Category: indie rock

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Vlad Holiday Shares Groovy “By Myself”

Vlad Holiday is a Romanian-born, Nashville-based singer/songwriter and musician, who cut his teeth in the NYC lo-fi scene, building an audience on his own terms. Songs like “So Damn Into You,” “Quit Playing Cool,” and “Phonograph” introduced fans and critics to an artist with a distinct point of view — romantic without being overly sentimental, nostalgic without living entirely in the past. Sonically, his work frequently sees him blending his smoky croon with tape hiss, 60s-styled guitars, 90s hiphop beats and 808 sub ass.

Back in 2024, Holiday released his full-length debut My Favorite Drug. The album saw the Romanian-born, Nashville-based artist delving into dark subject matter with the songs openly talking about low moments in his mental health, substance abuse, the thin line between sanity and insanity and cynical patterns of familial abuse, all to place an element of love into life’s heaviest topics.

Holiday went on to tour alongside frequent collaborators Cage The Elephant and Declan McKenna. He played at Austin City Limits — and he went on his own headlining tours across North America, the UK and European Union. Adding to a breakthrough year for the Romanian-born, Nashville-based artist, he co-wrote tracks on Cage The Elephant’s 2024 effort Neon Pill, including the album’s title track “Neon Pill,” which received a Best Alternative Music Performance Grammy nomination. “Neon Pill,” along with another Holiday co-write “Metaverse” wound up becoming the band’s 11th and 13th Billboard #1 Alternative Airplay radio chart hits.

Since relocating to Nashville, Holiday has made even more of a name for himself as an artist, songwriting and producer. His latest single “By Myself” is his first bit of new material since the release of My Favorite Drug. “By Myself” features dusty trip-hop styled breakbeats, twinkling synth stabs, woozy guitar lines, atmospheric synths and a swaggering groove beneath Holiday’s cool crooning singing about fucking up a relationship — and being a bit proud because his narrator is free from an abusive, dysfunctional person. It’s an odd anthem of self-determination, fueled by heartache.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: A Cat Named Monty Shares Jangling, Hook-Driven “Welcome to Life”

David Jennings is an Aussie-born, Germany-based singer/songwriter and musician, who is an Australian Songwriting Club winner and a two-time Australian Songwriting Association runner-up, who has been a part of the Melbourne music in some fashion since the late 90s as the creative mastermind of A Cat Named Monty, which released six EPs to some critical acclaim.

Since relocating to Germany, A Cat Named Monty features members spread out across the globe. The project’s latest single “Welcome To Life” is a hook-driven tune that brings Blur, The Beatles, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and New Zealand jangle pop to mind that take a hilarious — yet sobering — look at the difficulties of living in the modern world. Yes, first world problems but problems all the same.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: TV On The Radio Perform “Wolf Like Me” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live”

TV On The Radio perform “Wolf Like Me” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Always You Share Woozy, Bittersweet “1994”

Los Angeles-based duo Always You — twin brothers Christoph and Anton Hochheim — have managed to forge their own path while working alongside a hive mind-like collection of musician friends, including Beach Fossils, Wild Nothing, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, MGMT, Jerry Paper, The Depreciation Guild and a lengthy list of others, which has helped shaped the siblings sonic identity along the way. Formerly known as Ablebody, the Hochheim Brothers have spent their careers exploring lo fi hypnagogic laptop pop, sophisticated synth pop informed by 80s UK and Japanese New Wave, as well as kitsch-en sink lounge ballads inspired by the great chansons.

The Los Angeles-based duo’s third album, the Jack Tatum-produced Against The World is slated for a November 13, 2026 release through Hit The North Records. With Jack Tatum at helm guiding production and mixing, he tirelessly broke down and then reconstructed all the elements of the material with the twins, pushing the album’s overall sonics to the absolute breaking point while still retaining their signature sophtisipop sheen. Throughout the album’s run time, heavy guitars and bending sheets of white noise clash over frenzied hi-hats and The Prodigy-like sub bass. Abrupt starts and stops seemingly crash down with the weight of the world. Drum ‘n’ bass and house beats thump over soaring melodies and chopped up vocal samples. The ballads seemingly sparkle with more heart and tension than anything in their previously released work.

