Four years after their debut Dead Rose, Brooklyn’s The Twin surface with a second LP, Blue Honey, released September 12, 2025 through Mind Over Matter Records. The record marks a turn away from the breakup-soaked shadows of the first album. Instead of lingering on endings, it dives into the impulsive highs and lows of new relationships — lust, doubt, euphoria, distraction, and the reckless search for connection.
It’s an album about healing and depravity in equal measure, pulling threads of nu-gaze and fourth-wave emo into a heavier but strangely uplifting shape.
For Fans Of: Suede, Ride, Early Coldplay, Deftones, Catherine Whee
Singer and songwriter Bryan Louie explained that the band wanted to capture “the relief of taking the first pain free breath” after a breakup and to lean into “the impulsive recklessness and debauchery of searching for, and finding, new love.” That arc runs through all eight tracks, from reflections on doubt and self-destruction to declarations of lust and moments of clarity in new intimacy.
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The lineup includes Louie (Common Sage, Kai Mark) alongside drummer Jeff Gensterblum (Coalesce, The Casket Lottery), guitarist Arty Shepherd (Beinn, Errortype 11), and bassist Michael MacIvor (Candiria, Lamacchia). The band tracked the album at Timber Studios with Adam Cichocki handling production, mixing, and mastering, a role Louie described as “indispensable in capturing the feeling in the new tracks.”
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The full track-by-track commentary supplied by the band goes deeper into the context of each song, ranging from personal anecdotes to nods toward punk roots and shoegaze textures. Together, the eight cuts form a loose chronicle of stepping out of past wounds into new entanglements, with all the risk and unpredictability that entails.
DISSOLVE
On our opening track Dissolve, the band tried to capture the feeling of finally letting go of the hurt caused by a breakup and the relief of taking the first pain free breath. The feeling found after the apologies are made and the forgiveness given, when all opportunities are open and there is only desire for what comes next. The song sets the tone of our second LP Blue Honey with a heaviness and upbeat groove carried throughout the following 7 tracks. It’s a contrasting sound and narrative compared to our first breakup tinged LP Dead Rose.
HONEY
We had a blast writing Honey as Jeff’s driving drum beat couldn’t help but move our old bones in the practice space. Mike came up with a great spy thriller bassline and Arty threw on a spaced out lead to add mysteriousness. The song itself is a promise of staying strong and doing whatever fucked up action it takes throughout the good and the bad of a relationship to make it work. The daydream of grandiose actions permeates the lyrics and helps support the fantasy.
JANE DOE
The chorus of Jane Doe came to me in a dream. A dream where I found myself in the middle of a beautiful, sunny, surreal, green field singing the melody of the chorus. I struggled to force myself to wake up and then hum the melody roughly into my phone at 4am. The rest of the song poured out when I sat down to write it later that day after a few coffees. The lyrics themselves address the doubts that come with new love as you are really getting to know each other’s personalities, highs and lows. The song is the poppiest we’ve written and at the same time has one of our heaviest bridges. I’m really stoked we were able to add a circle pit part during the second half of the last chorus as a nod to our punk roots.
SINKING NOT DROWNING
Never thought we’d write a heavy, shoegazy pop, gushy, sexy love song. I love singing this song as it’s a total belter and brings me back to the honeymoon stage when you’re completely enamored in lust, and want to scream from the rooftops about how much you’re falling for someone. Total fucking punishment. I asked Jeff to reference Lucky Denver Mint for inspiration for the main drum beat. He took it and made it his own of course. The headbanger of an outro beat he added for the ending was perfect, as is the messy chaotic Suede inspired lead Arty threw on top to dirty it up and Mike’s heavy bouncing bassline.
LIES OVER TRUTH
I think I tried to play the verse guitar line for Lies Over Truth about 20 different ways before it finally stuck. Simpler the better it seems. I had the verse riff for over 10 years and it finally clicked when I sat down to write new material for Blue Honey. The soaring chorus gets such a bump from Arty’s vocal harmony and it makes me smile every time I hear it. Mike and Jeff killed the bridge with such an odd back and forth play on timing and it’s one of my favorite parts of the album. The song itself was inspired by pure debaucherous, destructive behavior, something I’m very familiar with after a breakup. Just seeking distraction in the messiest and worst ways.
LOSE MY WAY
A few years back my son Phoenix, who was in prime teenage angst years, heard me playing the verse riff of Lose My Way over and over again and told me it was cool. High praise, as he has great taste in music, so I knew the riff was probably pretty good. At the time when I was playing it I was picturing it going into epic atmospheric soundtrack territory ala Godspeed. Instead, The Twin made it a ripper with snippets of rock grandeur after the first chorus. I wrote it as a song for anyone that is crippled by doubt like myself. A mantra to keep going and overcome any mountain that shows up in your path. I love the contrast from the chaotic loud buildup bridge to the minimal last chorus. It gives me chills when we play it.
THE VOID
The Void almost didn’t make the record until Jeff told me I was an idiot ( not in those words but the sentiment was there). He was right. I felt it was too on the nose at the time and in line with all the new grungegaze bands out right now. But you know what? We actually grew up in that era, some more than others, so I figured we had a lil prerogative to write a song like this. I really wanted to make sure it wasn’t totally on the nose, so the chorus actually nods to 50’s style music, we even added a slide guitar and the bridge is pretty damn emotional. Our producer Adam Cichocki made it so heavy, adding a baritone guitar and a 12 string. I wrote this song after a lot of my friends got cheated on or just dropped by long term partners around 2020. I guess it was just a time of chaos for everyone and it made people reflect on what they really wanted. It broke a lot of my friends, and I know that feeling intimately and wanted to kinda help by channeling it through song. It’s about getting your confidence back, taking your self worth back and digging yourself out of the black hole in order to enjoy life again.
GRACE
Grace is my favorite song on the record. The story goes that a good friend of mine and I were high and jamming acoustic guitars over zoom during lockdown and we started riffing on the main verse riff. We signed off and I took the riff and dropped it 2 keys and the entire music poured out from there, prechorus and chorus. I met my current girlfriend soon after and we fell in love quickly. After we had our first real fight and made up, I finished Grace and the lyrics. It all made sense for me then. I’ve struggled long and hard to appreciate any good I’ve been given and she helps me reflect on that and just live and appreciate moments. Especially the great ones that could just pass me by if I didn’t stop for one second to think. I had ideas on how to play the song with a band and Jeff and I hashed it out until we landed on the upbeat mid tempo groove that just worked. Arty wrote a killer lead and Mike grounded it with another really meaty bassline groove. Adam added the intro percussion that adds so much feel. It’s another song I love singing and when we get out of the long notes to the half time outro it feels like magic to me. A full movie unfolding. And yeah, Buckley def helped inspire it. Go watch his documentary, pure tears.
