SoCal alt-rock band Cold War Kids announce self-titled album and '24 tour

On November 3, the Cold War Kids - best known for the rock radio and digital hits "Mine is Yours," "First," "Love is Mystical" and "So Tied Up" (with Bishop Briggs) - will release their 10th studio album, Cold War Kids, via AWAL. 

New song “Another Name” was produced by Ethan Gruska (Phoebe Bridgers). The day he and the band’s frontman Nathan Willett were scheduled to work together for the first time, Willett had his final session with his longtime therapist.

“I started telling Ethan about it, which could have been really awkward with someone I’d never met. It’s not easy to walk into a room and just write a song with a stranger,” he says. “But instead, it was totally natural. The song came out almost fully formed, and it was probably the single best experience I’ve ever had working with a producer.”

Cold War Kids previously shared their single “Run Away With Me” which debuted at #33 on the Alt-Rock charts and “Double Life.” 

Over the summer, the band supported Tears For Fears on tour. CWK's headline North American jaunt starts in January. Tickets are on-sale Friday, Sept 15th at 10AM local time and all dates are listed below.

Cold War Kids recently went into the Austin, TX studios of Do512 for a session where they performed some fan favorites like "First” and “Double Life.”

If Nathan Willett followed his usual impulses, Cold War Kids’ 10th album might just have been a five-song EP, or an album with entirely different songs than the 12 ultimately chosen here. Instead, Willett took a rare pandemic-era breather to really contemplate what a Cold War Kids album could, and should, sound like in 2023, and how to infuse the material with meaningful discourse about his life specifically and the state of the world more broadly. 

“If I’ve got five songs done that I’ve worked on in a certain way, I tend to want to put them out as an EP and go do some shows around it,” Willett says of his mindset during the early stages of Cold War Kids. “Continually as my brain would go to that place, I’d go, no, just wait, and really put together a full-length record. I needed to approach things very differently and work with some new people in a way that was a little uncomfortable. This album is where I’ve most felt like I was the executive producer of everything.

"The band started out with four guys who have very specific tastes and styles, and now it’s mostly me making the records in a way I love and have always envisioned,” Willett says. “The sound of Cold War Kids has always been there, and I wanted this record to be the ideal, best version of all those things we’ve always been.”

Themes of creative life conflicting with domestic realities reflect Willett’s increasingly introspective state of mind. Committed to pushing himself just as hard to create the album’s sound, Willett turned to a handful of new producers and collaborators. 

Ultimately, Cold War Kids is the culmination of Willett and Maust’s two-decade creative partnership, and it embodies the realization that said partnership is still truly worth celebrating. “For so many years, we were white-knuckling it and feeling like we were imposters,” Willett admits. “I realized, I can’t think that way. If I’m not sure I can listen back to something and know that it’s great, then I shouldn’t be putting it out.

“This group of friends met and were drawn to each other at a Christian college, and we started the band in a strange environment where we realized, what are we all doing here?,” Willet says. “We came from a place of growing up, listening to music, and going to shows, and there’s a type of sweetness where we were sheltered from the music industry or wanting to be successful at any cost. Maust and I still have that connection, and it’s still an important part of what Cold War Kids are today.”

Cold War Kids is Nathan Willett (vocals, piano, guitar), Matt Maust (bass guitar), David Quon (guitar, backing vocals), Matthew Schwartz (keyboards, backing vocals, guitar, percussion), and Joe Plummer (drums, percussion).

Track Listing:

Double Life
Run Away With Me
Stray
Toxic Mask
Another Name
Blame
Empty Inside
Braindead Megaphone
Sunday In The City
For Your Love
Betting On Us
Starring Role

Tour Dates:

1/31 - San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore^
2/01 - Portland, OR – McMenamins Crystal Ballroom^
2/02 - Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre^
2/03 - Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre^
2/05 - Boise, ID – Knitting Factory^
2/06 - Bozeman, MT – The ELM^
2/08 - Aspen, CO – Belly Up Aspen^
2/09 - Denver, CO – Gothic Theatre^
2/10 - Denver, CO – Gothic Theatre^
2/13 - Tulsa, OK – Cain's Ballroom^
2/15 - Dallas, TX – House of Blues^
2/16 - Houston, TX – House of Blues^
2/17 - Austin, TX – Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheater^
2/23 - Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed#
2/24 - Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue#
2/26 - Cleveland, OH – House of Blues#
2/27 - Toronto, ON – The Phoenix Concert Theatre#
2/28 - Boston, MA – House of Blues#
3/01 - New York, NY – Webster Hall#
3/02 - New York, NY – Webster Hall#
3/03 - Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore#
3/05 - Washington, DC – 9:30 Club#
3/08 - Raleigh, NC – The Ritz#
3/09 - Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre#
03/15 – Roseville, CA – Goldfield Trading Post*
03/16 – Santa Cruz, CA – The Catalyst*
03/18 – San Diego, CA – The Observatory North Park*
03/20 – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre*
03/21 – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre*
03/23 – Pioneertown, CA – Pappy + Harriet’s*

^ - Hovvdy support
# - Joe P support
* - TBA support

Photo: Sean Flynn