Boston-based post punk trio PILGRIMS continue their evolution with Alien, the stark new single from their forthcoming album Gemini. Cold urgency and emotional weight collide as the band sharpens its sound into something intimate and confrontational, shaped by survival, and the tension of existing between worlds.
Formerly known as Pilgrims of Yearning, the project was founded in 2018 by Chilean vocalist Juls Garat and Colombian musician Claudio Marcio, who met in Chile before emigrating together to the United States. After returning with their first new material since 2022’s Hadal EP, the band shed the longer moniker, reemerging simply as PILGRIMS, a name that distills their identity down to its core.
Marcio gives this statement about the new, concise moniker: "With the name PILGRIMS, we reflect not only our spiritual journey, but our living experience as immigrants, our pilgrimage. The new album is touched by our experience as immigrants existing in this moment and place in history. We feel a lot of people can relate to the archetype of the traveler, the wanderer."
Alien, driven by austere post punk instrumentation, finds Garat delivering commanding vocals in both Spanish and English, embodying the fractured reality of immigrant life in the US.
She states: “'Alien' is the legal term used in this country to refer to non-citizens. The song talks about our experience after 10 years in the US and it only made sense to write a good portion of it in Spanish. It’s probably one of our most political songs."
The accompanying video underscores the immediacy of the message, comprised of live footage shot at The Middle East in the band’s hometown of Boston in 2025, captured during a bill with Turkish post punk greats She Past Away.
ZR