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Glitter, Heartbreak, and Pop-Punk Chaos: Kawaii AF are “Simply Hopeless”

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Photo credit: lazy eye photography – Zack Luther

Imagine catching feelings when your brain clearly said “nope”… and somehow turning that chaos into glittering, sugar-rushed pop-punk magic. That’s Kawaii AF in a nutshell with their new single “Simply Hopeless”.

It’s emo energy turned into confetti: bright riffs, explosive choruses, and heartbreak so shiny it practically sparkles. Think: MySpace-era drama meets modern pop-punk polish, with just enough eyeliner and mischief to make you grin while screaming along.

“Simply Hopeless” has been waiting over a decade to exist — a love-hate confession about falling for someone in a situation that was so not supposed to happen. Now, finally unleashed, it hits harder than ever, packed with the chaotic joy and messy honesty Kawaii AF are known for.

Recorded at Atlanta’s ZK Productions, this track is a full-circle moment: the band stepping into the studio they’d dreamed of since day one, bringing their emo dreams to life louder, brighter, and messier than ever.

Whether you’re headbanging in your bedroom or yelling the chorus with a crowd of fellow glitter-hearted misfits, “Simply Hopeless” is pure Kawaii AF: nostalgic, messy, unapologetic, and absolutely addictive. Emo revival is everywhere — but no one’s doing it with this much sparkle. ✨

Catch the band on the road and in your face at Ballads and Breakdowns Fest on Feb 7, 2026, in San Antonio, TX. And until then… hit play and fall a little in love with chaos.

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Michele Ducci teases new album with uplifting indie single ‘Woman Like You’

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Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.

‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.

The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.

The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:

Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.


About the track, Michele says, I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.

We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.

The album and full-length film will be released on the 5th of June on Monotreme Records.

Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.

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