Yellowcard's Ryan Key grapples with relationship with LA on latest #1 single and 'Better Days' album

Yellowcard surely loves having another #1 single, even if they're not crazy about some other things.

On the band's Good Charlotte-featuring song "Bedroom Posters," which has reached the top of the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart, frontman Ryan Key sings, "I love my sister, but I hate it in LA."

"'I hate it in LA' in 'Bedroom Posters' is, like, I hate getting off the plane and dealing with getting out of the airport at LAX," Key tells ABC Audio.

Key's feelings toward Los Angeles are probably not too surprising to longtime Yellowcard fans who might remember similar sentiments on the band's 2006 album, Lights and Sounds. But right next to "Bedroom Posters" on Yellowcard's latest album, 2025's Better Days, is a much more LA-positive song called "City of Angels." 

As Key explains, Yellowcard was working on Better Days with producer Travis Barker near where the LA wildfires of 2025 broke out.

"[Barker] mentioned, 'We should write something for LA. We should write something for what's going on right now,'" Key recalls.

In "City of Angels," Key grapples with his personal feelings with LA while also acknowledging what the city has given him during his life.

"As much as the kind of anxiety of this city gives me anxiety, and it's not my ideal environment to live, I have to recognize how special it is and it has been for me and so many other people who have come out here to do what we did and somehow pulled off, following our dreams as 21-year-old kids," Key says. 

Yellowcard will launch a U.S. tour Wednesday in Atlanta.

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