REUBEN AND THE DARK Share New Single 'Youth' From Album
The track explores the frontman's chaotic childhood and will appear in the indie film BILLINGS.
Reuben and the Dark have shared a new single, 'Youth,' from their upcoming album If You Know Me You Know My Brother. The song explores the chaotic childhood that frontman/project mastermind Reuben Bullock shared with his late older brother, and finds healing in memories that once felt impossible to revisit. 'Youth' has also been tapped for the end credits of the forthcoming film Billings, which is the directorial debut of actor Alexander Ludwig (The White Lotus, The Hunger Games, Vikings).
About the track–the final single from If You Know Me You Know My Brother, out October 9, 2026 (preorder here)–Bullock shares:
'Shortly before Ben died, I started to really revisit our childhood and young adulthood. Going back through stories and memories, trying to understand why we are the way we are. Ben and I went through a lot when we were young–chaos, trauma, too many near death experiences to name. And a lot of that continued until present day. I was really encouraged by a friend to dig into it and try to write more literally to almost move it through my system in a therapeutic way. To try and transmute pain into poetry. The chorus almost feels prophetic now: 'Our youth was not wasted on us.' This line only truly made sense to me after he passed. I don't know if I've ever written a song that holds so much meaning, it is heartbreaking and healing at the same time. I started writing this song when Ben and I were in our 20s and he was struggling with psychosis and addiction. I remember being quite nervous about sharing it with him as I knew how deeply personal and vulnerable it would be. But I think he liked being my muse. I know he did. And when the Billings movie opportunity came around, I realized that the themes in this movie mirrored the themes in my life. And so it felt natural to finish this song for the film.'
The Calgary-based Reuben and the Dark–Bullock, Benjamin Longman (keys/guitar), Sam Harrison (bass), and Brendan 'Dino' Soares (drums)–will also celebrate the album's release with a Canadian tour this fall and winter.
Bullock is known for writing songs that search for light in impossible places, and across five albums, the songwriter has turned grief, endurance, and hope into expansive, communal anthems. Yet If You Know Me You Know My Brother strips away much of the distance that once separated the storyteller from the story itself, and arrives after one of the most significant chapters of Bullock's life. Written across more than a decade, and completed following the death of his brother earlier this year, these 10 songs also reckon with addiction, family, forgiveness, and the strange ways love continues long after loss. If earlier Reuben and the Dark records often looked outward–toward nature, spirituality, and a search for belonging–this one begins at home. 'I stopped giving a f,' Bullock says simply. 'This one is for me.'
Newly feeling freed from expectations and industry pressures, Bullock approached If You Know Me You Know My Brother with a new kind of honesty. Many of these songs had lived unfinished for years, too personal to release until the moment finally arrived. The title itself comes from something his brother once told Reuben: that sometimes he couldn't tell where one life ended and the other began. That sentiment became the emotional center of the record. What started as an album about perseverance gradually revealed itself as something deeper: a conversation between brothers that stretches across time, memory, and absence. For Bullock, this is less a reinvention than a return–to writing songs for the joy of the process, to trusting instinct over expectation, and to the simple act of picking up a guitar and asking the one person whose opinion mattered most, Do you think this is any good? 'This is the last album I was ever able to show my brother,' he explains. 'And most of these songs were for him. Written with him in mind as I reminisced of our childhood together. Trying harder to understand and accept how he has truly been my muse for the last 15 years of songwriting.'
If You Know Me You Know My Brother doesn't offer neat resolutions to grief. Instead, it finds grace in continuing forward. It is a record about broken hearts that keep beating, impossible dreams worth chasing, and the quiet realization that love rarely disappears–it simply changes shape.
Reuben and the Dark Live
10/2/26 - Victoria, BC - Capitol Theatre
10/3/26 - Pender Island, BC - The Crisp Festival
10/4/26 - Squamish, BC - The BAG #
10/9/26 - Almonte, ON - Small Halls Festival
10/10/26 - Montreal, QC - Casa del Popolo
10/11/26 - Quebec City, QC - Grizzly Fuzz
10/14/26 - Sydney, NS - Daniel's Taphouse
10/15/26 - Halifax, NS - The Seahorse +
10/16/26 - Moncton, NB - Tide & Boar +
10/17/26 - Fredericton, NB - The CAP +
10/20/26 - London, ON - Aeolian Hall ^
10/21/26 - Toronto, ON - Longboat Hall ^
10/22/26 - St. Catharines, ON - The Warehouse ^
10/23/26 - Guelph, ON - Sonic Hall ^
10/24/26 - Waterloo, ON - Room 47 ^
10/25/26 - Windsor, ON - Meteor
11/11/26 - Fernie, BC - The Northern Bar & Stage
11/12/26 - Lethbridge, AB - Southminster United Church*
11/13/26 - Sherwood Park, AB - Festival Place*
11/14/26 - Demmitt, AB - Demmitt Community Centre*
1/21/27 - Saskatoon, SK - Broadway Theatre
1/22/27 - Winnipeg, MB - The Park Theatre
1/23/27 - Regina, SK - The Exchange
2/2/27 - Whitehorse, YT - Yukon Arts Centre*
2/4/27 - St. Albert, AB - The Arden Theatre*
2/5/27 - Red Deer, AB - Bo's*
2/6/27 - Canmore, AB - Communitea Cafe*
* with Bullhorn Singers
# with Sierra Lundy (of Ocie Elliott)
+ With Tiny Horse
^ with MOONRIIVR
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