The Used

The Used helped define the sound of a generation with their chaotic and melodic cacophony.

The band Billboard praised for its “knack for crafting brutal yet crowd-pleasing anthems” and The New York Times called “weird and catchy and unexpectedly funny” stood tall against the tests of time and trends, now 25 years into its journey stronger and more passionately purposeful than ever.

“The Used’s colorfully unhinged post-hardcore became a vital part of the scene responsible for breaking bands like My Chemical Romance [and] Fall Out Boy,” wrote Kerrang!. Songs like “The Taste of Ink,” “Pretty Handsome Awkward,” “The Bird and the Worm,” and “I Caught Fire” incite massive singalongs in theaters and clubs, at Vans Warped Tour, and at huge festivals worldwide.

“There’s no denying the galvanic power of singer Bert McCracken’s blowtorch vocals,” Entertainment Weekly rightfully observed. The band’s ten unstoppable albums (all but two of them produced by longtime collaborator John Feldmann) resonate with diverse crowds everywhere.

Over 25 years, they’ve scored four Billboard 200 Top 10 debuts and ten Billboard Hot 100 singles.

Feldmann (Panic! At The Disco, blink-182, 5 Seconds Of Summer) became an early champion for The Used when the then-unsigned act tossed a demo onstage during a Goldfinger gig. He produced their first three albums (and would later invite them to join his indie label venture, Big Noise Music).

The Used (2002) and In Love and Death (2004) are certified platinum in the United States, and Lies for the Liars (2007) went gold. Each record is celebrated in 2025 on The Used’s massive 25th-anniversary tour, which features each landmark album played in full across three nights in each city.

“Hearing from fans how much the band means to them is definitely what keeps us going,” Bert says. “It's what fuels us. Music should be an outlet, an escape from depression, anxiety, and normal life.”

McCracken and bassist Jeph Howard co-founded The Used in Utah in 2000. Drummer Dan Whitesides joined nearly 20 years ago, and guitarist Joey Bradford has been with the band since 2018.

The original incarnation of The Used was born from the conservative isolation, myopic boredom, and restless angst of their crucial formative years spent some 45 miles from Salt Lake City in Orem, Utah. The inspiration Bert found in a box of CDs by bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Converge, Ink & Dagger, and Texas Is The Reason was as instructive in the band’s formation as his feelings of alienation and disillusion. The Used wrote those essential early albums 100 percent for themselves.

“Toward the end of the first album cycle, we started to play mainstages at festivals and saw fans singing along to every word,” Bert recalls. “So going into the second record, we knew it was a big deal. After we wrote ‘Take It Away,’ it was obvious that would be the opening track. At that moment, I realized we had something crazy special and that our second record would be great.”

The Used was never afraid to embrace radio or MTV, turning punk convention on its head. Incendiary appearances on schlock like TRL Spanking New Band Week put them in front of kids who felt the same way the band did about young adulthood and the increasingly fractious world abroad. The group never shied away from “emo,” jettisoning the word’s baggage to embrace its strengths.

“I remember vividly being in Japan and calling my parents from a hotel phone,” says Bert. “I had kind of a rocky relationship with them at the time. This was before everyone had a cell phone. It was a super expensive call. ‘I’m in Japan! How crazy is this?!’ When we went to Australia, we got the royal treatment. We broke the merch record in one venue. And I met a girl with whom I fell crazy in love.”

Produced by Matt Squire (Panic! The Disco, All Time Low, Simple Plan), Artwork (2009) featured dirty, noisy, vicious songs without jettisoning the pop-infused sensibility of their earlier work. Feldmann returned for Vulnerable (2012) and Imaginary Enemy (2014), which balanced the intensity of the self-produced The Ocean of the Sky EP (2013) with the pristine polish of the early albums.

They made The Canyon (2017) at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 with another multiplatinum producer, Ross Robinson (Korn, Slipknot, Glassjaw). Feldmann was back at the helm for a string of modern monoliths: the urgent and eclectic Heartwork (2020), Toxic Positivity (2023), and MEDZ (2024).

Boredom, complacency, and entitlement remain in the crosshairs of The Used. The honesty, integrity, and freedom of expression championed by The Used endures, maintaining bonds that have outlasted numerous trends and evolutions in how music is consumed. It was never about drowning in oceans of adulation. The Used resist corruption in their art and continue to dominate on any stage.

“My wife always asks me, ‘How long do you think you’ll be able to play ‘The Taste of Ink?” Bert laughs. “There’s no reason why The Used won’t be playing in our seventies, knock-on-wood. It’s an incredible feeling to look back on 25 years. It’s unbelievable to be able to do this for so long. We’re so humbled by it and so grateful just to be onstage. I can’t stop smiling when I’m up there. It’s magical.”