Dead Betties Tease Impossible Future EP

New Song “Impossible Future” by The Dead Betties

The Dead Betties, a long-standing queer punk band from New York, have released a new song called “Impossible Future.”

With powerful guitars, frontman Joshua Ackley sings, “My life is not about how good I look on paper,” and, “My life is not about how far I run from danger.” They aim for optimism, with Ackley shouting in the chorus, “I want an impossible life. This is the future now.” You can listen to it on Spotify, and it’s also the title track of their new EP coming out on Oct. 18.

Ackley says the song is about facing challenges that seem too hard to handle. He tells Rolling Stone, “When faced with the decision, I skipped college because it felt too confining. I wanted to dive into the toughest situations and fight my way through to the other side. The thrill of the impossible is my driving force.”

The band, which includes Derek Pippin on drums and Eric Shepherd on guitar, has been around since 2000. They’ve had to deal with bigotry from all sides, like neo-Nazis blocking them from playing at venues. A decade ago, conservative media targeted Ackley when he was the Vice President of Communications for Girl Scouts of the USA just because he was in the Dead Betties. Breitbart called the band names like “homo-punk” and “homocore.”

Ackley explains, “The conservative media attacks during my time at Girl Scouts were absurd but not surprising,” he shares. “Coming out in the early Nineties taught me to channel hostility into success. When those stories hit, I was just promoted to director and kept my head down, worked hard, and got promoted again to VP. Turning impossible situations into fuel has always been my strategy. It works every time.”

Fans know how hard it can be to stay true to yourself.

Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill and Le Tigre supported Ackley, who worked with her on preserving her tapes at NYU’s Bobst Library. Ackley calls this experience a dream come true, saying, “Kathleen’s wisdom is in her actions — she welcomed me and created an inclusive community,” he says. “Through her, I ended up at parties with Joan Jett and Kim Gordon. She truly leads by example.”

Role models like Hanna have shown Ackley what he wants his “Impossible Future” to be. “My ideal impossible future is living without sacrificing individuality, creativity, or vision in order to fit in,” he says. “We’re so self-curated today that we’ve become our own censors. I want to eliminate even the idea of self-censorship in my life.”