In loving memory by Blackbear

"in loving memory" is a pop-punk collaboration album between pop singer blackbear and blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. He revealed during an interview for SiriusXM Hits 1 on July 14, 2022 that the theme of the project is “ego death,” the metaphorical killing of his past self and the attitudes that he held, seen in the cover art (as represented by the 2017 mansionz era version of him). The album is dedicated to blackbear’s biological father whom he was separated from at a young age. In a 2018 interview with Clash Music, bear revealed that he, his mother Lisa, and his brother TJ moved away from the heroin-addicted father in Pennsylvania while he was still a toddler and moved to Florida where he began making music. He was raised by his stepdad Tom Musto, and both of bear’s parents have been involved greatly in his own life and the life of his children. blackbear’s biological father passed away from organ failure as a result of his drug abuse. Following this news, blackbear decided to title the album for him. The genre of the album is a callback to and revitalization of the earliest music blackbear is known to have worked on. During high school, he was the singer of a Florida pop-rock band known as Polaroid. Starting in his freshman year, he released two projects with Leakmob Records. They released the EP "Inside And Out" in 2006 and the full-length album "Paint The Town" in 2007. In 2008, he moved onto a solo career under his given name Mat Musto. The Travis Barker placement isn’t random either since blackbear was a self-described blink-182 fan at the time. In his interview with SiriusXM Hits 1 on July 14, 2022, blackbear referred to Travis Barker as the “Dr. Dre of rock n' roll.” Since his home studio was still in process of being built during the creation of the album, he revealed that most of the album was written and recorded in Airbnb rentals with Andrew Goldstein. In that time, they played in drums on a keyboard which were later replaced by Travis Barker. A few songs were built from the ground up with Barker, though. Before the full tracklist reveal, several song titles were confirmed, including “painkiller,” “the idea,” “toxic energy,” “broken world,” “dead inside,” and it also appears that “fuilu” was heard in an official teaser video. On May 27, 2022, the lead single “gfy” came out with Machine Gun Kelly. On June 28, blackbear revealed that the second promotional single, “the idea,” would come out on July 8. During an AMA for “the idea,” blackbear revealed that “dead inside” would come out as a single and for his Billboard takeover, he revealed that “toxic energy” would be released on the anniversary of his biological father’s death (August 5). On October 15, 2021, blackbear tweeted “in loving memory 2022” accompanied by a picture of himself and Travis Barker. blackbear went onto reveal the release as “coming summer 2022,” which he later specified as August. On July 13, 2022, he revealed the cover art and release date as August 26. Later that day, he posted a YouTube video with snippets of every song alongside the tracklist. ℗ 2022 Alamo Records, LLC/Columbia Records/Sony Music Entertainment