Thematically speaking, Against The World is a statement for and against the times: a manic manifesto drawing a line in the sand, pointing out that love is the only resistance against the forces manufacturing distance and endless dissent between us. It’s a rallying cry pushing for something better, a staunch refusal of the status quo, fueled by the belief that we all deserve much better. The album’s material is rooted in the deep sense of longing for something, hell, anything else than this — a different reality, an alternate timeline, anything. Increasingly divorced from the world around us, the false promises of a new lover, a new leader, a quick and seemingly effortless salutation or a new savior become impossible to resist. That fantasy leads us further and further underground, leaving miles of rubble in its wake and keeping us all just out of reach.

Against The World’s second and latest single “1994” is a bittersweet meditation on time’s inexorable march forward, aging, lost youth and lost opportunities and the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia pushing us to dream of a simpler world that never really existed. But when the world is seemingly running down, there’s a strange comfort in looking backwards isn’t there? Sonically and thematically, “1994” seemingly channels Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” sounding as though it could have been released in — well, 1994 while underpinned by some old school craftsmanship.

“‘1994’ is a song about clinging to specific times and seeking refuge in them, often to moments that never really existed,” the Los Angeles-based sibling duo explain. “We live in a world that deals nostalgia as currency, where the past is constantly viewed through rose tinted lenses, with our youth put on a pedestal and the continual quest to return to that version of ourselves always just out of reach. We long to return to the simpler times before life pulled us from each other and ourselves, before our hardships and tragedies calloused us to the world, back to a time that only ever existed in our minds.”

Directed by Otium, the accompanying video for “1994” is a woozy and panoramic visual that touches on the song’s overall themes of rose-tinted nostalgia for at time before everything seemingly went bonkers — even if it was kind of bullshit to begin with.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Full Flower Moon Band Shares Uneasy, Brooding “Endless Summer”

Led by its creative mastermind, Aussie singer/songwriter and guitarist Kate “Babyshakes” Dillon, rock outfit Full Flower Moon Band initially started out as a bedroom project. Since expanding to a formidable, full-fledged band, Full Flower Moon Band has become one of Oz’s fastest growing bands. Anhocred around Dillon’s songwriting and singular stage presence, the project blends heavy riffle, psych rock/desert rock swagger with sharp, often darkly comic lyricism.

2024’s third album, Megaflower was their breakthrough effort: Megaflower debuted at #1 on the ARIA Australian Album Charts and #6 on the ARIA Vinyl Charts, selling out its initial vinyl pressing in a week. “Roadie” and “Illegal Things” received airplay on Iggy Pop’s BBC radio show. “Man Hands” appeared in Made In Chelsea. “Trainspotting’ was featured in the Netflix series, Heartbreak High. The album also landed at #66 on KEXP‘s album chart. And a collection of performance clips went viral, amassing millions of views while receiving attention from Fred Durst, Jack Black, Cage The Elephant, and Daniel Johns.

Adding to a growing wave of momentum surrounding the Aussie band, they’ll be opening for Foo Fighters on two dates of that band’s Aussie tour — November 5, 2026 at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium and November 7, 2026 at Townsville’s Queensland County Bank Stadium. And hot on the heels of that announcement, “Endless Summer” is their first bit of new music of 2026. Anchored around a snarling dessert rock-meets-doom metal guitar line, “Endless Summer” to my ears sounds a bit like a swaggering, blend of Songs For The Deaf-era Queens of the Stone Age and Stories From the City, Stories from the Sea-era PJ Harvey. But just underneath the sunny and optimist dream of never-ending summer, the song i underpinned by the shaky conviction of a manic episode, giving the song an uneasily desperate undertone.

The new single was written by Dillion during a month-long stint in New York, after receiving the Grant McLennan Fellowship, experience that pushed her outside the familiarity of Brisbane — and into a period of intense writing, isolation and creative uncertainty.

