Balancing Mystery and Intimacy: The Evolution of Cigarettes After Sex

If you’re worried about hearing Greg Gonzalez’s tender whispers in a giant arena later this year, rest easy. Cigarettes After Sex, known for their intimate and evocative soundscapes, are confident about their next chapter as they prepare for sold-out shows in iconic venues like Madison Square Garden and London’s O2 Stadium. The band’s extensive international tour begins in August, supporting their brand new album, X’s. Standing on the shoulders of musical giants, Gonzalez and his bandmates are now relishing their well-deserved success and embracing the excitement of performing in these legendary spaces.

In his second interview with Teeth, Cigarettes After Sex’s frontman Greg Gonzalez shares his approach to balancing the band’s signature mystery while lifting the veil to reveal more to fans. Gonzalez also delves into his unwavering affection for his most popular songs, which continue to seduce listeners on a global scale.

Below, Gonzalez discusses Fleetwood Mac’s influence on X’s, getting his long-time friends on the Bonnaroo guest list, parallels between great sex and a great show, toying with the idea of directing a film, and what he wishes more fans knew about the women featured in his bewitching songs.

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Your newest album X’s is out this month. Your forthcoming album is said to be more upbeat and groovy while maintaining your signature style. What can fans expect from this album in terms of sound and themes?

This record was meant to be like: Is there a way to be on a dance floor in my world? At least, in my universe of what Cigarettes’ music means. But also still have the heartbreaks, still have the romance — still have all that and not lose any of that — while making you wanna dance. 

I don’t know why [but] when I picture couples dancing on a dance floor it kind of chokes me up for some reason. People dancing to songs together. It always gets to me. If I’m dating somebody, you know, we’ll have dates and we’ll always dance at the end of the night. It’s always something I love doing with somebody — just listening to music and dancing. 

I just wanted that feeling to this record, and that’s something that’s been in the music from the first EP. Like “Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby,” the lyrics and the bridge — dancing and singing favorite songs in the living room — it’s a nice little through line.  

Can you share more about the track “Holding You, Holding Me”? 

I thought, ‘What if Cigarettes did more of a country song?’ A two-step country song, too. It’s just one of my favorite styles — I think it’s just so fun to dance to that two-step. That song was a nice little sweet story, where the girlfriend I had at that time, we were living in an apartment in Downtown LA and we just got kind of stir crazy one weekend and thought, ‘We should only go somewhere else and get out of the house.’ And so we rented this nice little AirBnB in Beverly Hills and, you know, stayed there for a few days. 

I was kind of compelled to just write about the little, sweet experience we had there and boil it down to a few little memories. But it’s very much kind of like a country song about being with someone you love for a weekend — going out of town, or renting a place, and kind of getting out of your ordinary life. So that’s the vibe for that song — a bit like Fleetwood Mac too. Rumors was a really big influence on this record as well. 

I think that Mac record Rumors has every kind of style on it. It has that kind of country song. It has more classic rock stuff. It has disco on it. It has great ballads. So that was kind of like a template for this whole record, just something a little more eclectic from us.

 

Stevie Nicks was making headlines this week by saying that Fleetwood Mac is completely done. Did you ever have an opportunity to see them live? 

No, I did have a chance to see them and I kick myself for it. This was years ago, like 2009, and they were touring. Actually, they weren’t touring with Christine McVie at that point. I love Christine McVie, she might be my favorite sometimes. [Laughs.] I love her songs. But I was supposed to go with a girlfriend, and then we kind of broke up again, and I thought, ‘I guess, we can’t go to this concert.’ I should have stuck it out and just gone to the concert. We should have just gone together anyway, so that’s too bad. [Fleetwood Mac] have so many great songs and that’d be a shame. I’d still love to see them somehow. 

 

Your incredible upcoming world tour includes iconic venues including MSG — which is already sold out — and London’s O2 Stadium. How do you feel about performing at such prestigious locations? What can new and old fans expect? 

It’s great because that’s sort of like a childhood dream, really. As a kid, I had [a tape of] the band Queen, live at Wembley Stadium. I must have been 10 or 11 years old. I was already writing and playing guitar, and already dreaming about being some famous musician. I should say, performer. I thought, ‘Well, that’s the way you do it. You just go play Wembley Stadium. That’s how you gotta make it, and that means you’ve actually made it.’ 

Wembley Stadium is kind of the same as venues like MSG and the O2. That’s what it’s all about — you’re standing on the shoulders of all the giants that played these venues. Now you get to stand with them and say, ‘Hey, it’s nice to be in the same world as them.’ It’s so special. It feels so flattering and I’m just so excited that we can get to this level, finally. It feels like we’re doing something right, you know? [Laughs.]

 

I’m located in gorgeous Austin, Texas. I know you grew up in El Paso and you last played the Don Haskins Center in October of 2023. There’s a line in your recent Texas Monthly feature about El Paso no longer having a space big enough to accommodate you and your fans. How do you feel about the journey from your hometown roots to now playing venues that can barely contain your growing audience?

That is really wild too. I think back about some of those early Cigarette shows in El Paso and there was, like, nobody there at all. I’m sure we played shows where there was no one in the room — except maybe the bartenders. And it was really deflating. But I always knew someday it was going to happen. It just was a matter of time.

I had played in bands since I was like I said, around 10 or 11 [years old] and played all kinds of music. I was in like Top 40 bands. I was a jazz bass player. I was singing and playing guitar at wineries and restaurants. My life is music. I have made a living playing music since I was a kid. I never had a ‘real job’ until I moved to New York. 

It feels wild to think back on all that. The dream was always there to get to this level and to play these types of shows. And especially play music that was my own writing — because I was always kind of the side man in some of those other bands where I was making money. I always had my own bands, but they never made money. They were playing really dead shows and only my friends would come see us. A lot of those friends I still have, and they’re still coming to these shows and that’s so beautiful. 

I was just at Bonnaroo and a bunch of my friends from about 20 years ago were all there. They were always super supportive, like ‘Why aren’t you famous yet? How come you’re not like a rock star and famous yet?’ It’s really cute that I could put them on the guest list for Bonnaroo, get them in, and we can all have a good time. 

It’s wonderful. The more things change the more they say the same in that sense too — that so many people that were there with me back then, and they’re still around. It feels nice that they were able to go on this ride with me together. 

This is like a happy accident too. For instance, we’ll play at a really big venue. It’s sold out, nowadays. We’ll be playing a song, like “Nothing Gonna Hurt You Baby,” and that image, the memories of that song, are so vivid to me. I can picture the rooms, in my old house in El Paso. I remember playing these dead shows and no one was there. And then all of a sudden, now, I’m here on the stage, singing this song about that memory back then — when I was not really making it yet. It feels really profound to see myself now versus then. It’s like this really vivid moment, and it’s something that I get to experience with most of the songs on the record. You know, before all the pre-fame memories. It’s nice to see the journey that way. 

Since 2017, when I had the joy of talking to you, you’ve experienced an astronomical amount of fandom. How are you adapting to this level of recognition, and what are some of the more surprising aspects of fame that you’re experiencing today? 

We were very lucky to have a Worldwide fan base, once everything took off on YouTube, in like 2015. It was great that it was like, ‘Hey, you’re big. You can go play sold-out shows in the U.S., but also in India. And you can also go to China. And go to Australia.’ It felt like, well, that’s incredible. It was like this worldwide spread. 

It’s interesting too, that with us, we’re fairly mysterious as well — I always kind of wanted that. As time goes on, it’s nice to kind of lift the veil a bit and you can get to know us a little more. I think [about the] artists that I love, and you kind of fall in love with them more when you hear their personal stories or their upbringing or their influences. And so I don’t mind. I love to talk about music and I love to talk about the memories of the songs and that’s really natural to me. 

The thing is I can still walk around LA, and maybe I’ll get recognized once in a blue moon. It’s always a rare occurrence and I always enjoy it because we have really sweet fans. Everyone’s really nice. So in that sense, things haven’t really changed. I can still be pretty incognito, I should say. 

The most surprising thing is fans that are famous that I wouldn’t think would be fans. Like, ‘Oh, you actually like our music?’ It’s surprising that artists I respect so much, but I didn’t know they liked us. More and more I hear about them, and they’ll contact our team and be like, ‘Is there a way that we could work on a song together?’ That’s been happening quite a bit lately, and I really enjoy that. 

It’s nice to meet other people that you look up to and respect — people that are doing incredible things in the music industry. It just feels nice to get along with them and say, ‘Oh, you do things this way. I do things this way. Maybe we could try something.’ That’s really fun. That’s a really new thing for me. Before that, it felt like we were kind of on our own, and now it feels like other people who are pretty well-known have reached out to us more often. That’s been unexpected and exciting for sure. 

 

Would you be comfortable sharing an artist that you’ve loved and been surprised to find out that they also admire your work? 

Yeah, let’s see. I’ve done a bunch of interesting sessions recently. I mean, the artist that I was obsessed with forever was David Lynch. “Floating Into The Night,” that Julee Cruise record, is still top 10 for me. It’s really up there, it’s a record I really love. That’s the one [Lynch] kind of produced and wrote the lyrics. I always loved Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. I didn’t really expect him to take notice of us. I knew I was really influenced by him, but I didn’t think it would maybe go both ways. But then, I started hearing, ‘Wow, he’s really obsessed with your song “Sweet.”’ [Laughs.]  And just recently — I still haven’t met him — but his assistant reached out and he wants to send me this new record he did. I’m really flattered by that and excited to hear what he’s doing now. 

That’s like cosmic to me — someone you look up to so much and they come back and they’re saying pretty wildly complimentary things. I think David Lynch said that he loved the song “Sweet” and that song was like really important for the future. It’s this really big compliment, you know? 

 

I’m so happy for you. Thank you for sharing that. I have two questions that are going to make me blush. You have mentioned that the set list of your shows is meant to mimic the progression of sex. How do you craft a setlist that creates such a specific emotional journey for the audience — and does that setlist change as you tour? 

I feel like we definitely cultivate it. It’s supposed to be like foreplay. [Laughs.] Things get more passionate as you go. 

For me, you start off in a really gentle way, okay? We come on stage [and] the first songs we do are maybe not like the biggest songs, usually. And to me, that’s okay. That’s the start of it. Start really gentle, and then by the end there’s all the big songs — or all the songs that I think we are known for — all in a row. It just feels like it’s the way to do it for us. It just feels nice, like things are progressing, progressing, it’s getting more passionate, and then it just finally gets into that space where it’s pure euphoria for that last 30 minutes of our show, which is all the big songs, all in a row. 

That’s the best way to view it, and I think it makes perfect sense with the kind of songs that I write. And I think we’ll carry on that idea going forward. Now, I just have more songs to kind of play with, that can do that. I tend to favor songs that people know as well. I feel it’s more fun. I’m writing these songs because I love these songs. I have no burden about songs that have become big for us, versus other ones that maybe aren’t as big. To me, they’re all part of one piece. I wrote these songs to be played forever. So the fact that “Apocalypse” would be our biggest song feels like, ‘Well, I love that song. I want to play it all the time. I want to play it every show.’ 

I’m kind of old-fashioned in that way. I should include the more popular songs at all times and maybe I can throw out a song that might be more of a deep cut? But I like to favor [the setlist] mostly being songs people know, and we can kind of rearrange those in any way we want within what we just talked about— where it is like foreplay, a romantic, bedroom kind of thing. [Laughs.]

I am going to make myself ask this: What makes for great sex and what makes for a great show? 

To me, a great show just means great songs. Really. It means a great performance of those songs, of course. If you can get a great atmosphere out of that, if we can create like our little movie theater meets rock show — which is what I want the show to be — then that’s even better. But really, the best shows for me are where I go and I’m like, moved to tears by the show.

I went to ACL in like 2006, and I saw Cat Power play a song like “Where Is My Love,” and I just remember crying so much. I was like, this is so beautiful. Or seeing Leonard Cohen singing “Famous Blue Raincoat” live and being moved to tears. Or, you know, Dylan singing “Simple Twist of Fate.” I want the audience to have that experience where it’s deeply emotional and deeply moving. I think that can make up for any kind of pyrotechnics or any kind of crazy theatrics— just the purity of the song and the performance has to match it and be really great. 

And yeah, that’s intimacy. That goes along with if you’re with someone and romance and that connection — you have to really connect. You have to really understand each other. And that can be hard to find, but when you find it, that’s really what kind of makes everything happen.

 

How do you prepare to bring your tender whispers to venues that are so massive? How do you reach the rafters? 

Yeah, it does feel a bit daunting because I’m very soft-spoken and I mumble a lot. [Laughs.] And then I sing painfully quiet, where it’s always like a pain for our sound engineer to let me be heard. You’ll notice — and this is definitely a comment that I get all the time — that my speaking voice and my singing voice are quite different. I wanted this music to feel like you’re so close to someone that you’re just whispering. So the way that I sing is like in that whisper, the whisper that you would use if you’re with somebody. You’re holding someone and they’re as close to you as they can possibly be. And at that moment, I’m not speaking in the kind of voice that I’m speaking with now, it becomes my singing voice. It becomes more like…it’s basically the phone sex voice. That’s what it is, and that’s what it’s supposed to feel like. It’s supposed to feel beyond gentle — or else it becomes a very different thing. And these are still pop songs, they are just delivered in that way where I have to sing them as gently as possible. 

You know what, though? It is a happy accident that I’ve heard many people say they’ve heard us in bigger venues and it sounds better to them in bigger venues. There’s more space because the way we play music is so minimal that you can get really cavernous and still sound really great. Us in a big venue seems like, since it’s so boiled down to nothing, it actually can project really well. Every instrument will take on a world of its own because there’s barely anything going on in our songs. Maybe versus like other artists, that if they get into a big venue, it could become kind of cluttered because there’s all this stuff going on. There’s so much space and it gets really echoey. 

So that’s a nice little thing and that was not planned for, you know. I don’t think there’s any way I could plan it that way. I wanted the music to be very simple and minimal, of course, but I didn’t think, ‘Oh well, someday you’re gonna play MSG and it’s actually gonna make sense that you’re so simple.’ [Laughs.]

 

Your approach to songwriting prioritizes no-holds-barred autobiographical storytelling. How do you navigate the vulnerability of sharing such personal experiences with a wide audience? Are there any parts you have decidedly kept private?  

That’s intriguing. I love that question. It’s weird, like every time I thought I should keep something more private when I’m writing, there’s an instinct that tells me not to do that. And it says, ‘No, you should actually talk about this because it’s hard to do that.’ My first instinct is like, “No, don’t say that. Don’t get into that kind of stuff. Maybe just don’t reveal too much.’ But then the real instinct kicks in. Like I was saying, this true instinct, and it says, ‘No, you should do that. There’s something powerful about it. There’s something therapeutic.’ 

I’ve always tried to be as honest as I can, and not really have any boundaries towards that kind of stuff — within reason, of course. You know, if there’s something really private that someone else has told me in confidence, that could be tricky. You don’t want to kind of throw them under the bus, and just reveal secrets that they don’t reveal. But if it’s something that I feel about them, and I’m sharing it to them, that feels better to just be as honest as possible. 

A lot of these songs too, I’m not writing them and thinking this is like this mainstream song that everyone’s going to hear. These songs are actually meant to just be like direct messages to one person a lot of times. It’s like I wrote them a letter, and said this is for you. They’re personalized. And the sweet thing too is if the song comes out — and maybe I’m not in contact with them anymore — it’s still a letter to them and they’ll know it. There will be inside information on there. And they should know that. I’m not trying to write any kind of vindictive, bitter song. I don’t really work that way. That’s stuff I can just leave by the wayside. We can all kind of hurt each other’s feelings in love and that’s part of the game, but I just would rather just leave all that behind and just focus on the sweetness of things and the beauty of things. 

Nothing can really be too private for me. I love to actually talk about this stuff in interviews as well. So maybe in the interviews I might [need to] not expound too much on certain songs. Not in a bad way, just I don’t want to give away too much. But in the song itself, there’s nothing that feels too private. It’s actually good to lean into it, from my experience. 

I’ve noticed some of the things that I thought were too much to say — those are the songs that actually took off. Like, I wrote the song “Cry” and I thought, ‘Is this kind of weird to say this? It feels like I’m almost bragging or something. Saying like, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna make you cry so don’t fall for me.’’And I was like, ‘Well, that’s true but it’s a conversation I feel like I’d had. It’s something that I just needed to say in that way.’ And then that song became like a big thing. And it never [felt like] maybe I shouldn’t have said that, but it was nice that it was rewarded. Actually, a lot of women told me that the song makes so much sense to them, it’s crazy. It’s very common, so it’s interesting how that worked out. 

So going back to what I said before, I try to lean into that and not make anything too private. 

You’ve been with your bandmates Jacob and Randall for over a decade. How has your relationship with them evolved and how did they contribute to the band’s dynamic? 

It is true. I forgot how much time we spend together now. They’re like brothers to me. They’re just the best. We get along so well, we have so much fun. We have so much fun on tour, I feel so grateful. It’s pretty wild. It would be a shame if I was just a solo artist and had this kind of lonely life on tour and had to do this on my own. It’s nice to share it with someone, and it’s nice that we’re such great friends. Like I said, they’re like brothers to me. 

