The Drums released a new album earlier this year, Brutalism, the second album that they’ve released since Jonny Pierce took the project solo with 2017’s Abysmal Thoughts. Today, Pierce is releasing two new songs, which are confusingly billed as The Drums & Johnny Pierce, sort of like he’s battling against himself. That might be intentional, considering that both tracks are about betrayal in the band sense.

“I Didn’t Realize” and “You Lied” were both originally recorded back in 2012, back when the band was still a proper band, and Pierce explained that the songs are companion pieces for each other. Here’s what Pierce had to say about the pair of songs:

“It’s easy to write a song when you’re in the afterglow of an epiphany. “I was coming out of a chapter of deep grief after a band mate who I had loved deeply and trusted deeply abandoned me for some sort of hypothetical greener pasture … This song is about the realization that putting someone else’s needs above your own can lead to devastating results. It was also a realization that I was so green when this band started and because of an abusive childhood, I was eager to please, eager to have family, eager for approval. There were and still are people that look to leach off people whose greatest challenge is to love themselves. It still happens today, but I’m more sensitive and aware when it starts happening. I didn’t realize, but now I do.

[…] I was calling out an ex-band member on saying something very powerful to me. Something that made me feel I needed him and couldn’t find success or happiness without him … He was very clever and while I often saw signs of that, I let myself ignore the warnings. I felt desperate, he knew it, and so he pounced. When he disappeared, I was blindsided. Everything he said on that balcony that summer night in Brooklyn was a lie. Years later, I have healed and am now in a place of greater understanding, but if I let myself, it’s still so easy to feel the pain of that violent chapter of abandonment.

Listen to both songs below.

TOUR DATES:
10/16 Mexico City, Mexico @ El Plaza Condesa
10/18 Guadalajara, Mexico @ Tecate Coordenada
10/19 Monterrey, Mexico @ Tecate Live Out
11/05 Fresno, CA @ Strummer’s
11/06 Santa Cruz, CA @ Catalyst
11/07 San Luis Obispo, CA @ Fremont Theater
11/08 Santa Barbara, CA @ SOhO Restaurant and Music Club
11/10 Pico Rivera, CA @ Pico Rivera Sports Arena
11/13 Shenzhen, China @ HOU LIVE
11/14 Shanghai, China @ MAO Livehouse
11/15 Beijing, China – 北京 糖果LIVE三层
11/17 Bangkok, Thailand @ Maho Rasop Festival
11/23 Jakarta, Indonesia @ Lokatara Music Festival
11/24 Rumah Kuala Bok, Malaysia

“I Didn’t Realize” & “You Lied” are out now via Anti-.