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New Jersey-based rock band Forgivers are proud to announce the release of its new single, "Pretty Boys”. Mixing mainly British influences such as The Cure, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Clash and Oasis, but infusing it with their own unique and distinctive dynamic, Forgivers have created a song that embraces a dark, muscular and shimmering psychedelic swagger, recalling some of the finest alt-rock of the 120 Minutes-era.

“‘Pretty Boys’ is a 1980s fever dream, and like our favorite rock & roll dream songs, it was written in a rush of inspiration and grounded with a cinematic guitar riff,” says Forgivers frontman Jed Winokur. “While the verse vignettes hint at the larger idea of longing that the chorus drums up in “love can’t seem to light the way,” there’s also something else lurking in the lyrics — the idea that what we long for may also be longing for us too. And even though the ephemeral love in the song is always fleeting, it’s saying there’s still plenty of strength and beauty for us all to stumble upon.”

There’s been an undeniable synchronicity to Forgivers from the beginning. If you believed in fate, you might even say it was meant to be. It all came about when Alex Rosamilia started talking to bassist Alex Levine about writing music together again, after the decade-plus they’d spent together in The Gaslight Anthem. When that band briefly broke its hiatus to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The ’59 Sound, the two Alexes realized how much they’d missed playing together, something Rosamilia told Ed Auletta, longtime guitar tech for My Chemical Romance and the owner of North End Recording, where Rosamilia had recorded his Dead Swords project a few years ago.

The two were catching up at a bar in Jersey City – back when you could still catch up at bars – when Ed suggested that Jed Winokur, who had fronted New Jersey punk band The Ratchets, would be an ideal frontman. Neither had seen him for a while, but minutes after his name was mentioned, Winokur happened to walk past the pair in the street, which they all took as a fortuitous sign. Once told about the Alexes’ new project, Winokur was in. Rounding out the four-piece is drummer and recording engineer Trevor Reddell, who played in Let Me Run, D’Arcy and Dead Swords. It’s in Reddell’s garage – dubbed ‘Forgivers Lodge’ – that the four-piece eventually started a socially distant rehearsal once a week, carefully shaping the sound and aesthetic of the band.

“I’m trying to get back to what I could have been doing this entire time but was too blind to see it,” says Rosamilia. “Music is fun again. I feel like I’m getting to do this all over again with the knowledge that I have, and I want to make sure that I do it right.”

“And the four of us have done this so many times with other people,” adds Levine, “that we know when it feels right and when it really feels right. And this really, really feels right.”