Everyone's A Reality Star With Surfbort
- Josh Kitchen
- 3 hours ago
- 9 min read
By: Josh Kitchen / March 5, 2026
On their new album, Reality Star — their best one yet — Surfbort want you to have a good time. They also want you to throw fists and middle fingers up to the government. They want you to eat a hot dog. They want you to dance, make out with someone, touch some grass, or even bake a pie.
What all these things have in common is the revolutionary ideas behind them. In our current barrage of fascist Trumpian politics, AI slop, and a culture defined by violence and fear, there’s something strangely freeing — even radical — about throwing back a tasty footlong or giving a fascist a nice stiff middle finger.
“It’s so toxic and evil. So yeah, I’m like, fuck the government and also eat a hot dog,”
Surfbort’s enigmatic and iconic singer Dani Miller tells me.
The lyrics are biting, clever, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, as has come to be expected from Surfbort — one of the most exciting punk voices to enter the scene in recent memory. Both visually kaleidoscopic and packed with in-your-face, ear-splitting riffs and energy that make you want to throw yourself into the pit, Surfbort’s return feels like a huge sigh of relief while we endure endless strife, war, police and ICE brutality, and nuclear levels of gaslighting from our government. Songs like “Hot Dog,” “Rebel,” and “MK Ultra” encompass the feelings so many of us have been living with over the past decade as we’ve watched the world collectively lose its goddamn mind.
Surfbort also take a journey inward, examining insecurity and personal growth on “Jessica’s Changed,” feeling like an outsider on “Alien,” and getting down and dirty on “Peaches and Cream.” On Reality Star, there’s a feeling — or a song — for everyone, just like Surfbort’s ethos at their shows: all are welcome. “Freaks for everyone,” Miller tells me.
It’s a stunningly refreshing statement from the ’bort, and I caught up with Miller to talk about why we’re all reality stars in our own way, hanging with Debbie Harry and Keith Morris, and how she’s building a time machine to bring back Kurt Cobain and James Dean.
The new record is called Reality Star, and it comes out 10 years since Surfbort's first seven-inch in 2016.
Oh yeah! Dani Miller Fan Archives posted about that. He’s so good at knowing what’s up. And yeah, I know — that’s crazy. Ten years ago, our first seven-inch.
Now you're about to release your third full-length album, and it’s Surfbort’s first album in five years. Last year was still a big year for you with your solo stuff, and TRASHWORLD with Ashley smith, but talk to me about how you feel about Surfbort coming to take the world by storm in 2026.
I’m so excited. I’m so proud of the record, and I put my whole heart into it. And yeah, five years — it’s crazy putting out a record. Everyone’s like, “Woo.” And then I’m like, whoa. PTSD flashbacks of like five years of work. But I feel like I have to — I’m probably going to be 80 years old, still making music and releasing it. So yeah, this album’s insane. And Reality Star — the meaning behind it kind of — well, I love reality stars like Kourtney Kardashian and Paris Hilton, but I feel I feel like we’re all reality stars. We’re all stars of our own reality, and we’re stuck in it.
I feel like it’s been over 10 years of just in-your-face insanity with Trump, which is around when Surfbort started.
Yeah, and that’s why we started. I had so much angst. I didn’t know. I was like, I need to scream.
And I feel like we all want to scream more than ever.
Oh yeah. I remember when Trump got elected, we were playing with Thee Oh Sees, and everyone was screaming and crying. Politicians are out of my control, but I’m just so glad that all the people in the community that we’re friends with and in the music scene are all doing the right thing.
That’s what I love about Surfbort shows, they're so welcoming. Everyone can be a freak, you can be a nerd, because it's awesome to be those things. You don’t have to feel afraid at a Surfbort show.
Yeah, totally. I’m not traditional punk. I’m like dork punk. However you show up.
This record has these super irreverent tracks like "USA CHEESE," and "HOT DOG," but then you have songs like "MK ULTRA," that deal with this idea of all of us losing our collective minds living in this country.
Totally. We’re selling Anti-ICE shirts, and then at the same time I’m like, I want to be dancing to “eat a hot dog” and bringing more fun and joy into people’s lives. And back in the day, like in the ’80s, I’m pretty sure people weren’t slammed with politics every single hour of every day. I’m like, it’s such a new phenomenon. It’s so toxic and evil. So yeah, I’m like, fuck the government and also eat a hot dog.
There’s a track on this record called "NOTORIOUS BRAT," that's like my new favorite Surfbort song. It is so unhinged and fucked up and funny and epic and empowering. You have this line — "JONbenét never saw it coming," that when I heard it, my mouth dropped.
Where the fuck do these words come from? I don’t know. They come from the sky. I don’t even know where that came from. I think because I was watching the JonBenét documentary, and women and children are so innocent, having a blast, having a good time, and they’re not thinking there’s evil in the world. And then I was watching some MK Ultra documentary, and I was like...whoa. Anyway, that week I was watching a lot of documentaries. But I love "Notorious Brat" — "delusionally in love with living."
We’re inundated with shows and media about people being murdered every single day.
