Save for a few experiments in 2020—a 14-minute spoken-word guided meditation, a Smino collab, a pair of fairly ambient pop cuts; y’know, normal stuff—Jonny Pierce hasn’t released any new material with The Drums since 2019’s Brutalism. Today, though, Pierce has shared a new single called “I Want It All” which feels like a return to form, with the five-minute track serving as a less-surfy take on the project’s early material between its glowing guitars and tight drumming.
The new single is driven by a sense of longing, which Pierce describes as being tied to the pain of a loveless childhood. “It is only in the past few years that I have really begun to understand what happened to me as a boy,” Pierce shared in a press statement, “which has helped me start to build my own bridge towards real love. The song is a declaration—that I will take what I was never given. I want the full experience of being human, which includes love and connection. I want it all.”
The new tune arrives with a slate of tour dates spanning North America this summer, kicking off July 12 at San Diego’s House of Blues. Hear the new track below, and find those dates here.