Sunny Day Real Estate return with new single and announce 30th anniversary tour

Sunny Day Real Estate have returned with their first new single in 10 years, ‘Novum Vetus’, and announced a run of shows to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their seminal album ‘Diary’.

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The emo legends, who announced their reunion in 2022, had been teasing the song earlier this week by sharing a minute-long snippet to Instagram. The sound soundtracks a video of an artist drawing the phrase “novum vetus”, (Latin for “everything old is new again”)  and then sketching out a boat at sea, over which frontman Jeremy Enigk was heard singing: “The day we died inside, the world was suffering / 10,000 words collide but no one said a thing / the day we died inside the walls come tumbling down.”

Although ‘Novum Vetus’ is only just seeing the light of day, it was first conceived when Sunny Day Real Estate were recording 1998’s ‘How It Feels to Be Something On’. Original members Enigk, Dan Hoerner, and William Goldsmith decided to bring the song into Seattle’s renowned London Bridge Studio and fleshed it out into its current seven-minute iteration with Greg Suran and Chris Jordan.

Check out ‘Novum Vetus’ below:

The band have also announced a 30th anniversary tour for 1994’s ‘Diary’. The tour kicks off on March 13 in Lawrence, Kansas, and also includes stops in Austin, Raleigh, Atlanta, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York City. A second leg of shows commences on August 14 in Dallas, with further shows in Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The full list of dates is below, and you can buy your tickets here.

MARCH

13 – Lawrence, KS,Liberty Hall

14 – Oklahoma City, OK, Beer City Music Hall

16 – Austin, TX, Stubb’s

MAY

1 – Raleigh, NC, Lincoln Theatre

3 – Gainesville, FL, High Dive

4 – Atlanta, GA, Shaky Knees Music Festival

7 – Washington, DC, The Howard Theatre

9 – Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts

12 – Boston, MA, Big Night Live

15 – New York, NY, Irving Plaza

AUGUST 

14 – Dallas, TX, The Echo Lounge & Music Hall

17 – Denver, CO, Summit

20 – Seattle, WA, The Showbox

21 – Portland, OR, Pioneer Square (PDX Live Series)

23 – Seattle, WA, The Showbox

25 – Chicago, IL, House of Blues

28 – Minneapolis, MN, The Fillmore

OCTOBER

15 – San Francisco, CA, August Hall

18 – Los Angeles, CA, The Belasco

The band have also done a live re-recording of ‘Diary’, which will be released on May 3.

The band initially formed between 1992 and 1995, then from 1997 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2011. They last split on acrimonious terms, with drummer William Goldsmith claiming on his Facebook page that their fifth record was “silenced, abandoned and buried within the murkiest depths of David Grohl’s sock drawer.” The album was eventually scrapped.

A single track from the sessions, ‘Lipton Witch’, was ultimately released on Record Store Day 2014 on a split seven-inch with Circa Survive.

They played their first live show in Spokane, Washington in 2022, their first gig in over 12 years. So far, the line-up included Jeremy Enigk, Dan Hoerner, William Goldsmith, and new bassist Chris Jordan.