threw around.
He continues, “When it came time to name the record, I thought it was perfect. It encapsulated everything that happened down there. It was a nice callback to the people who were indirectly involved in the making of the album. I also liked that it sounded mysterious and ominous. People could interpret it however they wanted—it could be serious or fun. It stood out to me because I’ve never named a record after something that wasn’t a lyric. There’s no mention of The Program anywhere on the record, which is different for me. But I liked that it stood alone. I also thought it would be cool if people started saying things like, ‘Hey, let’s throw on The Program,’ or ‘Pull it up on YouTube.’ It’s a fun phrase.”
After wrapping the writing sessions in Charleston, Benlolo and company took the songs to the legendary Studio 606 in Los Angeles, home of the Foo Fighters and their iconic Neve console.
“That was insane,” Benlolo says “I’ve been a massive Foo Fighters fan for a long time, so getting to record at 606 was pretty monumental for me. Anton—our producer—had a connection through another producer he knew, and it’s not a place you can just book time at. It’s pretty exclusive. I’d seen so many behind-the-scenes videos of that place on YouTube, and now we were actually there. When we got there, it was very much the Foo Fighters’ place. All their gear was there. There’s this back warehouse room with literally a thousand guitars, all labeled: Dave, Dave, Dave… Pat, Pat, Pat. Every amp, every drum you can imagine, even full stage sets with banners and props. But the craziest thing? The Neve console from Sound City—the one they made the documentary about. That board has had so many classic records run through it—Nevermind, Rumours—and now our record touched that board too. Everyone who’s recorded there has signed it—Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, Rivers Cuomo… it’s insane. And now we’re part of that history, even just a little.”
The Foo Fighters have they have recorded most of their albums, including “Sonic Highways” and “But Here We Are”, at Studio 606.
“By the time we got to 606, most of the basic tracking was already done, but the live room there? It’s the best-sounding drum room we’ve ever been in—hands down” Benlolo remembers. “It’s a studio built by drummers for drummers, and that made a huge difference. The drum sounds we got there were incredible—and what’s wild is that the drums on this record are basically unsampled. That’s rare in modern rock. Those are just the actual kit sounds. When we turned up the room mics, it didn’t get squishy or messy—it just sounded better. We used their gear, and this was shortly after Taylor Hawkins had passed, so it was a heavy experience emotionally, too. We were using this man’s drums. That was not lost on us.”
When tracking the drums, BRKN Love were afforded the opportunity to record on a drum kit that helped create the sounds on legendary and iconic albums that helped changed the musical landscape forever.
“It was a kind of Frankenstein kit made from pieces of Dave’s and Taylor’s kits. I’m pretty sure we even used this bell brass snare that was on ‘Nevermind’, and maybe even Rage Against the Machine’s first album. That’s what we were told anyway,” he remembers.
“As a Foo Fighters superfan, I had to play it cool, but inside I was freaking out every single day. At one point, I walked into the lounge and overheard one of the engineers on the phone with Pat Smear, talking about a guitar shipment. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I should not be eavesdropping,’ and just quietly walked out.”
At its core, The Program is an emotional purge. Many of the tracks dig into the chaos and clarity that come from reexamining relationships—both with others and with oneself. The vulnerability is intentional. Benlolo didn’t hold back, even when it meant confronting painful truths.
“It was definitely therapy,” says Benlolo. “This is the most direct I’ve ever been lyrically. Our first record was angsty and dramatic, but in a broader, more metaphorical way. This one is specific. I’m telling real stories, being clear about what I went through. One of the main things I heard from my A&R was, “I love your lyrics, but I never know what you’re trying to say.” And I understood that. In the past, I’ve used a lot of metaphors to mask what I was really feeling. I tried to be poetic or colorful, like many songwriters do, but it wasn’t always clear. This time, I made a conscious effort to be straightforward. I had something to say. I couldn’t keep writing songs where the words just ‘sounded cool.’ That worked for a while, but eventually you need depth.”
Benlolo went on to discuss the current age of social media virality and breaking through the noise. He also discussed being Canadian in an American rock band and how BRKN LOVE has been able to find audiences on both sides of the border, as well as the resurgence of Rock music with bands like Mammoth WVH, Dirty Honey, and more.
BRKN LOVE is riding that wave, but on their own terms. With The Program, they’ve made a record that’s not chasing trends—it’s chasing truth. In a time when being in a rock band feels more like navigating a content strategy than a creative journey, BRKN LOVE stands as a defiant reminder that authenticity still matters. The Program isn’t just an album—it’s a statement. A declaration that rock, in all its messy, cathartic glory, is still very much alive. And with Justin Benlolo at the helm, it’s got one hell of a voice.
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