For their fourth record, Mirror Master, Young the Giant aren’t content to just hold up a mirror — they want to smash the thing and see what’s left in the shards. “Home of the Strange and Mirror Master are like sister albums,” Sameer Gadhia says, talking from a place of existential angst and cautious hope. “One was looking out at the world; this one looks in. It’s about your own identity, your mental health, finding your place.”
In an age of infinite selfies and online immortality, they’re less interested in the curated version of ourselves and more in the messy bits we try to hide. “These reflections we cast online? Always happy, always successful? It’s a complete lie,” Sameer says. “We all buy into it — even me. But we’re trying to be more forthcoming about who we are.”
Forthcoming enough to get into quantum physics, no less. “Superposition is romantic to me,” he says, smiling about his inner science nerd. “It’s the idea we’re not just one thing. We’re connected to every possible version of ourselves.”
And while most mainstream rock bands would rather keep the word ‘God’ off the setlist, Young the Giant lean in. “There’s something there — whether that’s God, the god particle, or some unifying theory. Science and religion are connected. It’s the idea of questioning that makes us human.”
Sameer knows what’s broken about rock too: “Rock’s gotten self-indulgent, hiding behind production and platitudes. Meanwhile, hip-hop is raw, open, fearless. Rock needs to stop hiding and feel like that again.”
They’ve even fantasized about taking songs on the road before recording them — a creative time machine that might fuel album five. “The second you play a song for people, it’s changed forever,” Sameer says. “You learn what works. You see what matters. And maybe we’d stop worrying about that two-year album cycle. Maybe we’d just let things out when they come.”
Mirror Master might not fix the fractured reflection we all face daily, but it wants you to look, anyway. “There’s a reason we don’t live forever,” Sameer says. “It’s what gives life meaning.” No filter, no fear, just more questions — rock could use a little more of that.
Listen to the interview above and then check out "Amerika" below.
