Lowertown Unravel the Intricacies of a Toxic Relationship on New Single “Antibiotics”

Their debut album I Love to Lie is out October 21 via Dirty Hit.

Lowertown Unravel the Intricacies of a Toxic Relationship on New Single “Antibiotics”

Their debut album I Love to Lie is out October 21 via Dirty Hit.

Words: Margaret Farrell

Photo: Savanna Hughes

September 15, 2022

Lowertown recently announced their debut album I Love to Lie—which is out October 21 via Dirty Hit—with the single "Bucktooth." While recording the LP in London, a pang of homesickness for America inspired Olivia Osby and Avsha Weinberg to write their own kind of "Cocaine Blues." Instead of a cheeky Johnny Cash–inspired track, though, "Bucktooth" turned into a searing observation of the current American reality—lots of guns and far-right extremism. Today, they've shared another song from their forthcoming album. It's called "Antibiotics," and it zooms in on a personal romantic trial endured by Osby.

“I wrote ‘Antibiotics’ soon after turning 19 about the clarity I felt after leaving my first serious relationship,” Osby shared. “The end of the relationship was a suffocating cycle of saying I wanted to end things because of how I was being treated, and my partner would respond by acting out or doing something to make me scared for them or pity them. So over and over, I would end up getting sucked back in, and during the relationship I got very sick with something similar to walking pneumonia from all the black mould in the walls of his house. I felt like the conditions of the relationship were quite literally poisoning my body and mind, like a sick and funny metaphor.

"After things were finally broken off, I fully recovered from my illness," Osby continued. "For the first time in over a year, I felt like I was starting to heal both mentally and physically. The distance I had from that part of my life forced me to come to terms with how harmful the relationship had been and made me realize what kind of boundaries I should have for myself in the future.”

Listen to the track below, and pre-order I Love to Lie here.