“A much darker anthem than the title suggests — ‘Endless Summer’ is the voice of a manic episode. This hopeless, frantic optimism is summarised in the chorus lyric, ‘you can have an endless summer, anytime the sun comes out’. What began as a simple instrumental track is now an unnerving battle cry,” Dillon explains.

The accompanying video for “Endless Summer” is split between stylishly shot performance footage, homemade footage of Dillon as a child playing air guitar and of brooding and serious Dillon in New York — on the subway and in several different locations in town. The video manages to capture the creeping unease at the core of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Julia Jacklin Shares Introspective “If I Had The Hand of God”

Acclaimed Melbourne-based singer/songwriter and musician Julia Jacklin will be releasing her highly-anticipated fourth album, the Robert Muiños and Jacklin co-produced, 10-song album  The Gem through 4AD Records digitally and on CD, cassette and vinyl on September 25, 2026. Exclusive color vinyl editions with retailers will include turquoise, green opal, ruby and rose quartz. Pre-order information can be found here.

The album will include the previously released “Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You),” the album’s closing track ” “I Wish” feat, Aussie folk sibling duo The Maes, “The Hardest Thing,” and the album’s latest single “If I Had The Hand of God,” a jangling that’s one-part song-as-story bit of country and one-part indie rock anthem. Written about a surreal trip to Nashville, “If I Had The Hand of God” is a lived-in, introspective meditation on the life of a touring musician and the importance — or unimportance — of legacy that’s both earnest and drenched in a bit of irony.

Directed by Nick Mcck, the accompanying video for “If I Had The Hand of God” begins with Jacklin making a call in a hotel room, before allowing the acclaimed Aussie wandering around Las Vegas with equal parts awe, exhaustion, bemusement and confusion. Oh and there’s a feathered showgirl hat at some point that looks incredibly heavy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 40th Birthday, Faris Badwan!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates The Horrors frontman Faris Badwan’s 40th birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Rose Spiegel Shares Earnest, Mind-Bending “A Good Thing”

Rose Spiegel is a multi-disciplinary artist with a lifelong passion for music. Although she primarily works in pop and rock, her overall sound and approach is ever-changing and experimental. She explains that sometimes her songs tell stories of people and places that don’t exist, while at other times, they are personal reflections meant to help her better understand herself.

“As an artist in both visual and sonic fields, the work I put out is abstracted, inventive, often humorous and always straight from my heart and mind,” Spiegel says.

Spiegel’s latest single “A Good Thing” seemingly channels the likes of Soccer Mommy and Julia Jacklin but featuring a mind-bending and mischievous experimental bent with glitchy electronics and brooding bass synths towards the song’s closing section. The song rooted in astute observation and a novelistic attention to small, psychological detail while expressing frustration, exhaustion and devotion within the turn of a phrase.

“This song deals with the struggle of empathy and being a caregiver in any capacity,” Spiegel explains. “It’s about the difficult realization that caring for and loving someone does not equate to personal fulfillment. The good thing in question here is love and care. Too much of it and you’re suffocating. Notenough and you’re left completely empty. This goes for both the giver and the recipient.

“I often find myself writing about the painful side of excess empathy. There’s a joy and comfort in knowing you can help those who need it, but when it becomes obligatory it diminishes the kindness to a tool that others can use when needed.

There’s also a depressing helplessness that appears when you’ve reduced yourself to being someone’s savior. If you aren’t able to solve the issue than what good are you? This is especially complicated when dealing with a problem with no solution.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Dragonflies Perform “Slower” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live”

Dragonfiles is a new musical project between Nigel Godrich and Dhani Harrison. Godrich and Harrison had already know each other for years — running in the same circles, hanging out in nature and admiring each other’s work from afar. During the pandemic, Harrison reached out to Godrich for advice and insight on what would become his 2023 solo effort Innerstanding. Historically,. Harrison helmed all of his own projects and was generally averse to working with outside producers. At the same time, Godrich had reached the point where he was less interested in producing for strangers, and was much more eager to only work with friends.

