The Neighbourhood Going on Hiatus Despite TikTok Resurgence
California alt-rock band The Neighbourhood has announced that they are going on hiatus. The surprising news, first reported by Variety, comes amidst a recent TikTok-led resurgence of the bands' hit song, "Sweater Weather." Notably, the band does not appear to have issued an official statement on the news at this time, though it has been reported that singer Jesse Rutherford has been working on solo material.
The Neighbourhood was founded in August 2011 by Rutherford, guitarists Jeremiah Freedman and Zachary Abels, bassist Michael Margott and drummer Bryan "Olivver" Sammis. The band released their debut, platinum-selling album, I Love You., in 2013, and very quickly became international rock stars. Sammis exited the band in 2014, and Brandon Fried was announced as the band's new drummer. The group went on to record three more studio albums: Wiped Out! (2015), The Neighbourhood (2018), and Chip Chrome & the Mono-Tones (2020).
In 2021, Rutherford spoke with Complex about the Chip Chrome & the Mono-Tones, a concept album of sorts with accompanying music videos, and elaborated on the process behind crafting the character and what it's meant to him as an artist. "I think Chip has given me the ability to not feel like I'm losing something if I'm not posting every day," he shared. "I still struggle with it. When you're on the internet at all and you're part of that flow and you're actively participating, it's hard to not think about it in the back of your head. I think I got to a point when I was off of it for so long that it wasn't even in the back of my head, which was really nice."
Rutherford continued, "It was hard, because I'm on it again, I'm high on it again. I got hooked. I went to rehab and then I relapsed and now I'm getting high off of it again, and it's actually working so I think as an addict I'd be able to be like, 'No, no, it's cool. I can just have one drink, and then I'm fine.'"
Finally he added, "But I know that that's not the truth. I know that my brain is f—ed and I started it back up again, but that's part of the Chip thing and why Chip exists at all, because I feel like I need to be there and I want to be seen so bad that I'm going to make myself into this thing so you'll have to f—ing look. When Tekashi69 first made it onto all of our social pages and news feeds, you couldn't help but click on it. You just couldn't help it. So that's part of the thing here."