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New Breaking Benjamin material is on the way — but the band hasn’t been in a rush. “We still have the attitude [that] you’re only as good as your next album,” guitarist Jasen Rauch tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. “We’re still trying to dodge the sophomore slump going into record [No.] 7.”

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It’s been a long break since record No. 6. Breaking Benjamin’s last album of new material, Ember, came out in 2018; Aurora, an album with new versions of old material, came out in 2020. At this point in the band’s two-decade-plus career, Rauch says, they can take their time to get things right. 

The recently released song “Awaken” is a case study in Breaking Benjamin’s deliberate pace. Rauch says the first demo for “Awaken,” released in October 2024, was recorded in either 2020 or 2021. The lyrics were changed “three or four times.” The song’s key changed. The band tried out different tempos. And the verses were written twice. “Sometimes you’ve got to put brakes on it and be like, ‘It’s just not ready. It’s not there,’” he explains.  

As for a new full-length album, Rauch says a new Breaking Benjamin album will be released in 2025. After six albums for Hollywood Records, the next album will be released through BMG, just as the band’s recent single, “Awaken,” came out through Benjamin Burnley Recording — Burnley is the band’s founder and singer — and was licensed to BMG.  

Working with BMG has also given the band the freedom to not rush through writing and recording new material. And with three platinum and two gold albums since 2002, Breaking Benjamin is at a point in its career where it doesn’t need a label to invest the kind of resources required for a younger, developing band. “They’re already walking into an established product,” says Rauch. “They’re helping us get to the next step — whatever that is — with new music. And that’s been a cool, refreshing experience for us.”

Breaking Benjamin is co-headlinging the Awaken the Fallen Tour with Staind from April 26 to June 1. The band will also perform this summer at Rocklahoma in Prior, Okla., on Aug. 30, and Louder Than Life in Louisville, Ky., on Sept. 19. 

Listen to the entire interview with Jason Rauch using the embedded Spotify player below, or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, Podbean or Everand. 

The All-American Rejects took off like a rocket in the 2000s, reaching No. 25 with its 2003, self-titled debut album and No. 6 with 2005’s Move Along, which sent the pop-punk singalong “Dirty Little Secret” to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Then came the 2010s. As is typical with bands that find success in a particular musical era, The All-American Rejects’ popularity faded.

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“I think any band that sticks together for this long kind of goes through one of those periods,” Nick Wheeler tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. “I grew up on Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, and I remember bands like that had a hard time in the 1990s. Our version of that was the 2010s. We put out a few songs in that in that era. We did a couple tours in that era. But nobody gave a s–t. And that’s fine. We were very lucky to go on that decade-long ride.”

The When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas in 2022 was a turning point for the band. After years spent playing state fairs and theme parks — “It wasn’t fulfilling,” says Wheeler — When We Were Young, which capitalized on nostalgia for emo and punk bands from the ’00s, let The All-American Rejects know there was still immense interest in the band. “On stage, we had so much fun with each other,” he says. “The crowd actually gave a s—t. I wasn’t just a bunch of people eating hot dogs.”

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That led the band to take a leap of faith and set up, as Wheeler describes it, “an actual tour in real venues where people have to pay to show up.” The quartet wasn’t sure anybody would come. “It might be a complete disaster,” he says.

But the band was energized from their experience at When We Were Young and was looking forward to touring with acts they had befriended earlier in their career. “We’re just gonna have fun, and we’re gonna play some real shows for maybe five people,” Wheeler jokes.

Dubbed the Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour, the first All-American Rejects tour in a decade covered the continental U.S. and featured rotating support from The Get Up Kids, New Found Glory, Motion City Soundtrack and The Starting Line. “It ended up being the most successful tour of our entire career,” says Wheeler. “Never would have guessed. Certainly did not expect it.”

The following year, The All-American Rejects toured heavily in the U.S. and made their first trip to South America to perform on the I Wanna Be tour with such bands as Simple Plan and A Day to Remember. At the end of 2024, the band recorded a cover of the 1997 Harvey Danger song “Flagpole Sitta” and released it through Spin Records. The band is now “inspired and creating new music,” says Wheeler. “It’s kind of been this little baby-step snowball that was set in motion two and a half years [ago].”

Listen to the entire interview with The All-American Rejects’ Nick Wheeler in the embedded Spotify player below, or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, Podbean or Everand.