Victory Garden, our 6th studio album, is officially out today. It’s an album about radical empathy, community, and seeing the world through the eyes of our children.
For almost four years, making Victory Garden has been our own beacon of hope amidst the ever changing world we live in. We only wish that it can be the same for you, and that you can pass it on.
We did not chase inspiration, but let it find us. And when it did, we dug deep in the desert and the mountains to let it guide us. Most of that meant doing deep internal work as a group, not even thinking about music. Instead, we talked about love, family, eternal truths and illusions; fears, trauma, and loss. We reconnected as brothers.
And then the music flowed like water, because “the wound is the place where the light enters you.” That is Victory Garden.
We wanted to record this album fast, without overthinking. That let us to Henson Studios with Brendan O’Brien and his co-captain, Kyle Stevens. You guys are true geniuses. Thanks for being the best stewards of Victory Garden.
I am forever grateful to my ever-loving wife and children, my true Victory Garden.
Special thank you to Jeffrey Hasson at UTA—our evergreen. I would also like to thank our budding flowers who are on this crazy mission to cultivate our garden with us: Activist Management, Fearless/Concord Records, Eric Greenspan and co., Cal Financial, Jon O’Brien, Ryan Nasci, Lede Pub, and Crowd Surf.
This is just the beginning.
Go listen to Victory Garden today, and we’ll see you on the road this summer!
Love,
Sameer
Hey all reading,
Young the Giant just released our 6th album, Victory Garden. It’s about seeing the world through the eyes of our children and remembering the divine that lives within us all.
Trust me, we have definitely not arrived at some eternal state of peace—writing this record was our struggle to find it every day amidst the world we all live in.
Victory Garden marks a new chapter for us, the previous one culminating with our 5th album, American Bollywood, where I got to trace the threads of South Asian philosophy, art, and music to its unwavering influence on Rock. It also allowed me to grapple with my identity in a very public but deeply vulnerable way.
In 2009, I was one of the few Indian American musicians in the western music industry. I came up in an era where, for better or worse, music informed the dialog, not who the artist was. No Instagram, no Spotify. To this day, I still have people come up to me after shows saying they were a fan of the band but never knew I was Indian!
I soon realized this gave Young the Giant a kind of secret power: to incept people into new ideas. The journey began with Home of the Strange in 2016 and carried through to the American Bollywood tour, where we played venues across the world, even in places where the term “Bollywood," however reductive it may be to diasporic cinema, was unfamiliar. We got people to empathize with something entirely new at a time when division and fear often feel dominant. For that, I’ll always be proud.
Four years later, there is always more work to be done. With this album, we are just trying to be. Because existing as a band is in itself a statement.
Young the Giant is a collective of five brothers; immigrants from different cultures and creeds, who've managed to build something together for nearly twenty years now. Victory Gardens were community gardens planted during WWI and II to reduce strain on the community. If we can create our own Victory Garden, so can anyone.
For those of you who have never heard of us (or never even knew I was Indian) we hope to see you on the Victory Garden World Tour in a city near you this year!
Love,
Sameer
This months feature is LA producer and songstress Spill Tab with the track “Roamer”. Claire Chicha grew up in her parents recording and production studio in Los Angeles and has been making music ever since. “Roamer” colors outside the lines in all the right ways, a listen that is both crackly and slick at the same time.
This months Point of Origin feature is young midwestern upstart @naturosynth with their track “Headphones On”. Two of the five members Kieran and Arjun Gopal are first cousins and have been making music together on laptops since they were little kids.
The song isn’t as much where they have been, but an inkling of where NaturoSynth are destined to go.
We ran away to some fortune
Because if I told high school Sameer...
“You’re headlining an amphitheater tour
This Summer, 2026
with your hometown heroes Cold War Kids,”
He would slap me.
I am grateful for all that has happened and is to come The good and bad but mostly everything in between.
I’m just trying to be here now.
I’ll see you?
Point of Origin is back on @altnation 🤘
This month’s feature is midwestern stalwart @kennyhoopla 🖤 Kenny first splashed onto my radar in 2020 with his shiny and inspired debut EP that has since taken him touring around the world collaborating with idols and mastering his sonic craft.
I am excited to be showcasing Kenny this month, and even more excited that he will be joining @youngthegiant on our Victory Garden Tour this summer 🌱🪴
2016: ten years ago
I turned 27.
A year all musicians fear
RIP the 27 club
Kobain, Biggy, Hendrix etc.
Frozen at the crest of youth Martyred for all eternity.
It was a year of choice:
To participate in the dull entanglement of adult life
Mortgages, taxes, and electricity bills Or death.
Final and resolute.
Sounds dark, but my mind went there, even just in flashes
As the sun hovers omnipresent.
And what was this country was going to be? Who was I; what did I believe in?
I'm proud that ten years ago, I chose to be an adult.
I found that even the most dull entanglements brought joy—resolution.
A reminder that I had surrendered myself to mortality and life.
I got engaged. I bought my first fridge.
We released Home of the Strange, our first album that talked about who we were.
It was a momentous time of possibility.
The tipping of scales in America
Seemed within an individual's power to influence.
Life within reach.
I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a few of my idols. I have regretted meeting many of them. Not to take this here so irreverently quick, but being an Indian American backstage requires context to a lot of folks—I don’t look the part, even though I know I sound like it. I could tell you some pretty hilarious stories meeting people, and maybe I will, but for another time.
Bruce Springsteen, “The Boss,” did not require such context. Not only was he gracious, kind, and insightful, but took the time to watch our set and compliment us on a job well done afterwards. Those little things go a long way for making what was otherwise a pretty harrowing weekend trip into an enchanting winter retreat. What an honor to share the stage with a legend. He commanded the stage like none other, even after a pulled fire alarm!
Thank you to @whyhunger for having us at the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury. Thank you to David and Pam for being the sweetest hosts and making spaghetti for my two boys who were stuck in the hotel room down with the flu, thanks to my amazing wife and partner Jessi for holding down the fort while I ran around town, and for always being supportive. To the amazingly talented Danny Clinch for the intro with The Boss, Rick Corn for guiding us through it, the amazingly talented Disciples of Soul and members of the E Street Band for welcoming us into their family, and to all the talented musicians who made Why Hunger’s 50th Anniversary Special an inspiring night I will never forget.
I’ve effectively been off-grid the last three years.
The old tree has fallen for nobody to hear,
but in a forest that is mine alone.
I admit I put up really high barriers sometimes.
It’s a coping mechanism.
I’m working on letting people in more often, if only just to process life in real time.
Why not share the garden?
1st Truth:
I was not ready to comprehend fame that young,
let alone accept your love, hate, prayers, or judgement.
So, I was not ready to share more of myself than the music.
But, fuck it. Life’s too short to eat a carrot whole. Why not?
These photos are dedicated to joy. A new era.
February’s feature artist is Australian career indie-darlings, @lastdinosaurs 🦖 This was one of my all-time favorite Point of Origin chats! Tune in at the link in bio for conversations about homemade guitar pedals, security guards in Manila, and giving up music for good.
