Philly band Sweet Pill releases sophomore album ‘Still There’s a Glow,’ diving into themes of depression and self-reflection

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After some false starts and self-reflecting, Philadelphia-based indie rockers Sweet Pill have emerged on the bright side with their latest album, “Still There’s a Glow.”

The band’s sophomore LP serves as the proper follow-up to their 2022 release, “Where The Heart Is,” which vocalist Zayna Youssef said was written during the band’s college years. That record helped them establish a bond with a devoted audience and play some of their biggest shows to date. However, that’s where the problems started.

“I think what started happening is, reality happened,” Youssef said. “People come and go in your life, and you start to realize that the real relationships matter, and then you see the ones that don’t. And you’re kind of left to yourself ultimately at the end of the day.”

A period of depression soon followed for Youssef, leading to writer’s block. Guitarist Jayce Williams said the band’s constant touring schedule also made the situation more difficult.

“We’re all go, go, go all the time, and I myself am fueled by caffeine and go nonstop,” Williams said. “But I think that it’s really important to take a step back and realize you need to be centered in order to do something. Writing music is life-changing. It takes a lot out of you.”

The band was still able to crank out two EPs in the meantime, with 2024’s “Starchild” and 2025’s “Unraveled,” both released by Hopeless Records. A writing trip to focus on their second LP resulted in around 20 new song ideas, with 10 of those being fully released. But Youssef said she “had a hard time connecting to it.”

“I just kindly asked, ‘All this cool stuff that you are in love with, do you mind putting it aside and making more?’ That was always a fun conversation to have,” Youssef said.

Despite the difficult period the band faced, guitarist and vocalist Sean McCall said moments like that reminded him to trust the people around him.

“It’s like five painters and one canvas,” McCall said. “You’re going to butt heads, or brushes, whatever. But we make it work.”

The album was recorded in two weeks at Gradwell House in nearby Haddon Heights, New Jersey, with songs that directly address the stresses Youssef went through, such as the two lead singles, “No Control” and “Glow.”

“A lot of this album was me just admitting to myself that I might not be doing everything correctly,” Youssef said. “And that maybe, I need to make a change, and that’s not always easy.”

The song structures carry the band’s signature mix of math rock and emo influences, but also lean heavily on the vocal harmonies between Youssef and McCall.

“I love the guy, girl vocal,” Youssef said. “The contrast, it’s so classic. It’s so sick, like why not have more of it? I honestly think we’re going to keep pushing it more and more, at least I want to.”

While their first album took only four days from start to finish, the band scrambled to complete four songs for the new record in just two days in the studio.

“It’s a really hard process. You’re going to disagree on things,” Williams said. “You’re going to have to make compromises, but we do it with grace, even when we are not graceful.”

Drummer Chris Kearney said the work that goes into keeping the band a well-oiled machine is “a full-time job” with not only the music taking up time, but also the dedication one needs to connect with fans and make sure live performances are on point.

“It takes time,” Kearney said. “It’s a lot of work being in a band … I used to have a full-time job, and I had to leave that job to do Sweet Pill full-time. That was like 2023, and I haven’t looked back since. It’s been awesome to be able to just grow and be able to do this.”

Looking ahead, the band will immediately hit the road to support the new album, including a show at Union Transfer on Thursday, March 19.

“We always try to make our live sets a little more exciting by adding parts to some songs,” bassist Ryan Cullen said. “We definitely have some exciting stuff in the live performance for this next tour that is generally a little bit risky. We’ll see how it goes.”

The Union Transfer show will feature support from Minnesota rockers Heart to Gold and the Buffalo, New York, hardcore outfit, Spaced. Doors open at 7 p.m.