Eventually a conversation around Innerstanding led to a different conversation: “Why don’t we try to work on something?”

Godrich’s first impulse was to invite Harrison to his Brixton-based studio, to draw the producer, multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter out of his comfort zone. There, Godrich brought Harrison into his current working method, which involves creating tape loops as the basis for songs. Though, they had known each other for years, the pair were entering completely unknown territory. But they had a shared musical language and multi-faceted decades-long careers between them, with each uniquely adept at production and an array of instruments. And at Godrich’s studio, they embarked on a series of writing and recording sessions in which songs quickly bursting out of them. “It’s like one person throwing something in the air and the other person catching it,” Godrich describes.

During their writing and recording sessions, Harrison was impressed by Godrich’s ability to edit on the fly. “He’s a machine,” Harrison says, then adds with a laugh: “He has strong opinions about what he wants to hear, and for me it’s very humbling — that’s why it’s such a new experience for me.” And yet for Harrison. a student of the alternative and electronic albums of late 90s Brain, working with his friend was a dream come true, and an experience in which each was able to shift roles. Harrison, who was long used to being control behind the computer, went to different places by operating primarily as a vocalist and guitarist. For his part, Godrich credits Harrison’s openness and compassion with allowing the writing process to be one of happy accidents, and began coming in with lyrics and melodies. 

It was a unique way of working, both electronic and organic that involved laying down an idea, then chiseling the song into shape above mechanical sections of 24-track tape loops. Harrison conjured influences like Beth Gibbons, David Sylvain and Ryuchi Sakamoto in his vocals, while the duo refined their original recordings into layered grooves that channeled trip hop and electronic music — yet performed by hand. Then Godrich enlisted his Ultraísta and Atoms For Peace bandmate Joey Waronker (drums) to add more percussion. He also traveled to Los Angeles to work with composer and arranger David Campbell, with whom he worked on Beck‘s iconic Sea Change. Campbell draped the sputtering drums, rippling piano and frayed synths of several album tracks in gorgeous string arrangements. The result is a sort of earthbound space rock; music that’s transportive and far-reaching without ever sounding stereotypically psychedelic.

The destination was appropriately cosmic for a project that felt like liberation for both Godrich and Harrison. “Dragonflies are a symbol of spiritual enlightenment,” Harrison explains. “When Nigel suggested the name I was like, yeah, sold, done. Whenever I see a dragonfly it’s magical.” 

Interestingly, Dragonflies embed from a period of both great chance and stillness. After two decades being primarily based in Los Angeles leading bands like thenewno2 and scoring for television and films, Harrison returned to his native England, shocked at the quiet remove back home. At the same time, Godrich had pulled back from touring and recording, and considered himself in semi-retirement. But it was from the newfound silence in both of their lives that Dragonflies became a vehicle in which they could chase unforeseen sound sand horizons.

Dragonflies emerged from a period of both great change and stillness. After two decades primarily based in Los Angeles — leading bands like thenewno2 and scoring television and films — Harrison returned to his native England, shocked at the quiet remove back home. Compared to running himself ragged in LA, he felt free, and the next phase of his musical life blossomed. At the same time, Godrich had pulled back from touring and recording, and considered himself in semi-retirement. It was from the newfound silence in both of their lives that Dragonflies became a vehicle in which they could chase unforeseen sounds and horizons. 

Through the creation of the self-titled album, the duo discovered a new, brotherly depth to their friendship, and the fact that their bond allowed them to explore emotions and aesthetics neither could have done in another project — or by themselves. Built on trust, their experiments led to someplace unexpected for each, and opened the door for the future; They have a second album’s worth of material taht they’re putting the finishing touches on, and they plan on forming a touring band to take this new music on the road.

“I mean, it’s really fun,” Godrich explains simply. “Why would you not want to keep going?” 

“We could go even further,” Harrison concludes. “I’m still not sure what it is, where the band is going. But I want to go to that place more.” 

