A year from the release of Your Neighborhood, The Toxhards are still watching their most ambitious project take on a life of its own. Released as a sprawling concept album, Your Neighborhood introduced listeners to Adam (an unfulfilled Midwesterner grappling with resentment, grief, and the weight of a life he never quite lived) unfolding across a narrative that blurs the line between reality and a near-death experience. It’s a story the band spent years building, with roots stretching back to some of their earliest material, and one that ultimately became, in their words, “our most ambitious anything.”
Now, on the one-year anniversary of the album’s release, the band is reflecting on the journey from its deeply personal creation to its unexpected evolution onstage and in the hands of fans. In a chat with Melodic Magazine, they describe how what began as a carefully crafted album has now grown into something with crowds now shouting every word back at them night after night. As Your Neighborhood continues to spread like wildfire and give life to the cult following for the band, The Toxhards find themselves not only revisiting the world they built, but pushing forward into a new era promising even more experimentation, spontaneity, and, if their track record says anything, a few surprises along the way.
It’s been one year since Your Neighborhood, how has the last year been as a band?
ALAN: When we dropped the album it was actually kind of a dissonant experience. We’d spent the last 18 months crafting this ambitious concept album that tells a cohesive story–about someone in a car crash having a near-death experience. We spent so long perfecting it,–all the emotional beats and seamless transitions–creating a whole listening experience as compelling as a film, per se. We were so proud of it and we couldn’t wait to perform it on the road in our most theatrical show yet.
But we dropped Your Neighborhood on the same day as the kickoff of the Your Neighborhood tour in Portland, Oregon at the Hawthorne Lounge. As we’re playing all this brand-new material, we realized ‘no one knows the songs, they just came out TODAY!’ The crowd just stared at us… Politely!
They had a good time. But we felt a little crazy. Was this music good? Did we screw up? Did we make a bad album??
Thankfully, as we played the rest of that run, more and more people became familiar with the album and had a bit more enthusiasm for the new material. But then we took the summer off and went back on the road in the fall. And lo and behold, time was all Your Neighborhood needed. By the time we opened our first fall show, everyone knew EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. Every show, every venue, people were scream-singing along to the album in full. I’ll never forget the kickoff in Pittsburgh last October. It was one of the greatest nights of my life, and that whole tour was chock-full of the best shows we’d ever played. It’s been amazing to watch this album that we’re so proud of taking on a life of its own.
Has anything shocked you about the last year with this album?
ALAN: I think the fact that we can pack these clubs coast-to-coast with folks that sing and dance along to these songs we wrote in our bedrooms, college dorms, and makeshift closet studios–it’s amazing. Not many people get to experience such a phenomenon in their life.
Bands and rock music is kind of a retro art form these days and Your Neighborhood is a bit of a throwback to the album-oriented rock of the ‘70s, where the whole LP tells a cohesive narrative. Very Floyd, very Who (in fact, The Toxhards really began with a staged adaptation of Pink Floyd’s The Wall that we did in college. It’s on YouTube somewhere). But there’s a lot of 21st-century albums that do that too, big albums like Channel Orange, The Black Parade, and To Pimp A Butterfly are a few that come to mind.
Any fan favorites you’re shocked were highly received?
ALAN: We were really stoked on a couple songs; “Cruel, All The Way Down” and “DIE! DIE! DIE!” which have since become pretty big fan favorites, especially “Cruel” which to us signifies the kind sound we want to lean into more with our next material.
Any tracks you thought didn’t get the love they deserved?
ALAN: I really enjoy the title track “Your Neighborhood.” I wrote it in college, and it was kind of a pipe dream to make that song into how I’d always envisioned it–strings and walls of feedback and everything. While I don’t often see that song mentioned in fan discussions, that doesn’t detract from how proud I am of it: the message and the production. It was extremely satisfying to get that song finished in the way that it is.
The album – which explores heartbreak, grief, and isolation – what was the inspiration?
ALAN: The inspiration was a combination of many things, but mostly inspired by grief. Emerson had lost his dad in 2020, I’d lost my grandfather the same year. Both of them were significant musical influences for us. My grandfather was a profound part of my life–he was the wisest man I’ve ever known and one of the most positive personalities in the world. It was a devastating loss when he died. In the time leading up to the album I was also experiencing a lot of personal turmoil that resulted in the loss of several friendships of people that I loved. I really channeled that confusion, anger, and forgiveness into the making of this album, especially the second side which dives into the near-death experience part of the narrative. It’s nice to visit those feelings when I need to–they live in these songs now.
The story of the album itself was written by my wife Amanda and I, while waiting in line for roller coasters at Cedar Point. I had the macro concept: there’s someone living in the same small town they’d always lived in, driving around late at night and slightly inebriated, and he gets into a car accident. You hear the quickest flash of the crash, and silence–that’s Side 1. Side 2 is the near death-experience, in which the split-second of the car crash is spread out over 20 minutes, as each song delves into the different ways this person lived their life ultimately in an unfulfilling way.
