On their sophomore album, the San Diego trio turn touring, distance, ambition, patience, and small moments of clarity into a coming-of-age record about learning how to be present without losing the urge to keep moving.
There is something intentionally strange about the title THANK GOD IT’S ALMOST MONDAY.
For most people, Monday is the thing to avoid.
The weekend ends.
Routine returns.
Time accelerates again.
But for almost monday, the phrase is less about work than gratitude.
“The title is definitely a statement title,” the band explains, “but maybe different than what it comes across as.”
For them, the meaning is surprisingly simple.
“Gratitude for getting to play music and spread joy.”
Then the perspective widens.
“Beyond just us, it’s pretty awesome we as people get to live and do this thing called life.”
That sentiment sits at the center of their sophomore album, out September 9.
THANK GOD IT’S ALMOST MONDAY follows 2024’s DIVE, but the difference between the two records is not simply sonic.
The band has lived more.
Toured more.
Spent more time away from home.
Played bigger rooms.
Experienced more dramatic highs and lows.
And somewhere inside that movement, the emotional center of their songwriting changed.
“Since DIVE, I’d say we’ve grown up a bit.”
The songs on the new album still carry the brightness that has defined almost monday from the beginning.
But the optimism feels different now.
Less carefree.
More earned.
Growing Wider, Not Just Older
almost monday describe THANK GOD IT’S ALMOST MONDAY as a coming-of-age record.
That phrase can sound unusual for a band already well into a global career, but the growth they are describing is not necessarily tied to age.
It is perspective.
“We’ve lived more life and experienced higher highs and lower lows.”
That experience has changed the shape of the music.
“As we change as people, the music will also change.”
The band describes that evolution as becoming “deeper and wider.”
That is perhaps the clearest way to understand the difference between DIVE and its follow-up.
The new album does not reject the band’s earlier identity.
It expands the emotional territory around it.
There is still movement.
Still melody.
Still a sense that the songs were made to travel.
But the perspective inside them has become more patient.
“We’ve learned to be more comfortable with ourselves and more patient with the process.”
That patience matters because almost monday’s career has been anything but still.
They have spent years moving between cities, venues, festivals, hotels, highways, green rooms, international crowds, and stretches of time away from the people they love.
Success has given them motion.
Motion has given them material.
The Road Changes the Song
Touring has had one of the deepest impacts on the record.
The band is clear about the contradiction.
“It’s been beautiful to see people connect with the music and see the world, but it doesn’t come without a cost of being with the ones you love.”
That cost does not appear in one singular dramatic event.
It accumulates.
“One stage, green room, hotel, and highway” after another.
Those spaces begin altering the way you understand home.
Distance.
Connection.
Exhaustion.
Gratitude.
And eventually songwriting.
“Every stage, green room, hotel, and highway have made an impact on the way we see the world and therefore how we write a song.”
That perspective seems crucial to the album’s coming-of-age framing.
Growth is not always a revelation.
Sometimes it is repetition.
Another night away.
Another city.
Another crowd.
Another person you wish you could be with somewhere else.
Then one day you realize that the accumulated experience has changed the way you think.
The small moment becomes the catalyst.
The OG Algorithm
Touring has also sharpened almost monday’s understanding of what songs need to do physically.
Their description of live performance is perfect:
“Playing live is the OG algorithm.”
Before streaming metrics, social engagement, skip rates, or platform analytics, there was a much simpler test.
Does the room care?
“You instantly see if people want to dance or get a hot dog in the back and talk to their friends.”
It is funny because it is painfully accurate.
A live crowd cannot be abstracted into numbers in real time.
You feel attention disappear.
You feel a chorus land.
You notice which rhythm moves people.
Which lyric causes a reaction.
Which moment allows the room to drift.
“You learn what kind of sonics and lyrics grab people’s attention.”
That knowledge follows the band back into the studio.
“It’s a reminder to write songs that will not only work on the record but also translate live.”
This is especially important for a band whose reputation has increasingly been shaped by performance.
After touring with artists including Young The Giant and Cold War Kids, opening arenas, playing festivals, and building increasingly large headline audiences, almost monday understand songs as objects that have to survive contact with a room.
The record is only one life of the song.
The stage is another.
“Better Late Than Never”
That relationship between hesitation and action becomes especially visible on “better late than never.”
The track emerged from an unforced session and ultimately crystallized one of the album’s central ideas:
It is not too late to move toward the life you actually want.
Frontman Dawson Daugherty describes the song as speaking to the “anxious-avoidant” part of a person who desperately wants something while simultaneously inventing reasons not to pursue it.
That tension is familiar.
Wanting change without wanting risk.
Imagining another life while delaying the step that could create it.
“But I think the biggest regret would be to not even try.”
The accompanying video turns that feeling into visual metaphor.
The band moves through New York City surrounded by constant motion.
Then everything stops.
The city freezes.
The noise disappears.
Only almost monday can still move.
It becomes a useful image for the album as a whole.
The world will continue accelerating.
You may not.
Sometimes clarity requires refusing the speed around you long enough to ask where you actually want to go.
Optimism Without Denial
almost monday have always been good at pairing bright melodies with emotional complexity.
The distinction matters because optimism can easily become weightless.
The band’s songs rarely feel that way.
Their brightness works because it is not presented as evidence that nothing difficult is happening.
Instead, hope functions as a response.
“Life is hard and the best way to get through is to look on the bright side and push forward.”
They describe that instinct as something innate to all three members.
It was not something they consciously engineered for this album.
“I don’t think we had a conscious thought on TGIAM to create certain melodies or feelings.”
That lack of calculation is part of the appeal.
For almost monday, songwriting works best when it remains somewhat mysterious.
“It’s a collaborative process with whatever it is that sends good ideas.”
The job is less to dictate the feeling than to remain open enough to recognize it.
“The best thing to do is to just be open to whatever the day brings.”
That philosophy creates an interesting contrast with the precision required to maintain a growing career.
Touring is scheduled.
Releases are planned.
Campaigns are mapped.
Shows begin at specific times.
But songwriting still requires surrender.
Collaboration as Expansion
One of the most important sonic developments on the album came through working with producer Chase Lawrence for the first time.
The collaboration helped move the band into territory they had not previously explored.
“The beautiful thing about collaboration is that when you mix the pieces, whether instruments, environments, or in this case people, you come out with a new combination of sonics and feelings you haven’t had before.”
That is perhaps the real value of bringing someone new into an established creative dynamic.
Not correction.
Disruption.
A different person changes the available questions.
The familiar instincts remain, but the combinations shift.
Lawrence, the band says, helped them reach “a deeper part of ourselves.”
He also pushed them back toward a fundamental question:
What are we writing songs for?
Why do we do this?
That question becomes especially meaningful at the sophomore-album stage.
A debut often arrives with years of accumulated hunger behind it.
The second record comes after the machinery has started moving.
Now there are expectations.
Schedules.
Audiences.
Touring responsibilities.
Metrics.
The challenge becomes reconnecting professional momentum to the original emotional reason for making music.
Looking Back Without Getting Stuck
The title itself carries anticipation.
Almost Monday.
Something is coming.
The next day.
The next opportunity.
The next chapter.
But the album does not belong entirely to the future.
“I think it’s both,” the band says when asked whether the record looks backward or forward.
“We’ve only gotten to this point because of what we have created in the past.”
That acknowledgment is important.
Growth does not require pretending the previous version of yourself was wrong.
DIVE matters precisely because it created the conditions for the next record.
But almost monday also see the new album as a portal.
“I think this album will bring us into new spaces that we haven’t been before.”
The language captures an appealing tension.
Grateful for the road behind them.
Curious about what comes next.
Neither perspective needs to erase the other.
Success and the Trap of the Next Thing
That balance becomes more difficult as a career grows.
almost monday now have more than 1.5 billion streams, major festival appearances, international headline runs, arena support slots, collaborations, late-night television, and a 2026 iHeart Music Awards nomination for Best New Alternative Artist.
Yet when asked whether success has changed their relationship to ambition, they point home.
“We all have a grounding community around us back home that allows us to step away from the music and be who we are.”
That separation matters.
The band exists.
The career exists.
But neither completely replaces the people making it.
They also remind one another to stay present.
“It’s such an easy pit to fall into to always be looking ahead and only focusing on the next milestone or next achievement without recognizing what’s right in front of us.”
That may be one of the record’s most important coming-of-age lessons.
Ambition tells you the next thing matters.
Growth tells you the current thing does too.
The danger is spending an entire career arriving somewhere and immediately asking where else you should be.
Almost Monday Is Always Almost Here
There is a strange philosophical joke hidden inside the band’s name.
almost monday.
Not Monday.
Almost.
A perpetual state of anticipation.
The next thing is close.
Not yet here.
That idea feels unusually appropriate for an album concerned with growth and presence.
The band’s career is moving quickly.
The rooms are getting bigger.
The audience is expanding.
The songs are changing.
New collaborators are entering.
And yet THANK GOD IT’S ALMOST MONDAY seems increasingly interested in resisting the instinct to treat life as a waiting room for the next achievement.
There is gratitude in the title precisely because the next day is not guaranteed.
So enjoy the one approaching.
Enjoy the road.
Enjoy the stage.
Enjoy the hotel if you can.
Miss home.
Call the people you love.
Dance when the song works.
Notice when the crowd leaves for hot dogs.
Write another one.
Keep going.
Letting the Listener Finish the Record
For all the band’s thinking about what THANK GOD IT’S ALMOST MONDAY means, they do not want to control what it means for everyone else.
“I hope listeners are able to make their own memories and attachments to the songs.”
That freedom is important.
Songs leave the people who wrote them.
Eventually they become attached to somebody else’s summer.
Someone else’s breakup.
Someone else’s drive home.
Someone else’s first concert.
Someone else’s version of adulthood.
“TGIAM means something different for each one of us and I hope it does the same for you.”
Perhaps that is the most natural endpoint for a coming-of-age record.
You write from your own growth.
Then someone else uses the songs to soundtrack theirs.
In Conversation With almost monday
MUNDANE: THANK GOD IT’S ALMOST MONDAY feels like a statement title. What does that phrase mean to you at this stage in your journey, and why did it feel like the right name for your sophomore album?
ALMOST MONDAY: The title is definitely a statement title, but maybe different than what it comes across as.
For us, it feels like gratitude for getting to play music and spread joy.
Beyond just us, it’s pretty awesome we as people get to live and do this thing called life.
MUNDANE: You’ve described the album as a coming-of-age record. Looking back at the band you were when you made your debut album, what do you think has changed most about your perspective as artists and as people?
ALMOST MONDAY: Since DIVE, I’d say we’ve grown up a bit.
We’ve lived more life and experienced higher highs and lower lows.
As we change as people, the music will also change, but maybe more specifically the music has become deeper and wider.
I think we’ve learned to be more comfortable with ourselves and more patient with the process.
MUNDANE: The album focuses on the small moments that shape personal growth. Were there any specific experiences from the past few years that became unexpected catalysts for the songs on this record?
ALMOST MONDAY: We’ve toured a lot in the last few years and spent many weeks away from home.
It’s been beautiful to see people connect with the music and see the world, but it doesn’t come without a cost of being with the ones you love.
I think every stage, green room, hotel, and highway have made an impact on the way we see the world and therefore how we write a song.
MUNDANE: You’ve spent a lot of time on the road, including your recent tour with Young The Giant and Cold War Kids. How has touring influenced the themes, energy, or songwriting process behind this album?
ALMOST MONDAY: Playing live is the OG algorithm.
You instantly see if people want to dance or get a hot dog in the back and talk to their friends.
You learn what kind of sonics and lyrics grab people’s attention.
It’s a reminder in the studio to write songs that will not only work on the record but also translate live.
MUNDANE: almost monday has always balanced infectious, feel-good melodies with deeper emotional undercurrents. How did you approach that balance on THANK GOD IT’S ALMOST MONDAY?
ALMOST MONDAY: I don’t think we had a conscious thought on TGIAM to create certain melodies or feelings.
That’s part of the magic of songwriting.
It’s a collaborative process with whatever it is that sends good ideas, and the best thing to do is to just be open to whatever the day brings.
MUNDANE: Sonically, where did you want to push yourselves on this album? Were there any new influences, sounds, or production techniques that helped define this era?
ALMOST MONDAY: We wrote with producer Chase Lawrence for the first time and wrote a couple songs that were different from what we previously had done.
The beautiful thing about collaboration is that when you mix the pieces, whether instruments, environments, or in this case people, you come out with a new combination of sonics and feelings you haven’t had before.
I think he helped us reach a deeper part of ourselves and helped us connect to what and why we write songs.
MUNDANE: One of the strengths of your music is its ability to capture optimism without feeling naïve. In a world that often feels uncertain, how do you maintain that sense of hope in your songwriting?
ALMOST MONDAY: I think this is something that is innately in all three of us.
Life is hard, and the best way to get through is to look on the bright side and push forward.
MUNDANE: The title suggests anticipation—looking forward to something just around the corner. Do you see this album as a reflection on the past few years or more as a glimpse into where almost monday is heading next?
ALMOST MONDAY: I think it’s both.
We’ve only gotten to this point because of what we have created in the past, but I think this album will bring us into new spaces that we haven’t been before.
MUNDANE: Having built a global fanbase and played increasingly larger stages, has your relationship with success changed since the band’s early days?
ALMOST MONDAY: Not really.
I think we all have a grounding community around us back home that allows us to step away from the music and be who we are.
We also intentionally remind each other to be present and appreciate just how far we have come.
It’s such an easy pit to fall into to always be looking ahead and only focusing on the next milestone or next achievement without recognizing what’s right in front of us.
MUNDANE: If listeners walk away from THANK GOD IT’S ALMOST MONDAY with one feeling or realization, what do you hope it is?
ALMOST MONDAY: I hope listeners are able to make their own memories and attachments to the songs.
TGIAM means something different for each one of us, and I hope it does the same for you.
Thank God It’s Almost Here
There is an irony in building a career around anticipation.
The next album.
The next tour.
The next city.
The next milestone.
The next level.
The next Monday.
almost monday understand that machinery better than they did when DIVE arrived.
They have spent enough time on highways and backstage couches to know that the dream and the exhaustion can exist at the same time.
Enough time performing to understand that an audience will tell you immediately when a song connects.
Enough time away to understand that success can increase the value of being home.
Enough time moving forward to recognize the danger of never noticing where you already are.
That awareness gives THANK GOD IT’S ALMOST MONDAY its emotional weight.
It is still a record built for movement.
But movement no longer means escape.
Optimism no longer means pretending everything is easy.
And growing up does not mean giving up the desire for whatever comes next.
It means understanding that anticipation and gratitude can occupy the same space.
Monday is coming.
So is another show.
Another song.
Another version of the band.
almost monday are still looking forward.
They have simply learned that sometimes the most important thing is noticing how lucky you are to be almost there.
