Hoobastank may have new music in the works. As the band wraps up celebrating the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough album The Reason, and the longevity of its title track, they’re looking forward to the future. Guitarist Dan Estrin says that he and frontman Doug Robb have been actively working on new material. “I’ve been writing music,” Estrin confirms to American Songwriter. “I have a lot of music that’s been recorded, demoed. Everybody shares ideas with each other and we’ve written a handful of songs.”
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Though Estrin admits that many of the songs aren’t fully formed yet, he and Robb are energized to write and record when they get together for podcast appearances. “We’re trying to write stuff. We’re trying to do sh** that we enjoy,” he continues. “There’s ideas that come back and forth that we really like and there’s ideas that come back and forth that I don’t love, that he doesn’t love. So if we can massage those and try to figure out how to make them work, we want to do something. We would love to put music out.”
[RELATED: Interview: Hoobastank’s Dan Estrin on “The Reason”: “It’s a Very Relatable Sentiment”]
One song the band has been working on is “Look Where We Are” which chronicles their journey from their roots as an alt-rock band in Los Angeles in the 1990s to crossing over to pop radio with megahit “The Reason,” which earned them two Grammy Award nominations for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group with Vocal and Best Rock Album. “The Reason” also became their first No. 1 hit and the video crossed the one billion views mark on YouTube in 2023. “It’s about our journey, ‘Look where we are now, all we’ve been through and all the battles won.’ It’s pretty cool,” Estrin explains of the new track. “The sentiment is about our journey up until ‘The Reason,’ ‘Look what the hell we just did. We didn’t even know that this was possible.'”
The Hoobastank guitarist admits that when they were working on their first three albums—their self-titled debut in 2001, The Reason in 2003, and Every Man for Himself in 2006—he was in a different headspace creatively, knowing exactly how he wanted the guitar overdubs to sound. As he and his bandmates look toward their future, he hopes to tap into this creative headspace. “I had such a clear perspective of what I wanted and what I was going for that I demoed everything early on,” he recalls. “So I want to get back to that head space. It’s not as easy as it used to be, but I’m working on that. Hopefully in 2024 there will be some new sh** out there.”
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