Hoobastank Return With “How Do You Sleep?”

*“How Do You Sleep?” single artwork. (Judge and Jury Records)*

Hoobastank has released “How Do You Sleep?,” their first new material in eight years.

Frontman Doug Robb tells ABC Audio that the band kept writing after the release of their last album, 2018’s Push Pull, but nothing had really stood out to them. More recently, they sent a group of songs to their former producer, Howard Benson, including “How Do You Sleep?”

“[Benson] heard it, and he was like, ‘Dude, this, this sounds like a modern version of you guys from the early 2000s. … It’s awesome,'” Robb says. “He’s like, ‘I haven’t heard this type of, like, conviction in you guys in years.'”

Robb says the song’s intensity comes from Hoobastank choosing to write for themselves first.

“We consciously just said, like, ‘Dude, can we just write and do stuff that we really enjoy?'” Robb says. “Like, stuff that I would actually want to listen to and get pumped up listening to, even if nobody ever heard it.”

With “How Do You Sleep?” now released, Robb says he has avoided searching for reactions to the track.

“If people love it, fantastic,” Robb says. “If they think it’s the worst song they’ve heard in their life, fantastic! … But I don’t want it to affect how I feel about what I’ve done.”

He adds, “Nobody’s been throwing tomatoes at us when we play the song, so that’s good.”

Hoobastank will perform at the Vans Warped Tour in Long Beach, California, on Saturday.

This article was adapted from original reporting by ABC Audio, as featured on 105.7 The Point.