Yeah, it’s crazy. The powers that be want us depressed and mad at each other. To fight against that, we need to link as a community and have fun and have a blast. I want to live in the ’80s. I’m always trying to live in the ’80s — film photos, records. I have a burner phone I call people on. I have a house phone, a phone with a dial. I call people. I want more hanging out in person. Calling friends on the phone is especially important. I’ll be mad at something, or feeling like everyone hates me, with my sensitive artist brain, and then I’ll just call someone. If we just talk about the day or what’s up, I’m like, oh, now I feel better.
It sort of takes you back to reality, because we do get in our own heads. I think about a song like "JESSICA'S CHANGED," and I think about how I've grown over the past ten years, and then how Surfbort has changed. It feels like there's a lot in there, not only about how you and the band have changed, but people that you thought you could trust, or used to know, you've gone down different paths, and the forces of the world have changed them in ways you can't change anymore. I love how you use that song to examine change and growth.
Yeah, totally. That’s fully what it’s about. Everything changes. Friendship breakups kind of hurt sometimes more than relationship breakups. In my early 20s, I was friends with everyone. “This is my best friend.” Then you realize people change, and I don’t have to be a people pleaser. Some people might not like me, and that’s okay. I don’t need everyone to love me. It feels good saying that. It’s nothing against Jessica. It’s just - Jessica’s changed, so, love you, bye!
I love the line about being in love with the ghost of Kurt Cobain. because, A) it's a funny line. B) I believe You, And C) I think it's a great way to say that you're in love with the past too.
Totally. Wow, you're like, reading my brain. I definitely wrote that when I might have lost my mind right after 2020, like we all did. I was like, fuck dating anyone, I’m just going to date Kurt Cobain’s ghost in my head. I think that was more of being afraid of intimacy. But moving on past that, it stands for being in love with the past — the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s. Not necessarily Kurt. I don’t want to offend his family members. And in that song — “I’m a sexy ass bitch in a world gone mad” — I want people to still be able to be hot and have fun with their friends, even though the world’s so psycho.
It’s all right to have a good time.
And because the world’s so fucking crazy and polarizing, and insane and depressing, it’s like you could easily just get sucked into that and be like, life is meaningless. Which is fine to have as a passing moment, but I’m like, to get yourself out of that — you’re hot as fuck and the world is just freaking crazy. Make out with someone. Start a family. Go to a rave. Scrapbook. Make a pie. I think scrolling on the internet — which I love to do — but then you realize, oh wait, I’ve been in a room for 12 hours instead of going outside.
You gotta touch grass.
I've always liked fairy lifestyles, meaning like, go in nature and be a fairy and have a good day, versus, like, doom lifestyles.
I love "HOT CHIcks COLD BEER."
I love that song. Speaking of, I'm wearing a Circle Jerks shirt, I love them, and I love touring with them. Keith [Morris], wears a Surfbort shirt like everyday, so I was like, I gotta rep Circle Jerks.
Speaking of legends, you posted on IG about how, your most chaotic and iconic moment was "dropping out of school to play in a punk band full time in 2016 bc I got a DM on insta asking me to play Coachella and go on a world tour - flash forward years later I'm singing 'heart of glass' on stage with Blondie. so punk rock changed your life, and now here we are.
Debbie Harry is so old-school New York and so badass. Keith Morris too. Alien recognizes alien. We’re all like our brains are in the ’80s. We’re just screaming at the moon together. It’s just such a vibe. They’re really cool, and we’re all just like weirdo humans. I ran into Keith Morris on the street, and we karate chopped each other in slow motion until we got to each other. I kind of never really told them this, but the vibe of "Hot Chicks Cold Beer" is inspired by them.
It's funny, you mentioned you're going to be doing this when you're 80. I mean, it's not hard to imagine, because Debbie Harry is literally over 80 and she's still doing this.
Debbie’s so cool. We text once a week. I love her so much.
This is actually the first year there’s a new Surfbort record and a new Blondie record in the same year.
Oh my God, that’s magical. That makes me so happy.
Are you in love with anybody else’s ghost right now? Is the thing with Kurt over?
Yeah, me and Kurt’s ghost broke up in like 2022. I was just talking to my friend Joy Downer, who’s a really cool musician. We were saying we need to build a time machine to get everyone back from the 27 Club, and everyone who died at 30 or 32, like Bon Scott. We're gonna go back in time and get everyone - Janis, Kurt. Even though me and Kurt broke up, we're still friends. Oh, and James Dean. We’re gonna put him in a VR headset so he can race cars in VR and then not die.
I mean that's all James Dean wanted, to race cars and not die. What reality star songs are you most excited for people to hear that they haven’t heard yet?
"Hot Dog," "Hot Chicks Cold Beer." "Candy" is kind of an ode to "Rock Lobster "by the B-52’s. "Rebel— I made that with Linda Perry. "I Need Music" too.
What’s the last thing that made you laugh?
I laughed my ass off at the chicken shoot because I was partying with a chicken all day. Fred Armisen sends me those talking emoji texts, those make me laugh. Sarah Squirm makes me laugh. She's so cool. I never slide into people's DMs, but I slid into her DMs and said, “Can we be best friends?” She said yes, I love you. I don’t flirt. I just hit up comedians and ask to be their best friend.
Well, I think that's what makes Surfbort so great, and it comes out in your music and shows, it's just so welcoming and communal.
Yeah! Freaks - freaks for everyone.
Surfbort will be playing a Reality Star record release show at Zebulon in LA on March 27! Get tickets here:
