Canadian quartet PUP is thrilled to release a new single today, featuring two previously unreleased songs, “How To Live With Yourself” and “Smoke Screen.” Each song is accompanied by its own video visualizer.
Stefan Babcock has to say about “How To Live With Yourself“:
“This was the first song we wrote when we started working on our last album. The first one is always the hardest, you tend to overthink everything, so we wanted to start with something simple and fun, something that we wouldn’t get too in our own heads about. This one feels like a classic PUP song to me, and while our goal for the record was to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and try new things, sometimes it feels good to write a catchy, miserable ripper that feels like it captures exactly what this band is about.”
And about “Smoke Screen” he says:
“This song originated with a Nestor riff. He sent it around, and the thing was so slow that I thought he’d exported it wrong. But his idea was to do a song that was like the “sludgey” version of PUP, something we’d never really done before. The more I listened to it, the more it grew on me. I remember in the height of the pandemic sitting in the backseat of my car at the Home Depot parking lot, anything to try and escape the house, and writing and recording all the lyrics on the spot.”
The band will tour Europe this summer, including key festivals and select headline dates. They will be performing at Jera On Air on June 23 and at Rock Werchter on June 30. Full show listings below.