The Format will donate $1 from every ticket sold to help fight food insecurity, support marginalized communities and fund local animal shelters. This is a sponsored project of Catalyst Philanthropy Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity.
The Format was beginning to think the stars were aligned against them.
Just as Nate Ruess and Sam Means were finally able to sort through the aftermath of the 2020 pandemic—which first stalled, then completely wiped out their last attempt at a reunion—tragedy struck again. On the very first day of recording new music in nearly 20 years with Grammy-winning producer Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, The Killers, Bruce Springsteen), the Los Angeles wildfires broke out, leaving devastation across the city. It was enough to inspire a little conspiratorial thinking.
“It seriously felt like the universe was against us,” Ruess says, trailing off. “It was at least…” “It was testing us, for sure,” Means adds, finishing the thought.
It’s no wonder that *Boycott Heaven*, their third album, is charged with there is no waiting on tomorrow energy. After all, if the universe was in fact putting you through your paces, how might you respond? Not on some far-off imagined judgement day, but right now?
“Holy roller, don’t go wasting all your time,” Ruess sings in the boisterous single “Holy Roller.” In other words, the time for creating something more like heaven isn’t tomorrow or some other day, but today.
A certain romantic fatalism has always coursed through The Format’s lyrics, which the more mature Ruess cops to in the heartland rocker “Shot in the Dark.” “Lived my whole life like I was ready to die,” he confesses over jangling guitars and stomping rhythms. But *Boycott Heaven* is filled with reflections on reasons to stick around this broken old world: family, life-long connections, distorted guitar riffs, and a stubborn belief that even as bad as it is, tomorrow could be better.
Once it was safe to return, the duo got back to work at Henson Recording Studios. Sam and Nate both played electric guitars—Ruess having picked up the instrument in the years since The Format’s last album, in addition to launching a solo career, forming the chart-topping fun. with Jack Antonoff and Andrew Dost, and collaborating with P!nk, Kesha, and Hayley Williams of Paramore. Their rhythm section was comprised of O’Brien on bass and drummer Matt Chamberlain (David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Soundgarden, Fiona Apple).
Fans of *Interventions + Lullabies* (2003) and *Dog Problems* (2006) will recognize the hooks and retro-pop bravado, but *Boycott Heaven* signals a new era. It’s not a nostalgia play, even as it incorporates sonic nods to the alt-rock, grunge, and pop-punk sounds Ruess and Means first bonded over as Arizona teenagers.
“We first bonded listening to bands like Weezer, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots,” Ruess says. “I’m a new guitarist, just enamored with power chords, so I’m listening to all this stuff we’d listen to back then and cross referencing—NOFX, Lagwagon. But you take that pop-punk stuff and slow it down, and then have Matt Chamberlain playing on it, and then it feels a little like grunge. All that’s in there.”