I met them when I first got to Brooklyn. I was playing in a band with Jacob. I was playing bass, he was playing drums. Randall was in a different band that was in the same scene. And then I was playing with Cigarettes with different players that I knew in New York at that time, but they were totally the wrong players. They were jazz players and I love jazz players, but I let the music become too technical at that point. It got away from what it was supposed to be and became just not the right recipe. 

I should say, that I love jazz. Jazz is some of my favorite music, but it was just too complicated. Everyone was playing too much, and I kind of let it get out of my hands that way. So I threw a show with Cigarettes After Sex with that lineup — with these other jazz players — and I got Jacob and Randy’s band that they were in together, this country rock band called Hemi. Randall was playing bass, and Jacob was playing drums. I heard them together for the first time and I thought, these guys sound incredible together. They’re just playing the simplest, tightest grooves. That’s what Cigarettes needs. It needs to have that soul. It needs to be totally stripped down to nothing. 

It’s unbelievably hard to find players like that. It’s almost like the Holy Grail or something. I’ve played with a lot of players and that never happens. Never, ever, ever do I find players that will play like almost nothing and actually think that it’s better that way. Randall’s like that, he’s a big MoTown, James Jamerson fan. New Order. He loves that stuff, we bond on that. And Jacob, he loves Barry White. He loves country. They both love hip-hop, too. They like really stripped down stuff. 

It all kind of worked out. They’re both very emotional people. They get the music. They get why it works. They get the lyrics. They get the songwriting. They’ve always just been willing to help me make this music come to life. That’s the spirit of everything. I can write the song and that goes such a long way, but the way it’s presented, that’s like the real true spirit of everything, the way it’s performed. And without them, it would not sound anything like this. They are so crucial to that sound. We’ve only just grown over time and I think just gotten better, understanding each other’s playing. And they’ve been fine to just keep it as simple as possible and not try to cut my head off. [Laughs.]

I just love really simple music, and I really want to keep it as simple as possible. I think that’s the power. 

 

Looking beyond 2024, what do you hope for Cigarettes After Sex? Are there any new projects or directions that you’re thinking of as you’re plotting your future? 

It’s tough because it feels really great, like the status we’re getting to and everything. I love seeing everything happening and I want to keep writing. I just can’t help writing songs about love or songs about memories. Romance writing, I should say. I really just want to keep building on this. It feels like a nice place to keep building towards — as far as it can go or as high as it can go. I’m always going to have things I want to put into the music, like new influences, and try things out. 

On the horizon — maybe this is much later — but I do think there’s kind of a locked door to Cigarettes, where we would put out like maybe six records, and then kind of call it quits. And maybe move on and all do different things. Or maybe just retire the name and then we can all play the songs in different contexts if we want to. Or do something completely different.

I’d really like to try directing and working on film more. I’m obsessed with film. I’ve wanted to be a director since I was a kid and I feel like I could maybe try to put it together. It’s gonna take a while, I think, to get anything good. But that’s one thing that feels like a nagging part of my brain. It’s like, ‘You need to work on a movie. You have to do a movie.’ I keep getting that over and over again. Maybe after this record is done, next summer, I will try to write a screenplay and see how it goes. Maybe it’ll take, maybe it won’t. But it feels like I need to do it. Something is really telling me: You need to do this. I’m not sure that intermingles as much with the band, but that’s kind of what’s up next for me is creative, at least. 

We’re about to try recording again already pretty soon. I always think it’s like a good luck charm if we put out a record and then record a new one right when it’s coming out. There’s good luck to that, for some reason for me. We did that with Cry. Our first LP came out on June 9, 2017, and we recorded Cry when it was coming out. So we’re doing the same thing. We’re going to go to Toronto and try to record a record. I have a friend who has a really cool studio there, so we’re going to check it out and see how that works. So that’s the next thing — we’re already recording. And maybe that’ll come out next year.

 

My last question for you, Greg, is a simple one: Is there anything you wish fans knew that no one has asked you about? 

Let’s see. It’s a great question because we do get a lot of the same questions.

Yeah, there’s one thing where if there’s any way to clear one thing up with fans, it would be that there are recurring characters in my songs and they’re not all the same girl or same woman. [Laughs.] I think some fans think that I’m always writing about the same person, but they’re actually different people. Maybe that’s one thing that’s worth saying. 

There are eras of different romances that I’ve had, and I’ve written about different people. They can recur in different ways, but it’s not all one person — if there was any confusion about that. 

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Stream X’s in its entirety below and stay up-to-date with their tour schedule via their website and Instagram.