Imperial Teen Releases ALL OVER YOU Single, Sets October Tour Dates
Roddy Bottum, Will Schwartz, Jone Stebbins and Lynn Truell discuss the studio process behind their new record.
Imperial Teen has released a new single and video for 'All Over You,' the title track from the band's upcoming album of the same name, due out October 9 on Merge Records. The band has also announced a run of coast-to-coast headline tour dates for October and November.
'All Over You' is a song about popular culture, passing fads, and the fixations that consume us, and it captures the band's knack for turning everyday observations into something sharp, playful, and undeniably catchy.
Formed in San Francisco more than three decades ago, Imperial Teen is Roddy Bottum (guitars, keyboards, vocals), Will Schwartz (vocals, guitars, keyboards), Jone Stebbins (bass, vocals), and Lynn Truell (drums, vocals). The band's enduring chemistry has only grown stronger with time, even as its members have spread across different cities.
The band will play a run of headline shows in October in support of All Over You, spanning both coasts with stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Boston, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and more. Tickets for all shows are on sale now.
Lyrically, All Over You spans desire, disconnection, popular culture, passing fads, and the realities of making art under capitalism. 'We want to make people dance and think and feel at the same time,' says Will Schwartz, a mission that remains at the heart of the band's latest record.
The album's title track, initially built over the computer, gained its charming sneer in the studio, where Stebbins' buoyant, fuzzed-out bassline added bounce to its punchy, sloganeering lyrics. Truell's improvised percussion brings an unexpected texture to the track before she drives it home, screaming the final line of the chorus, 'We've got nothing to do,' like a rallying cry. Roddy Bottum explains, 'In 'All Over You' we used a glass jar and other items lying around the studio for percussion. We also use some vocal techniques like breaths for percussion. We got to use some cool Moogs and vintage keyboards for texture on songs.'
'In my head,' Truell says, 'I just went back to punk, to that feeling of prowling around looking for anything to do and being so mad about how boring everything is that you just have to yell.' The result is a song that turns boredom and cultural overload into something exhilarating, a signature Imperial Teen track built on attitude, unexpected textures, and pure pop instinct.
The band's collaborative process, periodic writing retreats followed by scattered recording sessions, makes their time together both rare and potent. As Stebbins explains, 'For the last few records, the process has been similar. We live great distances away from each other, so initially, we get together to collaborate, write, and create. When we have enough material, we reconvene to record. Both scenarios, creating and recording, take multiple trips, sometimes with big lapses of time in between due to our various schedules.'
Arriving roughly every five to six years, each Imperial Teen record reflects what Bottum calls 'an episodic piece of where we are now.' That immediacy fuels All Over You, a record built from fleeting but electric moments. 'Overdrive,' for example, came together in a single final take before Schwartz caught a ferry in Provincetown, its vocal captured in what Bottum recalls as a 'magical' last-minute session.
The album features the band's most expansive, textured palette to date, drawing from bubblegum pop and boy/girl harmonies, electro beats and grungy distortion, power-pop anthems, and kiss-off lyricism, elements once dismissed as fads but long since proven timeless.
More than three decades after forming in San Francisco, Imperial Teen remain as sharp and vital as ever. All Over You is less a return than a continuation, a bratty, sexy, and euphoric record that feels like a broadcast from the sonic world they've long inhabited.
Tour Dates
10.14 - Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon +
10.15 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill +
10.17 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza +
10.18 - Portland, OR @ Swan Dive +
11.03 - Boston, MA @ Warehouse XI
11.04 - Brooklyn, NY @ Baby's All Right
11.05 - Philadelphia, PA @ Nikki Lopez
11.06 - Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong
11.07 - Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
+ w/ Kids on a Crime Spree
Tracklist
1. Overdrive
2. Hands All Up
3. All Over You
4. A Single Chair
5. Get You Home
6. On the Island
7. Kiss It Goodbye
8. Probably So
9. Have a Shout
10. Bringing It Down
Photo Credit: Milan Zrnic
Photo Credit: Milan Zrnic
