Diet Cig Are “Thriving” on Theatrical New Single from Their Sophomore Album Do You Wonder About Me?

New York rock duo Diet Cig recently released their first new song since 2017, the sweetly vulnerable “Night Terrors,” and it turns out that was exactly the harbinger of new music we’d hoped it was: Frenchkiss Records will release their sophomore album Do You Wonder About Me? on May 1, and in the meantime, Diet Cig have shared its opening track, “Thriving,” and announced about a dozen new North American tour dates.

Vocalist/guitarist Alex Luciano and drummer Noah Bowman say of their new single in a statement:

“Thriving” is a cathartic, campy release of feelings. It’s about the duality of absolutely THRIVING without someone but also desperately wanting them to notice you doing so. Inspired by the melodrama of reality TV and musical theater, we wanted the song to bounce back and forth between a lavish personal anthem and the anguish of feeling forever beholden to others opinions.

“Thriving” reads most obviously as a break-up song, in which Luciano’s narrator is rediscovering her self-worth in the wake of a romantic rejection, but it also resonates as relating to Diet Cig’s return: Luciano says the band “spent a lot of time after the first record growing as people […] and trying to shed the imposter syndrome,” and that adds another layer to the song’s assertions of confidence. “Well go tell your friends / No this isn’t the end / No I promise you I will be / Sticking around,” Luciano sings, as if speaking for Diet Cig—they’re going to make it even if they have to fake it, slings, arrows and all.

Luciano and Bowman wrote their new album in Richmond, Va., in the summer of 2017, working on songs over the course of a year in their practice space, then finishing the tracks with their longtime producer Chris Daly at Headroom Studios in Philadelphia, Pa., and Salvation Recording in their hometown of New Paltz, N.Y. The resulting 10 tracks are about “considering and accepting the embarrassing aspects of your identity, and how they’re just as much a part of you as the good stuff,” as a press release explains.

Do You Wonder About Me? follows Diet Cig’s acclaimed 2017 debut Swear I’m Good At This, which Paste picked as one of that year’s best albums. By that time, we had already hailed the band among 2016’s best new artists on the strength of their 2015 debut EP, Over Easy.

Diet Cig will play a handful of U.K. shows in late April and early May before heading back across the pond to support their new record in the States, starting with a May 14 stop in Philadelphia, Pa. They’ll hit Brooklyn, Boston, Chicago, Asheville and Atlanta before wrapping up that leg in Charlottesville, Va., on June 6. Their newly announced run begins Oct. 3 in Pittsburgh, Pa., bringing the band to Cleveland, St. Louis, Denver, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco before concluding in Los Angeles on Oct. 22. Tickets for these newly announced shows go on sale this Friday, March 6, at 10 a.m. local time.

Listen to “Thriving” and watch Diet Cig’s 2017 Paste session below, and find the details of Do You Wonder About Me? and the band’s tour dates further down. You can preorder their new album here.

Do You Wonder About Me? Tracklist:
01. Thriving
02. Who Are You?
03. Night Terrors
04. Priority Mail
05. Broken Body
06. Makeout Interlude
07. Flash Flood
08. Worth The Wait
09. Stare Into the Sun
10. Night Terrors Reprise

Do You Wonder About Me? Album Art:

Diet Cig Tour Dates:

April
30 – London, U.K. @ Rough Trade East (instore/album release show)

May
02 – Bristol, U.K. @ Rough Trade
04 – Brighton, U.K. @ The Hope and Ruin
05 – Manchester, U.K. @ YES
06 – London, U.K. @ Camden Assembly SOLD OUT
14 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ Union Transfer # ^
15 – Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat # ^
16 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Music Hall of Williamsburg # ^
18 – Providence, R.I. @ The Met # ^
20 – Boston, Mass. @ The Sinclair # ^
21 – Montreal, Que. @ Le Ritz # ^
22 – Ottawa, Ont. @ 27 Club # ^
23 – Toronto, Ont. @ Velvet Underground # ^
24 – London, Ont. @ Rum Runners # ^
26 – Detroit, Mich. @ Deluxx Fluxx # ^
27 – Chicago, Ill. @ Lincoln Hall # ^
28 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ Fine Line # ^
29 – Iowa City, Iowa @ The Mill # ^
30 – Columbus, Ohio @ A&R Music Bar # ^

June
02 – Louisville, Ky. @ Zanzabar # ^
03 – Asheville, N.C. @ Grey Eagle # ^
04 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Masquerade – Hell # ^
05 – Durham, N.C. @ Motorco #
06 – Charlottesville, Va. @ The Southern #
24-28 – Calgary, Alta. @ Sled Island Music & Arts Festival

October
03 – Pittsburgh, Pa. @ Andy Warhol Museum
04 – Cleveland, Ohio @ Mahall’s
06 – Cincinnati, Ohio @ Woodward
07 – St. Louis, Mo. @ Blueberry Hill
08 – Lawrence, Kan. @ Bottleneck
10 – Denver, Colo. @ Bluebird Theater
13 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ Kilby Court
14 – Boise, Idaho @ Neurolux
16 – Vancouver, B.C. @ Biltmore Cabaret
17 – Seattle, Wash. @ Neumos
18 – Portland, Ore. @ Mississippi Studios
21 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Great American Music Hall
22 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Teragram Ballroom

(# = w/ Sad13)
(^ = w/ Thin Lips)