Punk rock icon Kira Roessler, ex-bassist for Black Flag, brings 'Enigma' to music fans
This is Punk Rock Bach for June 4, 2026.
We have an incredible treat this week that speaks to exactly why I love music journalism and interviewing musicians.
This issue, we’ve got a one-on-one conversation with a punk rock luminary — former Black Flag bassist Kira Roessler! Roessler has a solo album coming out this summer and Punk Rock Bach is there for it. Our wide-ranging interview is below!
Plus, one of my favorite things to do with this newsletter is highlight artists and bands releasing inaugural albums. We’re doing exactly that in this issue, which includes a Q&A with Julez and the Rollerz! The bands’ first album, “Dirty Little Rock ‘N’ Roller,” is out later this month, and we’re asking three of the band members what music they’re enjoying.
Onward!
Bassist Kira Roessler calls the shots for sophomore solo album ‘Enigma’
Kira Roessler is using different parts of her brain.
The punk rock legend, who played bass with Black Flag during the band’s heyday in the 1980s and was one half of the musical duo Dos, has a new album coming out on July 10 — “Enigma.”
Roessler said that despite playing the bass for as long as she has, she finds the instrument still has range.
“I feel absolutely no limit by using the bass,” she said. “I think that anybody who feels limited by the bass isn’t trying, you know. I think it’s a great lead instrument.”
But when she’s creating songs such as the album’s “Peas,” “Wild Card” or the single “How Could You,” Roessler said she’s using a different part of her brain than when she’s at her day job — editing dialog for major motion pictures, such as “Project Hail Mary” or “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
“[Dialog editing is] much more of a technical intellectual task, I think of it, whereas songwriting is just so much of a gut emotional sort of vomiting in some ways,” she said. “A lot of blank slate moments where I’m just sort of feeling what the bass is trying to tell me, or sort of imagining what a vocal line could do over that bass line, you know, very much sort of just trying by feel.”
Making the record
Roessler is in the creative driver’s seat for “Enigma,” which is a relatively new experience for the musician.
“I strongly believe that every group has basically a dictator,” she said. “You know, the songwriter, the singer-songwriter, the one who, for whatever reason, is the one calling the shots. And this is, for me, this is the first two records where I’ve gotten to do all the calling of the shots, so it’s quite different for me.”
“Enigma” is a follow-up to Roessler’s first solo album — 2021’s “Kira.”
The decisions Roessler is making for the latest album, she said, get down to the granular — including visual art, photo shoots and connecting with a record label. The album eventually landed at Org Music.
The way “Enigma” was recorded is also different from the approach used on her first solo record. For that record, Roessler said it was created with “sort of a virtual band.”
“We sent files back and forth,” she said. “We were never in the same room, and it took 13 years to develop these three songs into a record.”
The new album explores different themes than “Kira” did, she said.
“I really write songs that reflect my life,” she said. “So when something happens, or whatever I’m doing, things get triggered in me that result in songs, so it can be very sort of unexpected, what can happen that might trigger me.”
Roessler said the genesis for the first single released, “How Could You,” came from a marital dispute.
“My husband and I never fight, and it was just… he said something that really hurt my feelings,” Roessler said.
She said she walked into another room and just wrote “how could you” on a piece of paper. By the time she had some separation from the incident, she wanted to capture that idea instrumentally.
“My mode of constructing a song is very two-bass interplay with voice, everything sort of having rhythmic interplay,” she said. “So I do a lot of experimentation with rhythm, and a lot of sort of rock and roll bands don’t necessarily go there, you know.”
Revisiting Black Flag
One track on “Enigma” sees Roessler return to a Black Flag song she originally recorded decades ago — “Drinking and Driving.” She includes a cover of the song on the new album.
The track first appeared on Roessler’s favorite Black Flag album, “In My Head.” She said that album started out heavy with instrumentals.
“As we got further into doing the Black Flag thing, more and more we were doing instrumental work, and Greg [Ginn] had this whole instrumental record he wanted to put out,” she said. “And we would practice for hours and hours and hours, and Henry [Rollins] would sit on the ground after we had done the singing songs. He would sit down and kind of be, I don’t know, writing in his book or whatever.”