Dragonflies recently were on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform, album opener — and the first song the do worked on together — “Slower.” Built around a tumbling drums, glistening Rhodes and shimmering and bluesy and searching guitar beneath Harrison’s yearning delivery “Slower” is an atmospheric and vibey tune about the need to slow down and take stock that seemingly channels a blend of Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd, Kid A and Amensiac-era Radiohead and Portishead — but while evoking a yearning toward the cosmic.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Baltimore’s Little Lungs Share Gorgeous, Introspective “Strangest Thing”

Baltimore-based indie rock outfit Little Lungs — Leena Rhodes (vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, synth), Brendan Russell (bass). Ricky Schwarzenberg (guitar) and Eli Simms (drums) — combine intimate and sincere lyricism with intricate guitar melodies and pulsating rhythms to create a sound that blends elements of folk and indie rock. Never shying away from vulnerability, the Baltimore-based quintet’s work dives into the obscure, difficult to explain emotions, like the innate feeling of absence, the flux of infatuation, the beauty of intoxication.

Recorded at Charm City’s The Watermelon Room last spring, the Ricky Schwarzenberg-produced sophomore album The Heat was released earlier this year. Arguably, their most cathartic effort to date, The Heat examines the love, loss and rebirth left in the wake of a tumultuous and volatile relationship — with vivid imagery and decisive storytelling.

“Strangest Thing,” The Heat‘s latest single is a breathtakingly gorgeous and soulful blend of folk, country and dream pop built around strummed acoustic guitar, jangling electric guitar and bursts of shimmering pedal steel with Rhodes’ introspective lyricism, big hooks and choruses and Rhodes’ equally gorgeous delivery.

The song is full of small, novelistic details and observations, which gives the song a deeply lived-in feel, while the narrator confesses a seemingly undying devotion to their lover.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Soccer Mommy Shares Yearning “Rings of Saturn”

Nashville-based singer/songwriter and musician Sophie Allison, the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed project Soccer Mommy, has made a name for herself over the past decade as one of indie rock’s most beloved and distinct voices. Her latest single, the Eliott Kozel-produced “Rings of Saturn” is the first bit of new material from the JOVM mainstay since 2024’s Evergreen. and it comes on the heels of the Allison opening for her heroes Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney on their tour.

Featuring an introduction that has Allison accompanying her yearning vocal with strummed acoustic guitar that serves as the backbone of the song. the song quickly showcases her penchant for rousingly anthemic choruses featuring glitchy boom bap breakbeats and fuzzy guitars and twinkling keys. But at its core is a relatable narrator, who’s lost and desperately looking for hope from anywhere. They’re trying to hold on but they don’t know if they could hold on — or for how long.

“This song is about feeling lost and looking for hope from anywhere,” Allison explains. “I wrote it during a difficult time when I would often take my telescope out into the yard to look at the moon or at planets. There’s something about feeling small that can kind of take the weight off.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Verse Metrics Shares Rousingly Anthemic “Big Dirty”

Formed back in 2019, Scottish indie rock outfit Verse Metrics have firmly established a unique sound that sees them blending math rock-like precision with cinematic post rock, soaring melodies and intricate dynamics. The result is material that’s emotionally charged and meticulously crafted simultaneously while thematically exploring memory, isolation and connection.

The band has received press from a number of internationally known outlets, including Kerrang!, Clash Magazine, The Scotsman, Prog Magazine, GoldFlakePaint and a list of others. And adding to a growing regional and international profile, the band has earned a reputation as a formidable live act, sharing stages with Delta Sleep. TTNG, The Appleseed Cast and VUKOVI.