I knew which songs of ours I wanted to include to tell this story. Amanda wrote the micro concepts that tied all the larger stuff together. She came up with Beatrice as a character, the “radio” interludes, and most of the album’s music videos that tell a full cohesive story (of which we’ve cut together a full 45-minute film version of the album, stay tuned). I couldn’t have done it without her.
What is the meaning behind each song?
Track 2, Beatrice
ALAN: He’s thinking of Beatrice, his high school sweetheart who left him behind in this town for her ambitions. She loved the life she was being denied more than she loved Adam and he resents her for it.
I actually wrote this song 10 years ago, at least an early version of it. It was originally called “Bliss” and while it was similar to what it is now, it wasn’t very good. I’m glad the boys helped make this song a lot better.
Track 6, Get Creative! Or Get Radicalized!
ALAN: The biggest pain-in-the-ass to record on the album, but ended up being one of our favorites. We’re now really getting into the “who” of Adam and seeing that living in this small town feeling resentful and abandoned is starting to make him a bit… chronically online, let’s say?
This song was inspired by a childhood friend of mine, Justin. He, Amanda, and I were walking around South Lyon on a visit back home several years ago. Justin and I used to make little movies and music together, put on shows together–all because we just wanted to create stuff. He told me on this walk all these years later “Man what else were we going to do? In a small town like this you really only have two choices: get creative, or get radicalized on the internet.” As soon as he said it I knew I needed to write a song about that.
WOW, was it hard though. So many versions, revisions, arrangements, lyrics–this one was like a root canal with no novocaine. But we got it eventually! We even recorded the opening synth line at a Guitar Center on a Mini Moog with just an iPhone rolling on the voice memos app.
You just started The Get Destructive Tour: how does that feel? Are there any cities you’re most excited about?
EMERSON: We’ve upgraded the show in a handful of technical ways, and are eager to road-test new music and material that you can vote on live during the show!
It’s always a joy to return to Seattle, and fans can expect a full length rendition of “Albuquerque” by “Weird Al” Yankovic in Albuquerque. We can’t wait to meet our fans in places we’ll be visiting for the first time such as Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut.
But of course, we can’t wait to see every single person in the audience in every city at every show. Without fans coming to shows, we wouldn’t be able to do this, and we’re excited to put on the best show we can every night.
ALAN: I’m also excited about doing this new VIP experience. We’re doing a little Q&A and an acoustic set before the show for those who get the VIP package, plus some cool exclusive merch and stuff. It’s always so much fun getting one-on-one time with fans, so I’m really looking forward to that.
Any tracks fans can guarantee to hear live?
EMERSON: Fear not, you will always be able to catch “Ængus, The Prize Winning Hog” on the road, and you can almost always guarantee classics like “Doombop!,” “How Lucky Am I?,” “Satan’s Little Hell Song,” and our personal favorite “Cruel, All The Way Down.”
However, in the spirit of our Deadhead inspirations, you’ll never see the same Toxhard show twice. So there are many songs you may hear in Portland that you won’t hear in Albuquerque. Every night will be different. So you might as well come to as many shows as possible while you’re at it!
What else do The Toxhards have up their sleeves for 2026?
EMERSON: We’re super excited moving into the back half of 2026 into 2027. We’re cooking on tons of new music, and will be making our European debut in London this September.
As always, we want to keep not only our fans on their toes, but ourselves too as we try to approach each album cycle with fresh inspirations, ideas, sounds, and techniques. You’ll never get the same album twice with us and we love the way that philosophy keeps us as creative as possible.
ALAN: Our plan is to have a new album out by the end of the year. Maybe in Spring, realistically, but we want it done ASAP. We spent so long making Your Neighborhood that we’re eager to do something more spontaneous, not as planned-out.
In May to June of 2026 we’re basically setting up in a garage with a 32-track recorder and just going for it. New songs every other day or so. Garage rock and acoustic-y folk stuff. Think Led Zeppelin III, how that record was like half-electric and half-acoustic. But in a Toxhard way. I don’t know. Maybe the album will be nothing like that. But there’s one thing that’s guaranteed by the end of the year–it’ll be done.
Check The Toxhards out on tour: (tickets here)
4/24 – PORTLAND, OR
4/26 – SEATTLE, WA
4/28 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA
4/29 – SAN DIEGO, CA
4/30 – PHOENIX, AZ
5/1 – ALBUQUERQUE, NM
5/3 – DENVER, CO
5/17 – MODESTO, CA
6/12 – COLLEGE CORNER, OH
6/14 – CLEVELAND, OH
6/16 – BUFFALO, NY
6/17 – AMHERST, MA
6/18 – BURLINGTON, VT
6/19 – LOWELL, MA
6/21 – NEW YORK, NY
6/22 – HAMDEN, CT
6/24 – WILMINGTON, DE
6/25 – BALTIMORE, MD
6/27 – LEXINGTON, KY
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