Roessler said Rollins was writing lyrics to the instrumental work. She said for those instrumental songs for which he wrote lyrics, Rollins “sings in a way where the emotion is more clearly felt.”
“So I love the way that he took these songs that were really sort of instrumental and turned them into something else,” Roessler said. “And you know, in that way it became a collaboration between Greg and Henry, and in that way also I then decided to do the cover song, ‘Drinking and Driving,’ which the lyrics are written by Henry, and Greg wrote the music.”
Correction - June 4, 2026, 7:04p ET: A previous version of this article included an inaccurate photo credit. The photo of Roessler was taken by Tim Nalley.
Kira Roessler’s new album “Enigma” is set to release on July 10 via Org Music. You can pre-order the album on the record label’s website, Bandcamp and other platforms.
From cassettes to streaming, Julez and the Rollerz keep on listening
“We all crave love, it’s a part of the human condition,” said musician Jules Batterman recently in a news release about her bands’ song “I Need Love.”
“When love comes with a cost though, and when you’re just the manic pixie dream girl of another person’s life, it almost makes you question if romantic love is truly attainable. Can I be neurotic and still be loved? Or do I have to be perfect all of the time? That’s what this song is about.”
That song is the fifth track on Julez and the Rollerz’s debut album, “Dirty Little Rock ‘N’ Roller.” The album is set to release on June 26 via Lolipop Records. Other tracks include “Phaser,” “Always Hard 4 U” and “I Don’t Know You.”
Punk Rock Bach recently got in touch with band members from Julez and the Rollerz to ask what music they’re currently listening to and how! The musicians’ media preferences are diverse, from cassette tapes to vinyl.
Editor’s note: Q&A has been lightly edited for style, syntax and typos.
PRB: How do you prefer to listen to music?
Jules Batterman: Radio and vinyl!
Morgyn Payge: I prefer to listen to music on cassettes!
Spark Park: Streaming and vinyl.
PRB: What are you listening to now?
Batterman: Haute & Freddy, Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins and Courtney Barnett’s new album.
Payge: I’ve really been into the self-titled album by The Toms. One of my favorite albums of all time is Teenage Head by the Flamin Groovies. A new band I’ve been starting to get into is The Runarounds!
Park: Currently, I can’t stop listening to Sam Fender. Top 3 albums of all time are Tumbleweed Connection - Elton John, Boston self titled and Forever Halloween - The Maine.
PRB: What do you listen on?
Batterman: Phone, Radio, and turntable!
Payge: I primarily listen to music on my phone but whenever I can, I listen to my cassettes on my boombox in my 1978 Dodge Van.
Park: My phone and turntable.
Julez and the Rollerz’s first album, “Dirty Little Rock ‘N’ Roller,” is set to debut on June 26 via Lolipop Records. It is available for pre-order on ElasticStage.com. Tickets for the band’s June 28 record release show in Los Angeles are available online.
What I’m listening to…
Ahead of my conversation with Kira Roessler, I wanted to listen to some Black Flag music from her era with the band. I wanted to infuse that punk energy in my brain to get those thinking juices flowing and come up with great questions to ask her.
So I downloaded Black Flag’s 1984 album “Slip It In,” popped on my Grado SR125x headphones and let the music wash over me.
And I haven’t stopped listening to the album — it’s fantastic! Roessler on the bass, Henry Rollins vocals, with Greg Ginn on guitar and Bill Stevenson on drums. Classic line up, classic album, classic punk rock!
My favorite track on the album is “You’re Not Evil.” I like how the guitar accelerates and then quickly pumps the brakes. Makes it memorable.
Least favorite track? “Rat’s Eyes.” Just a little too guttural for my taste.
But even with that song included, the album is entirely worth your time!
Thanks for reading Punk Rock Bach! Be sure to come back next week, when we’re talking with Personal Trainer’s Willem Smit about the band’s upcoming album “Human Assholes.” Until then!
Very cool! Love her take on the bass and feeling "no limit"
Killer post. Thank you.