SANTA CRUZ, CA — Veterans of the late ’90s and early 2000s emo and indie rock scene Time Spent Driving have announced their new full-length album, Lost Leaves, arriving August 21. The band offers the first taste of the record on July 15 with the release of the double single “Weak Arm” / “December,” the same day album pre-orders officially launch.
The album's arrival also marks another major chapter for Time Spent Driving, who will return to the stage for shows later this year.
Pre-save/Pre-order Lost Leaves here: https://found.ee/tsd
First press:
Standard Edition - Orange mix 100 - TSR/Band Exclusive
Standard Edition - Translucent red x black marble x 200
The two songs making up the new double single offer distinct but connected perspectives on the personal shift at the heart of Lost Leaves. On “Weak Arm,” singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter Jon Cattivera confronts the people and relationships that can quietly impede personal growth and the importance of being deliberate about the energy you allow into your life.
“‘Weak Arm’ is inspired by anyone in your life that's holding you back from your dreams or slowing you down,” says Cattivera. “Whether it's a family member, a friend, or a business relationship, I firmly believe you create your own reality. I've seen this happen before my eyes as I've focused more and more on surrounding myself with people who have a positive outlook and an energetic aura that motivates change, increases momentum, and has a positive impact on your life. I never unfriend people or close them off, but I've found that not engaging as much with egotistical, negative people is worth its weight in gold.”
“December,” meanwhile, holds a particularly important place in the story of Lost Leaves. The first song written for the album, the track was inspired by a psychedelic experience in Big Sur that Cattivera credits with shifting his perspective and setting him on a new path.
“‘December’ was the first song written for the album,” Cattivera explains. “It's about an early psychedelic experience down in Big Sur a couple years ago in December, which is also my birthday. My wife likes to remind me that I'm a Capricorn with a Pisces rising. She's big into that stuff, and it turns out it's pretty damn accurate.”
“It was an amazing and transcendent experience that created an even stronger connection and influenced the rest of my life,” Cattivera continues. “It set me on a new path out of the darkness and into an entirely new outlook and stage of my life. It's the kind of experience that makes you want to revisit it, but it's never the same thing twice.”
That sense of change, renewed perspective, and forward motion runs throughout Lost Leaves. Time Spent Driving's fourth true full-length captures a band operating with renewed focus, momentum, and creative purpose. Rooted in the emotionally direct songwriting that has defined the group since its earliest days, the album pushes their sound forward with sharper arrangements, clearer intent, and some of their most fully realized songs to date.
Much of Lost Leaves was already written before the band's previous album had even seen the light of day. The bulk of the material emerged during an unusually concentrated creative stretch between October 2022 and January 2023. From there, the mission was clear: bring the songs together as a band, refine them collectively, and capture the material while its emotional weight was still immediate.
“I spent far too many of my years leading up to this record in a dark place, and when I finally came out of it, I felt like I had a new lease on life,” says Cattivera. “Building a small home studio, I found myself more creative, inspired and focused than ever before. Writing the majority of this album felt effortless, and I found myself trying to edit things down more than just filling in the blanks. We also did a lot more file sharing this time around, so it was a more collaborative process than in the past.”
That renewed energy carries across Lost Leaves. The album plays directly to Time Spent Driving's strengths—melodic guitars, emotionally charged vocals, and deeply personal narratives—while revealing a band more confident in its instincts and willing to push its songwriting into new territory.
Produced by Olav Tabatabai and Jon Cattivera, Lost Leaves was recorded at Compound Recordings in Santa Cruz, California between May 2023 and November 2024, with additional sounds, odds and ends recorded at Cattivera's Breathing Trees home studio in Boulder Creek, California. Tabatabai also engineered and mixed the album at Noise Eater, with mastering handled by Dan Coutant at Sun Room Audio.
The album features Jon Cattivera on vocals, guitar, and keys; Derek Pabich on guitar; Steven Borella on bass; and Kem Gallione on drums. All lyrics and songs were written by Cattivera before being, in the band's words, “added to, argued about, and arranged” by Time Spent Driving.
Lost Leaves also features a number of friends and collaborators from the band's extended musical orbit. Casey Linstrom of Fighting Jacks and Pete Johnson of Cutlass Supreme contribute guest vocals to “Excuse the Irony,” while Marc Allen of Counterfit/Finch appears on “She's the One,” Chris Wicky of Favez guests on “The Red Dress,” Amanda Cattivera contributes vocals to “Threads and Needles,” and Dain Griffin of Merit appears on “Poison Arrows.” Paul Nolan adds keyboards to “Europa,” “Poison Arrows,” and “Threads and Needles.”
Formed in Santa Cruz in 1998, Time Spent Driving emerged during one of emo's most formative eras, developing a devoted following through emotionally charged indie rock and relentless touring throughout the United States and Europe. Following a self-released three-song demo in 1999, the band released the six-song Walls Between Us in 2000 and the J. Robbins-produced full-length Just Enough Bright in 2002, both through Sessions Records.
Over the years, the band's music has been released and distributed through Sessions, Doghouse, Deep Elm, Rise, Cardigan, and other labels, while their songs reached a wider audience through the Xbox video game soundtracks Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding and Amped 2.
After initially disbanding in 2003, Time Spent Driving briefly reunited in 2005 to record the material that became 2007's I'm Your Stab in the Back. The band formally reformed in 2012 and released Passed & Presence in 2015, followed by Estrangers in 2023 via Negative Progression Records.
More recently, Time Spent Driving contributed “Brackney” to a seven-band split released by Sell the Heart Records and partnered with Thirty Something Records for a deluxe reissue of Just Enough Bright. Available on vinyl for the first time, the album was fully remixed by original producer J. Robbins and expanded with a previously lost song from the era that was newly recorded for the release.
Now, more than 25 years after the band's formation, Lost Leaves finds Time Spent Driving looking forward rather than simply revisiting the past. With a new album, their first live shows in two decades, and additional new material already taking shape, the band is entering a particularly prolific new chapter.
The double single “Weak Arm” / “December” arrives July 15, alongside the launch of Lost Leaves album pre-orders. Lost Leaves will be released August 21.
TIME SPENT DRIVING IS:
Jon Cattivera — Vocals, Guitar, Keys
Derek Pabich — Guitar
Steven Borella — Bass
Kem Gallione — Drums
LOST LEAVES ALBUM CREDITS:
Produced by Olav Tabatabai and Jon Cattivera
Engineered and mixed by Olav Tabatabai / Noise Eater
Mastered by Dan Coutant at Sun Room Audio
Recorded at Compound Recordings, Santa Cruz, CA
Additional recording at Breathing Trees, Boulder Creek, CA
Album artwork and layout by Jon Cattivera at Sleepless Media
Photography by Rob Cattivera
More Info:
timespentdriving.com
thirtysomethingrecords.com
