Third Eye Blind are celebrating the announcement of their new album and accompanying documentary film with the release of their latest single “Again.”
The album, Our Bande Apart, is out Sept. 24 via Mega Collider Records. The film, aptly titled How We Hold Each Other Right Now: The Making Of Our Bande Apart, will premiere the same day at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. The Los Angeles premiere will take place on Sept. 28 at Masonic Lodge.
Read more: Mayday Parade offer exclusive behind-the-scenes look at “Bad At Love”
As summer nears its end, “Again” is a sunny surf-rock tune that will make the season feel a little bit longer. It’s also a nostalgic song about wanting to return to life before the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine.
“I wrote this song while locked in my house in the gloomiest days of the pandemic, as a dream of escape to some feeling that we so desperately wanted back,” lead singer Stephan Jenkins tells Alternative Press exclusively. “More than any other song on the album, ‘Again’ kind of wrote itself—a bliss pop California surf jam, and as it was coming together, I could just hear some big sprinkling of Best Coast vibes on it.”
The song features Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino, and her voice is the perfect addition to the summery tune.
“I love Bethany‘s voice, and it was a treat to watch her come in and punch it out in two takes,” Jenkins continues to Alternative Press. “At first, I thought we would do a harmony. But it had more energy with our voices singing the two of us together in unison. I was so pleased she was down to come sing on my song. It probably didn’t hurt that she lives a few blocks away from where we were recording in Eagle Rock.”
Read more: Lowertown showcase a more mature sound with new single “Seaface”—listen
“Again” follows Third Eye Blind’s latest single “Box Of Bones,” which they shared earlier this summer. All the songs on Our Bande Apart were recorded after the lockdown ended. “[It was] the most fun we’ve ever had in the studio,” Jenkins says in a press release. “You can hear the exuberance we have playing together in the same room again.”
The album was written and produced by Jenkins and Colin Holbrook and features contributions from Cosentino, Poliça and Marijuana Deathsquads’ Ryan Olson and Smashing Pumpkins’ Jeff Schroeder.
Fans can get an inside look at the creation of the album in the companion documentary, How We Hold Each Other Right Now: The Making Of Our Bande Apart. Directed by Kryz Reid and Jenkins, it offers an in-depth perspective of the band’s recording process.
“I think it shows a group of people playing together. [They are] feeling the joy of being creative together again, after so much darkness,” Jenkins says.
Read more: Vic Mensa on mental health, meditation & why he’s challenging tradition
Both the album and documentary are set for release Sept. 24. A limited ticket presale for the premiere of the film go on sale Aug. 23 at 10:00 a.m. local time, with a full public sale launching Aug. 24. Tickets for the Los Angeles show are available here.
You can watch the visual for “Again” below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.