David Le'aupepe's wife ordered too many tomato seeds, and soon tomato plants started sprouting all over their home. Recording partner Tom Hobden's home studio looks out onto a backyard where his wife Emma grows all kinds of plants too. These two family gardens became the starting point for Gang of Youths' first new single in four years, "Things Take Time" — a song about the cycle of growth and death, written, as David puts it, while he was "confused by the fact that people can keep things alive."
This marks the band's first entirely new original work since their 2022 album *Angel In Realtime.*, and a clear shift in rhythm. Where the band's signature sound used to be maximalist, emotion-driven indie rock, "Things Take Time" pulls way back — sparse piano chords, a few brass accents, wrapped up in three minutes. David calls it a rare instance of him writing an actual "pop song." He told NME: "When we finished it and listened back, it felt like we'd really cut ties with the past, and we were okay with that."
That break is worth putting in context. *Angel In Realtime.* earned a four-star review from NME, described as "a triumphant exploration of love and life," and pushed Gang of Youths to the biggest shows of their career — their first-ever arena headline show in Australia, a sold-out run at London's Brixton Academy, and a final tour stop sharing the bill with Lana Del Rey at British Summer Time festival. After that, the band all but vanished, aside from a seasonal Christmas single, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," released in late 2023. Members also largely stayed off their own social media.
So why not come back with something bigger, if a comeback was the goal? David's answer is blunt: "If we came back and just wanted to be a stadium rock band? Boring as hell. That's not where we are anymore." He says the songs on *Angel In Realtime.* now belong to everyone who's heard them, no longer tied to his daily life or inner world — while "Things Take Time" represents a kind of "philosophical freedom," not needing to dig into the depths of his own life every single time just to write a song.
The recording process echoed that same lightness. One night after dinner, David thought up a riff, recorded it, laid down drums himself, then handed it off to drummer Donnie Borzestowski to redo properly. Tom heard David humming a "doo doo doo" melody line in the verse and suggested adding brass to mimic that sound. Guitarist and keyboardist Jung Kim, characteristically cautious, simply said "whatever, not my problem" once David handed over a vocal take he'd recorded nearly 400 times.
Earlier this month, the band played their first live show in three years at a small theater about ninety minutes south of Sydney, with the setlist including three new songs, "Things Take Time" among them. During the performance, the older track "Magnolia" was reworked as a solo electric guitar piece played by David alone, while "Let Me Down Easy" was stripped down even further. David said it was the band's first attempt at bringing the spirit of the still-in-progress new album onto the stage — more raw piano, bass, drums, and vocals, and less reliance on backing tracks to fill things out.
He also mentioned that most of the songs on the new album start from "observation" rather than directly processing his own emotions, as in the past. Of the new songs written so far, only one, "YeYu," could be called truly personal. As for when the album will be finished, David's answer remains vague: "Not yet." He describes his past self as someone who always "overfed the goose," and says he's now learning not to do that anymore.
"Things Take Time" is out now. Gang of Youths will perform alongside Twenty One Pilots at All Points East in London's Hyde Park on August 30, followed by a UK and European tour in November and December. The album's release date has yet to be announced.
