War on Drugs frontman Adam Granduciel discusses the band’s new album

War on Drugs returns with their most confident album yet

MUSIC PRODUCER JIMMY IOVINE, WHO HAS WORKED WITH EVERYONE FROM U2 TO DR. DRE, ONCE PREDICTED THAT THE PENNSYLVANIA BAND WAR ON DRUGS WOULD BE “HUGE.” THEIR SYNTH-HEAVY ROCK HAS THE REQUISITE ARENA SOUND, BUT THEY’VE REMAINED INDIE CULT FAVORITES, IN PART BECAUSE THEIR SONGS, WRITTEN BY FRONTMAN ADAM GRANDUCIEL (ABOVE), ADDRESS INTROSPECTIVE SUBJECTS LIKE DEPRESSION AND LONELINESS. HE SPOKE TO NEWSWEEK ABOUT THE BAND’S FOURTH ALBUM, A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING, AND HOW IT DIFFERS FROM 2014’S BREAKTHROUGH, LOST IN THE DREAM.

“This record is more about our experience as people and musicians. But while it’s a band record, I didn’t want to do it in the traditional way, and that involved first isolating myself in a studio on the West Coast. We had grown so tight as a band, and you want to be the best leader, to have that collaboration with everybody; I was like, I should be in Philly with my guys!... Bruce Springsteen’s The Ghost of Tom Joad was a big inspiration. The writing [on that] wasn’t like The River, this guy growing up into the workforce with American family values. He was writing about another side of America—migrant workers and families being pulled apart. I was mesmerized by that style of writing, even though mine is much different…. We worked with engineer Shawn Everett, and the album is definitely more thought out. Everyone had time to hear the songs and work on them. That confidence helps the sound—it feels more sure of itself.”