Silversun Pickups announce new album Physical Thrills, share single Scared Together

Silversun Pickups have announced details of their forthcoming sixth album Physical Thrills, and offered a taste of what to expect by sharing lead single Scared Together.

Produced by Garbage drummer Butch Vig (Nirvana/Smashing Pumpkins), the album will be released on August 19 via New Machine Recordings, and is available to pre-order now.

Using a somewhat protracted metaphor, the LA quartet's frontman Brian Aubert says, "This record is alive. It sits somewhere in between a collection of songs and an imaginary friend. A friend that from March of 2020 to April of 2021 would not only introduce itself to me but keep me company through that time of intense isolation. A friend that would remind me that in this instance, the whole world was feeling the same way as well. A comforting, playful, sometimes frightened, often delighted friend. A friend that was finally introduced to Butch Vig, once we got vaccinated, and blew through his studio like a tornado made of cotton candy, leaving little pieces of residue everywhere.

"But most importantly, this friend REALLY doesn’t give a fuck. I know. That sounds brash. I just mean it’s a thing that is truly free. And now, this little living head space no longer visits me. I visit it through this album. I hope you like it. My friend wouldn’t care. Little rascal."

Of the album's first single, Aubert says, "This song is about becoming close and intimate with someone through hardship. Being thrown into something quite frightening brings out some shared qualities that connect them.”

Listen to Scared Together below:

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.