Released earlier this year, the Scottish outfit’s full-length debut, Descents captures a sharper, heavier and more resonant evolution of their sound and approach. Descents‘ latest single “Big Dirty” will further cement their reputation for material that sounds a bit like a seamless blend of Interpol and She Wants Revenge-like post-punk and punchy math rock while showcasing their ability to craft rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses paired with earnest lyricism and arena rock bombast.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Bodywash Shares Dreamy, 90s Alt-Rock Inspired “Lapsang”

Montréal-based JOVM mainstays Bodywash — Chris Steward and Rosie Long Decter — will be releasing their third album, Laughing at Noise on November 20, 2026 through Light Organ. The album reportedly finds the duo taking stock of the ambivalent feelings that have gathered behind them over the past decade of their professional music careers: Steward and Long Decter, who started playing together in a dorm room practice space while at university are now in their early 30s. And in that time, the city that nurtured their creative expressive has become a decidedly harsher place. Rents rise as abounded properties known locally as brownfields are transformed into new developments and pricey real estate; DIY spaces wither in structural shadow; summer is hazier and heavier.

Laughing at Noise doesn’t indulge in nostalgia or cynicism — rather, it sees the duo sorting through what it means to grow older and keep on with both wariness and wisdom 2023’s I Held The Shape While I Could was swirling, elegant and elastic, but as they began writing new material, the duo found themselves pulled towards a more stripped-back approach. Steward was enamored with acoustic guitar and Long Decor was writing on guitar and bass rather than on keys.

The songs that would eventually comprise their third album are much more playful and worn-in, and the overall sound of the album follows. It’s a bit rougher around the edges, seeing the JOVM mainstays trading an adherence to fidelity for a looser, nosier sound that gradually developed over months of experimentation.

The duo produced the album over the course of a year at Autoland Audio in Montréal’s Parc-Ex neighborhood and enlisted Asher Gould-Murtagh for mixing duties. Sonically, the album further cements their unique blend of shoegaze and dream pop but with a scrappier 80s indie rock sensibility in tone and point of view, seemingly nodding at the likes of Elliott Smith and Kim Gordon, complete with a dialing up of distortion and fuzziness.

But the album is rooted in a Montréal perspective — a point of view, along with its melodic sensibilities that buoys it all from being overly world-weary. Long Decter says that she might call Laughing at Noise, the band’s “Montréal album.” The album embodies the perceptive on home that can only come with time. Steward adds, ” “The longer you stay somewhere, the more you become the yardstick against which everything is measured.”

Laughing at Noise’s first single “Lapsang” is a seamless — and downright effortless — blend of dream pop, indie folk and 90s alt rock featuring swirling synths, strummed acoustic, glitchy feedback beneath Steward’s dreamy delivery and their uncanny melodic and harmonic sensibility. At one point Steward sings “I took the bus down the bike lane” — a snow globe-like image of the city’s uniquely charming and unruly frustrations — before reflecting “I’ve lived around here for a long time.”

Steward explainss, “‘Lapsang’ is an ode to Montreal’s Little Italy neighborhood and the years I spent there, waiting for the 55 bus. It’s named after my favourite, impossibly smokey blend of tea, which has the most sing-song of names: Lapsang Souchong. The riff and verse were written during an ice storm, where the resulting power outage forced me to write most of the song without a computer. The frozen tree tendrils looked a lot like the leaves of the tea I was brewing, prompting a working title that would never be changed. Later, Rosie and I would record separate melodies for the chorus in the studio, only to realise they could be woven together seamlessly.”

Directed by Evangelos Desborough, the accompanying video for “Lapsung” follows an Elvis impersonator as he amps himself for a gig at a community center/VFW. But throughout the gig, he seems woefully out of place with the guests not paying much attention to him. We then see the Elvis impersonator on the Montréal Métro, walking home and lost in his own melancholy. Some of the locations are familiar, including one that looks like Rue Sherbrooke near I think Rue St. Denis.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: GIFT Shares Rousingly Anthemic, Arena Rock Friendly “Hand To The Flame”

Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays GIFT — TJ Freda (vocals, guitar, production), Jessica Gurewitz (synths, vocals, guitar), Kallan Campbell (bass), Justin Hrabovsky (synths, guitar) and Gabe Camarano (drums) — will be releasing their third album, the TJ Freda and Teddy Mars co-produced Frenzy For The Thill on January 15, 2027 through Captured Tracks.

