Your Neighbors Gets Unfiltered on New Single “REC.”

Alternative rock project Your Neighbors has never been particularly interested in staying inside one creative lane, and the latest single, “REC.,” makes that philosophy abundantly clear. Built around a deliberately provocative concept, the track trades heavier introspection for something playful, impulsive, and completely unapologetic.

Known for combining guitar-driven hooks with electronic textures, modern production, and unexpected creative choices, Your Neighbors approaches each release according to what the song demands rather than a fixed formula. That freedom has allowed the project to move between emotionally direct songwriting and more unpredictable territory without losing its identity.

While previous Your Neighbors material has explored existential questions, addiction, self-awareness, and complicated relationships, “REC.” is considerably less interested in unpacking an emotional crisis. The premise is refreshingly straightforward: making your own porn.

That bluntness is part of the appeal. Instead of forcing every release to carry some profound revelation, Your Neighbors lets “REC.” exist as a mischievous detour, leaning into humor, sexuality, and the kind of questionable decision-making that makes for a much more entertaining song.

Even the band’s takeaway from the release refuses to become overly serious, offering listeners one particularly modern piece of advice: maybe reconsider filming anything too private with Meta glasses, given their security concerns.

Beneath the joke, “REC.” reinforces what makes Your Neighbors interesting in the first place. There is no obvious pressure to make one song resemble the last, and unpredictability remains part of the project’s appeal.

Your Neighbors plans to coast through the remainder of the year, but already has considerably more music waiting in the wings. If “REC.” is any indication, predicting exactly what comes next would probably defeat the point.

“REC.,” is intentionally less serious than some of your previous work. What made you want to step away from heavier subject matter and make something purely provocative and fun?

Not for any particular reason, but I did feel like coming off the last album, we needed to balance the catalog with things that were a bit more approachable. “American Hedonism” is such a crazy album that took a lot of effort, but I think if I continued on that path, the music would start sounding like it insisted upon itself rather than serving the purpose I meant for it to have. Sometimes people don’t want an intricate story, including myself.

Your Neighbors seems comfortable letting each song become whatever it needs to be rather than following one sonic formula. How do you know when an unexpected idea is worth chasing instead of reining it in?

Honestly, I don’t think I do. If there’s something about the song I like, whether it be the song itself or the instrumental, I’ll chase it down with my producers and see where it lands. Will DuPerier (my main producer/mix guy) plays a huge role in the process.

He’s kind of like an analog Suno program, where I’ll feed him a song and give him some guidelines, and then he just rips the track to shreds and builds it from the ground up into something I never expect. We have very different influences, but we still respect each other’s tastes, so it allows for some crazy experimentation. By the end of the process, the song is usually worth putting out. But sometimes it just sits on the hard drive forever because we think it sucks.

There’s a difference between writing about sexuality and actually making it feel playful rather than forced. What was the creative approach behind getting the tone of “REC.” right?

I was just talking to Keaton (one of my producers) about this. Some artists just have a sexier aura and can get away with more on-the-nose lyrics. I would not put myself in that category.  I think for someone like me, it’s best to speak in innuendo; the more flowery and esoteric, the better.

But I think the best litmus test is just showing it to people, and if my lyrics aren’t vomit-inducing to them, then it’s probably fine. Most people don’t even clock what this song is about; they just like the beat and the melody.

You mentioned Meta glasses when talking about the takeaway from this release. How much did technology, privacy, and the way people document their lives today influence the concept behind “REC.”?

I think there is some kind of meta dialogue with the title (pun maybe intended), but mainly I just liked how it spelled out the song’s topic with recording a video of an intimate moment. There is a massive pushback on video surveillance right now, and it is really cool to see our society actively rejecting a “big-brother” future in a real way.

It’s one thing to be an internet activist, but there are actual people going out of their way to tear down Flock cameras and showing up to city council meetings protesting data centers. It seems like we’re seeing a shift towards viewing policy through a “Human vs Anti-Human” lens rather than a strict adherence to party lines. It’s easy to get depressed with all the insanity in the world right now, but there are glimmers of hope worthy of being celebrated.

You’ve said there’s already a lot more music on the way. After a track as unpredictable as “REC.,” what side of Your Neighbors are you interested in showing listeners next?

This is kind of a one-off; I wouldn’t expect more EDM in the immediate future. The next songs are much more band-driven, and not as “in-your-face” as I’ve recently liked to be. I want the next songs to be more “song-forward” and less flashy production-wise.