Shudder To Think released their first new music in 30 years on Saturday in the form of the songs “Thirst Walk” and “Playback” via Dischord—available as a 7-inch vinyl at tour venues and digitally—marks their first output since 1998.
After a hiatus spanning more than a decade since their last live performances in 2013, the band kicked off their reunion with surprise shows in Los Angeles in March, followed by a full U.S. tour announcement in August, and the release of their first new music in nearly 30 years on November 8.
Frontman Craig Wedren, in an exclusive interview with Spin in March 2025, detailed the slow buildup:
“It’s been a slow, long percolation where I would throw up smoke signals every year or year-and-a-half with multiple different band threads that we have going on, which are all very fun, funny and sweet. I said, it’d be really fun to make some new music. I’ve got folders filled with parts. We could film it and maybe make a documentary or something cool and visual. The goodwill was there, but it was really just more a question of logistics and geography. Everybody’s got lives and wives and careers and kids, and Nathan’s in Sweden. Interestingly, the kid factor kind of unhooked it. Nathan’s son Nils, who is 14, is a total shredder, which is not surprising at all, and he’s a Shudder to Think superfan. I think that gave Nathan this new sense of purpose, like, yeah, we did do something.”
A pivotal moment came during a lunch with drummer Adam Wade, as Wedren recounted: “Not too long ago, Adam and I went out to lunch and he was like, look dude, we’re not getting any younger. All of our friends are out there playing shows and I want to play shows too. We figured we’d get in a room and see what songs we can remember. Also, I needed to see where my voice is at. I sing a lot, but I sing very differently than I did with Shudder to Think because I’m not trying to be heard over Marshall amplifiers. Nathan was feeling the same way. He was like, I haven’t moved my fingers in these ways in a very long time.”
The band began informal rehearsals.
“We all love each other and we all love this music. It still feels very present. There’s definitely a lot of new music to explore, but we were very wary of putting the cart before the horse. We didn’t want to just book a show and then everybody is stressed out over this single goal.”
The initial rehearsals, held at Wedren’s home studio in Los Angeles, quickly built momentum.
Wedren described the lineup’s chemistry: “Me, Adam, Jherek and Clint, without Nathan, started playing together and it just felt great. I was playing my parts. Clint was mostly playing Nathan’s parts, and then Nathan came in for two weeks and Clint switched over to my parts. We had worked out nine or 10 songs by then. Really, within hours, it was like, holy shit, this is really good! In many ways, it felt stronger than ever, thanks to all the intervening years and nuance and subtlety and maturity and seasoning.”
Eventually the band played a public performance at Permanent Records Roadhouse:
“We called Permanent Records to see if we could do a hardcore matinee show on a Saturday and they were very accommodating. It mushroomed into a couple of sets because a lot of people couldn’t get in who wanted tickets. At first, it was just going to be a friends-and-family thing to share what we’ve been working on the last couple of weeks and celebrate it and maybe film it. But like any party or wedding, you don’t know where to cut off the guest list, and then the club wanted to sell tickets, so it turned into a proper afternoon. It was just beautiful. It felt and sounded great.”
The band was having fun.
“We rehearsed in the studio in the back of my house and set it up so that we could demo new stuff in whatever stage and phase it was at, no matter how wet and sloppy, and that also felt great. Everybody had a ball. It’s really the first time in close to 30 years that everybody’s been absolutely on the same page working on the same project together. The sheer, visceral weight of playing heavy music in a room was really something that was missing for all of us.”
The band was able to move beyond past tensions.
“100%. I mean, it really was remarkable. There was so much laughter. Old echoes of stuff would come up, which we would work out in real time rather than stuffing it. We just weren’t equipped then as young men to be able to do that. Any weirdness that came up was me misinterpreting Nathan’s expressions. There was one time where I was throwing out something that for sure in my brain was a new Shudder to Think song, and it didn’t quite land at first. It took us a little while to find our way into it as a group and then it just took off. At first I was like, oh no, this is just like when I was bringing stuff in after Pony Express Record but before 50,000 B.C., and I would lose the room or get stonewalled. Nathan was like, oh my god, that’s totally not it! He was just furrowing his brow trying to think about what part he wanted to play (laughs). So, that felt joyous and healthy and intense.”
Building on this foundation, the band announced their first full U.S. tour in 17 years in August 2025, starting October 23 in Boston and concluding November 11 in Los Angeles, with stops including Washington D.C., New York, Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco.
The tour lineup mirrors the Pony Express Record era, with Wedren on vocals, Larson on guitar, Wade on drums, Walsh on guitar, and Bischoff on bass.
Wedren outlined live plans cautiously: “We’re starting to look into playing some shows. They’ll probably be a little piecemeal until we put a record out. We’re talking about a couple East Coast things in the fall, and maybe select festivals. As the new music comes together, we’ll make some bigger decisions. Everybody wants to play shows, but the prospect of touring in the traditional sense deserves a good rethink-slash-disruption. It might just be a couple of weeks at a time, like a sensible bunch of old dudes, but we’ll see.”
A key element of the reunion is new music, with “Playback” debuted at the March shows and confirmed by Wedren:
“The new songs are the first of a trove of new songs we’re working on together, all of which feel very much like Shudder To Think. To keep things playful and raw-ish, we have been doing almost everything ourselves in my backyard studio (Pink Ape Studios, Los Angeles) with some remote overdubbing from our various home studios. What you hear is us, together, hard at play!”
He further described the process:
“We’re trying to do this in a very organic way that works for everybody’s individual lives and collective health. We’re going to keep working on new music together in a room and each in our separate corners. We have shared ProTools sessions where we record demos together, but then everybody can tweak ideas on their own. It’s a more multi-dimensional, accordion-esque creative process rather than just being in a room, working on the song, playing the songs live and recording the songs. The intention is to hopefully have a record done within a year from now — next summer or fall or something like that. If it winds up being a series of EPs or singles, it doesn’t really matter. We just want to make new Shudder to Think music together, and we’re documenting it all.”
The new tracks draw from unfinished ideas and fresh inspirations:
“It’s a combination of all of the above. There were one or two songs that we were working on before we split that were really good but were never finished. There’s some excitement about developing at least one of those, which was called ‘Circus Metal,’ into a proper song. I’m also sharing with the group my various Shudder to Think folders, which have parts and lyrics and melodies, just to see if they jive. We even have some brand new stuff that just came up from being in the room together, which felt really fun and made us all giggle and smile.”
This collaborative ethos echoes their 1990s output, merging off-kilter rhythms and shapeshifting melodies, while incorporating modern tools like remote overdubs.
The reunion coincides with renewed interest in their catalog, particularly Pony Express Record, fueled by tributes from contemporaries and appearances at events like Riot Fest in September 2025. Absent from the current lineup is original bassist Stuart Hill, though Wedren’s comments suggest an open, inclusive spirit. As the tour continues— with dates like November 7 in Portland, November 8 in Seattle, November 10 in San Francisco, and a sold-out November 11 in Los Angeles—the band balances live energy with studio work, potentially leading to a documentary or visual project.
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