The JOVM mainstays began in earnest during the pandemic with the band’s Freda holed up in Brooklyn building the lush layers of what would become the band’s 2022 full-length debut, Momentary Presence. Both Momentary Presence and it’s follow-up, 2024’s Illuminator saw the band blending various strains of psychedelic music — krautrock, New Wave, electronic music and shoegaze — while cataloging Freda’s ongoing battles with panic attacks, frequently seeking to counter anxiety with transcendence. However, before the creation of GIFT’s third album, TJ Freda found that particular metaphorical drug wasn’t working.

The tours to support Illuminator had left Freda ragged and burned out. When a friend offered to let him stay at their Los Angeles home for two months, it seemed — at the time — to be a perfect way to decompress, to take time and write songs for other artists, and to put GIFT to the side for a bit. However, Freda arrived in Los Angeles as firefighters put out the final fires of early last year, to a house full of ash and not much else than the instruments he brought him. Moved by the renewal and resilience he saw in Angelenos coming together in the wake of the wildfires, the GIFT frontman suddenly felt a creative outpouring.

New GIFT songs arrived much more angst-ridden than in the past, yet not within their own sense of release. For the GIFT frontman, the songs were vehicles to ask the big, existential questions: Now, in his 30s, had watched friends settle down, but he found he was not doing searching. “Making Frenzy For The Thrill was partially about exploring the balance of living as an artist without disappearing into it,” Freda explains. From despondence, Freda emerged with a revitalized sense of creative purpose and direction.

Freda found himself gravitation towards grittier, angstier inspirations including 90s alt-rock, grunge and brasher iterations of electronic music. Combined with the band having become a tight, deeply connected unit honed by rigorous touring. Freda wanted to create something more visceral and collaborative. And as a result, Frenzy For The Thrill may arguably be the most-band orientated album of their catalog to date, anchored around the sound of five musicians diving into the madness together with an “one-for-all, all-for-one” sort of approach.

While adopting much of the ethos and structure of dance music, the album reportedly harnesses the energy the immediate energy the band cultivated onstage, while also incorporating more of their individual personalities and instincts in the overall arrangements and songwriting, Frenzy For The Thrill is anchored in far-seeing melodies and synth textures the band has become known for, while paired with what may be the most muscular performances to date.

Lessons are learned by the end of the album, including a soft of hard-won self-acceptance on the other side of the album’s violence, a healthier, more balanced life after staring into the void. “We’re always looking for resolutions, but life isn’t like that,” Freda concludes. “Frenzy For The Thrill is about still being in love with the chase knowing we might not find answers on the other side. This is the sound of us crashing headlong into the unknown.” 

Frenzy For The Thrill’s first single “Hand To The Flame'” is a seamless blend of fuzzy grunge and shoegaze-inspired riffs, dance punk and post-punk-like four-on-the-floor and glistening synth arpeggios paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. Seemingly nodding at Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness-era Smashing Pumpkins, “Hand To The Flame” may arguably be the JOVM mainstay outfit’s most ambitious, most arena rock friendly songs they’ve written and released to date.

Taking some inspiration from the hubris parable of the story of Icarus, fire became a crucial organizing image for the GIFT frontman as he considered the border between ambition and ego, the pitfalls of obsession and the idea of cleansing one’s past by letting it all go up in smoke. “‘Hand To The Flame’ is holding onto passion, and what makes us human while the world falls apart. Desperately chasing passion in a passionless world,” Freda explains. “Like charging full speed towards something you know will eventually hurt you. Repeatedly putting your hand in the flame with the same outcome, knowing it will always be the same outcome but hoping it will be different.  There’s romance in the chase, regardless of whether or not its going to hurt when you get to the end.”

Directed by Sydney VillacortaBuer, the accompanying video for “Hand To The Flame” is decidedly 90s inspired — and perhaps takes cues from Hole’s Celebrity Skin album art: The video is split between the band wandering around the smokey embers of a smoldering fire and dancing around an enormous bonfire, conjuring something ancient and primitive.