Pup have just unveiled “Paranoid,” their first single in two years, produced by John Congleton.
It arrives on the heels of the band’s 2022 album, The Unraveling of PupTheBand, which secured universal acclaim and several Top 10 Billboard chart positions, including #1 Heatseekers, Top New Artists Albums, and Alternative New Artist Albums.
The quartet—Stefan Babcock, Nestor Chumak, Zack Mykula, and Steve Sladkowski—originally from Toronto, describe their music as an outlet for wading through depression in a boisterous, catchy, and meta way, as noted by Pitchfork. The New York Times calls Pup “frenetic punk-pop with neat verse-chorus-bridge structures,” and The New Yorker points to the band’s decision to “push things as far as possible” on their fourth record.
Babcock highlights a standout moment in the new single: “My favourite part of this song is the breakdown 1:45 in. It’s the heaviest moment in the song, Zack and Steve are going so hard, I’m yelling about all this sad stuff that’s going on with me, and Nestor is just playing the melody from ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ on the bass. It cracks me up every time I hear it. So fucking funny. It’s a very Pup moment.”
A new music video for “Paranoid,” directed by long-time collaborator Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux alongside co-director Clem Hoeney, spotlights what Schaulin-Rioux calls “a little love letter for rock band merchandise and the unsung heroes who run the merch table.” He also thanks “all the real Pup fans who came out and went so hard for a hundred takes!”
This May 2025, Pup will embark on a UK/EU headline tour with Illuminati Hotties supporting them on all dates, except for Spain. More details about ticketing and on-sale information can be found at www.puptheband.com.
In parallel, the band is launching MORE BAD STUFF – A PupTheBand Substack, a digital continuation of their earlier zine series, PupTheZine. It promises unreleased songs, writing process details, comics, live recordings, and tour stories. The first posts are already live, featuring the original four-song EP from their pre-Pup band Topanga and some Built to Spill covers by Babcock.
