There's a voice most of us know all too well—the one that shows up at 2 a.m. to remind you of every awkward thing you've ever said. The one that second-guesses, catastrophizes, and occasionally spirals into full existential dread over a minor email. Common People have written a love letter to it.
"Dear Worry" is the latest single from the Los Angeles-based indie rock outfit, and it's something of a radical act in a musical landscape that loves a triumphant chorus: rather than vanquishing the darkness, it sits down next to it. Bassist and vocalist Konrad Ulich puts it plainly:
"Dear Worry is a love letter to that voice in your head. An honest reflection on worry that is less so about overcoming negative emotions as it is learning to live with them."
Produced by Cage the Elephant's Brad Shultz, the track offers a glimpse into their debut EP Games—it's the kind of song that doesn't promise to fix you. It just makes you feel less alone in being broken.
With Games dropping in two days, we chatted with Common People about how it all came together—and it's almost as interesting as the music itself. Rather than locking into a studio for a concentrated burst, Common People assembled it across a string of sessions stretched over a year and a half—sessions that guitarist Sam Belzer says fundamentally changed who they were as a band each time.
"We wanted to release a project that really captured that period for us, and that became Games."
Putting together the EP was less about recording and more about editing. "We had recorded all of these songs before we were even thinking about them as one EP," Belzer explains, "so putting Games together was a really fun process. A lot of it was just figuring out which songs belonged together, how they should flow, and which ones made more sense to save for later."
Some tracks arrived nearly finished. Others, like the brooding ballad "Rain," went through multiple evolutions before finding their final form. "Every studio session was great in its own way," Belzer says—which is perhaps the most diplomatic way anyone has ever described the creative process.
If you want a preview of where Common People's heads are at, look no further than the track Belzer says most of the band is most excited to get into the world: "I think 'Don't Fall' for most of us. It was a pretty early song of ours and one that felt like a step in a direction we wanted to explore."
The band isn't exactly sitting still while they wait for the world to catch up with their music. Common People kick off a massive 2026 touring run tonight as direct support for Rainbow Kitten Surprise on the North American leg of their bones World Tour—a slot that puts them in front of exactly the kind of audience that gravitates toward emotionally literate indie rock. They'll also open for Congress The Band, The Bends, and Young The Giant on select dates this spring, with a festival appearance at Minnesota Yacht Club Festival on July 19 rounding out the summer.
It's a lot of stages for a band that still describes itself as being in "early days"—but there's something refreshing about the lack of delusion in how they talk about where they're headed. "We're really just excited to keep building, keep writing, and keep playing live as much as we can," Belzer says. "That's a huge part of what we love doing."
Be sure to keep an eye out for Games, out this Friday!
Photo credit: Eric Crain
