Gang of Youths frontman David Le’aupepe spoke with NME about the band’s first new single in four years, ‘Things Take Time,’ and the philosophical freedom that accompanies writing new material for their long‑awaited fourth studio album.
This single is the band’s first original material since the acclaimed 2022 album Angel In Realtime, signalling a notable shift in pace. Instead of reverting to the maximalist, big‑swinging indie‑rock that defined their earlier work, ‘Things Take Time’ embraces a refined, jazzy groove built on sparse piano chords and horn stabs.
As comeback singles go, it is remarkably subtle and discreet—more like slipping in through a side door than crashing the front gate. Le’aupepe confirmed that this approach was intentional.
“When I wrote this song, I didn’t want too much weighing it down,” the frontman said, speaking to NME while in Sydney ahead of two sold‑out shows at the famed Opera House. “I wanted the track to feel speedy and light, and we wanted that groovy, flowing quality to come through a bit more. It felt really good.”
Angel In Realtime earned four stars from NME upon its 2022 release and was praised as “a triumphant exploration of love and life.” The album sparked the band’s biggest shows to date, including their first headlining arena dates in Australia and a sold‑out Brixton Academy performance in the UK. After a final show at British Summer Time with Lana Del Rey, Gang of Youths went quiet, aside from the late‑2023 release of ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ for the holiday season.
“We all live quiet lives,” Le’aupepe told NME. “We don’t maintain personal social media channels, and we generally avoid the public spotlight. I need plenty of downtime from the world, but now we all feel ready to step back into it. It feels weirdly exciting.”
Read the full interview with Le’aupepe below, in which he discusses the contrast between observational and emotive songwriting, his ongoing battle with perfectionism, and why Gang of Youths feels they must continually die to be reborn.
NME: Hello Dave. Among all the new material the band has been working on, why was ‘Things Take Time’ selected as the first single?
David Le’aupepe: “Well, the powers that be chose it—probably because it’s the shortest track! It’s a three‑minute song, which is remarkable for a band like ours. It’s also a pop song, a form I haven’t explored much. Writing it felt truly liberating; I’ve used that word often in past interviews, but here it genuinely set me free. I’m actually singing for the first time. I’ve done plenty of spoken‑word delivery that stays on pitch, or these grandiose yells, but I haven’t let my voice be this free before.”
“One of the things I really appreciate about the song is that, once it was finished and we listened back, it felt like a genuine break with the past—and we were comfortable with that. We’ve accomplished great things before, and we’re proud of them, but this represents the musical direction we’re pursuing now. I was delighted by that.”
What inspired the song lyrically?
“It’s about nothing… Well, not nothing. It’s about growing plants. My wife ordered too many tomato seeds, so she began cultivating them in our home. When I go to record with Tom Hobden—the band’s multi‑instrumentalist—at his home studio, I look out over his backyard, where his wife Emma tends a variety of beautiful plants. This sparked my fascination with the cycle of growth and decay, and astonishment at how people can nurture life without causing harm.”
“It’s funny—I feel that death and rebirth are constant themes in our work. We always engage with them in some form, so it’s strange that we almost unintentionally carried this theme forward, even though the song sounds so different from what we’ve done before.”
How naturally did this shift in musical pace come to you? There’s a clear parallel with a song like ‘Tend the Garden’, though that track feels considerably bigger and more layered compared to ‘Things Take Time’…
“I came up with the idea one night after dinner, played a short riff, recorded it, added a drum part, recorded that, and asked Donnie Borzestowski—the band’s drummer—to redo it. Voilà—you hear all of us contributing to this track. When Tom heard my little ‘doo doo doo’ in the verse, he suggested adding a horn arrangement to mirror it. Donnie is a world‑class drummer, and shifting to a slightly jazzier feel sits comfortably within his skill set.”
“As for Jung Kim—the band’s guitarist/keyboardist—he always has a deft touch. He’s meticulous and highly organized with his ideas. I think that’s why it seemed amusing when I finally submitted my vocal take—after about 400 attempts, he simply said, ‘Let it go, I don’t need to worry about it.’ Nothing came easily, but everything ultimately fell into place.”
After the silence that followed ‘Angel in Realtime,’ was there ever a point between that cycle’s end and the start of the next where you genuinely wondered if Gang of Youths was over?
“Of course. This happens after every album we make. I sit there at the end saying ‘I’m done,’ and then enough time passes and I’m fired up like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street—‘I’m not leaving!’ Of all the cycles, ‘Angel’ was certainly the toughest. I love that album; I truly believe it’s my best songwriting, but it was an all‑encompassing family journey. The move to arenas felt strange as well. We’re an indie rock band—we never aimed to play stadiums, especially considering how scrappy we were when the band began. It was simply how things unfolded.”
“If we returned trying to be an arena‑rock band, it would feel dull. We’re no longer in that space. The songs from ‘Angel’ now belong to everyone else; they don’t figure into my daily life or inner world. ‘Things Take Time’ embodies a philosophical freedom from needing to write about personal matters. I had to break the cycle of feeling compelled to create epic works that delve into the depths of my life each time. Instead, I can write songs that carry their own meaning—curious and spiritual—without demanding a personal toll.”
Was it a matter of realizing a song could still reflect you without being overly literal about you, as a track like ‘Brothers’ is?
“My writing now focuses less on excavating personal issues and more on noticing and reflecting on things around me. The new songs are, for the most part, about observations rather than emotions. They look outward. Another new song we’ve played, ‘YeYu’, is probably the only truly personal piece among them—a clear distinction for a songwriter like me.”
As you just mentioned, you played your first show in three years earlier this month at a small theatre about 90 minutes south of Sydney, featuring three new songs on the setlist—including ‘Things Take Time’. What did returning to the stage mean to you?
“It meant a lot. It rekindled something inside me. There was genuine warmth and affection—something you always feel with regional audiences in lovely theatres. I recognized a few people in the front row who greeted me afterward. Some have married or had children since our last show. It was great to see familiar faces again and observe how their lives have progressed. Honestly, it was simply nice to see people once more. Sometimes the boredom and monotony of live performance and touring can wear down even the most devoted road warrior. We all felt that after the last tour, so there were some nerves about returning. But the moment we stepped on stage, it felt like, ‘this is what it’s all about. This is the point of it all.’”
That performance seemed to reinterpret much of the older material through the lens of the new songs. You played ‘Magnolia’ solo on electric guitar, and stripped back ‘Let Me Down Easy’ in a subtle manner. Can we expect Gang of Youths’ shows to differ now that they’re no longer confetti‑cannon arena rock spectacles?
“We haven’t figured that out yet. This was our first real attempt at doing it again, you know? The album we’re working on leans toward a straightforward plug‑in‑and‑play approach—lots of bare piano, bass, drums, and vocals. We want these songs to stand on their own, rather than relying on heavy backing tracks to work. That influenced the live show—could we reinvent these songs in a way that makes sense to us? It was about finding a middle ground between offering listeners familiarity and avoiding boredom on our side.”
Is the new album finished?
“No.”
How will you know when it’s done?
“I’ll know it’s done when someone tells me it isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever made. With my debut album, 2015’s ‘The Positions’, I had no idea what I was doing—I only knew we had a deadline to meet. With the second album, 2017’s ‘Go Farther in Lightness’, I felt confident about every aspect before submission. So far, the only thing I know about this record is that, after receiving the masters for ‘Things Take Time’, I sensed I was nearer to the end than the beginning. I’ve tended to overcook things in the past, and now I’m learning to hold back.”