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Apr 11, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Claire Marie Silversun Pickups

Los Angeles four-piece Silversun Pickups have announced a new album, Widow’s Weeds, and shared a video for its first single, the propulsive string-backed “It Doesn’t Matter Why.” Widow’s Weeds is due out June 7 via the band’s own New Machine Recordings. Check out the Suzie Vlcek-directed “It Doesn’t Matter Why” video below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art.

The band features lead singer Brian Aubert, bassist Nikki Monninger, drummer Christopher Guanlao, and keyboardist Joe Lester. Widow’s Weeds is the band’s fifth album, the follow-up to 2015’s Better Nature. Garbage’s Butch Vig produced the album (he’s also worked with Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Sonic Youth).

Monninger had this to say about working with Vig: “He really listens to each band member, and he puts a great value on each individual, and what they can add to the music. It was very collaborative with him. He’s such an easygoing person, and he put everybody at ease.”

It’s been four years since the band’s last album. In that time the band members faced some personal challenges. Lester’s father died and Aubert decided to get sober and get treatment after finding himself in “an extremely dark place, for reasons he couldn’t immediately explain.”

“I didn’t know how to get out of it,” Aubert says in a press release. “Finally, I was just like, ‘Something big has to happen.’”

On how all this affected the album, Aubert says: “The record does have a mourning vibe, but it’s not sad. It’s change. It’s growing up and moving on and letting go of things. And it’s okay to be sad about those things and mourn them. It’s actually healthy to do so and take the time to do it. At the end of the day, it’s going to be much better and much more fulfilling when you get through it.”

Summing up Widow’s Weeds, Aubert says: “This was the first album where we were open. We were exposed. I see how that can be scary to people, but for us we really thrived on that…. This album feels the most naked out of all of them.”

Widow’s Weeds Tracklist:

1. Neon Wound
2. It Doesn’t Matter Why
3. Freakazoid
4. Don’t Know Yet
5. Straw Man
6. Bag of Bones
7. Widow’s Weeds
8. Songbirds
9. Simpatico
10. We Are Chameleons

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