Rick Springfield, Matt Bissonette and Gregg Bissonette are back as The Locustz. Their second album, Buzzkill, arrived as a Record Store Day 2026 exclusive on limited-edition smokey green vinyl via Label 51 Recordings.
A power pop supergroup built on friendship
The Locustz is a Los Angeles power pop supergroup centred on one of rock’s most enduring creative partnerships: Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Rick Springfield and brothers Matt and Gregg Bissonette, two of the most in-demand session musicians in the business. The band first appeared as The Red Locusts with a self-titled debut in March 2021, a tribute to The Beatles and the power pop of the 80s and 90s. Now renamed The Locustz, they return in the same melodic form.
Springfield says the sessions were so steeped in the Fab Four that they “would send us to Beatle jail basically”. Beyond the Beatles, the palette pulls from Jellyfish, Electric Light Orchestra, Big Star and The Raspberries: chiming guitars, layered harmonies and hooks that never go out of style.
The singles: “Valentino’s Bed” and “Having Said That”
“Valentino’s Bed is an imagined story of a guy who thinks he buys the Latin Lover’s old bed and its accompanying aphrodisiac qualities. It’s actually a song about sexual frustration.”
Rick Springfield
Matt Bissonette calls the second single, “Having Said That”, “the ugly sister of Valentino’s Bed”. Borrowed from a famous Curb Your Enthusiasm line, it is about the pause we take after a mouthful of compliments, right before we pivot to get our way. “This line doesn’t work very well with our wives,” he jokes, “so we thought we could get away with it in a song.”
Who’s in The Locustz
- Rick Springfield: the creative engine of the project. Australian-American musician and actor, No. 1 hit with “Jessie’s Girl” in 1981, Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance and more than two dozen albums.
- Matt Bissonette: bass, vocals and co-writer, Springfield’s closest collaborator. He has worked with Joe Satriani, Don Henley, Steve Perry, Peter Frampton and Ringo Starr, and played bass in Elton John’s band from 2012 to 2023.
- Gregg Bissonette: drums. Played on David Lee Roth’s first three solo albums, a member of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band since 2008, and winner of Modern Drummer readers’ poll awards.
Buzzkill tracklist
- Welcome to the Revolution
- Having Said That
- Battersea Park
- The Blur
- Valentino’s Bed
- Head Full of Rain
- My Lovely Zoey
- Boy Meets Girl
- Saint Teresa
- Then There Were Three
- Friend
