It’s “Hard to Imagine the Neighbourhood Ever Changing,” but where has the indie-rock band been for the past few years? Nearly 10 years after the release of their hit song, “Sweater Weather,” The Neighbourhood announced in an Instagram post on Feb. 22, 2022, that they would be on an indefinite hiatus for the benefit of their mental health.
As days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and months turned into years, the band’s fanbase continued to circulate rumors around the community about The Neighbourhood’s return. Other fans extinguished hope of the band even managing to function alongside the band’s lead singer, Jesse Rutherford, and his solo career.
Rutherford debuted his solo career back in May 2011 with his mixtape “Truth hurts truth heals”. This was just three months before he and the original members of The Neighbourhood began playing music together. The band consisted of Rutherford, Jeremy Freedman, Zach Abels, Mikey Margott and Bryan Sammis at the time.
In early 2012, the boys released their first single, “Female Robbery,” a song that only receives around 20,000 streams daily, ranking it 31 on the list of The Neighbourhood’s top songs. That very same year, they went on to release “Sweater Weather,” which made its way to the number one spot on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart in June 2013. The hit song maintained its position on the chart for 11 weeks straight and went on to be covered by several artists, including Pentatonix, Alyson Stoner, Max Schneider and Kurt Hugo Schneider.
Both songs, along with 10 others, formed the band’s debut studio album. This studio album, titled “I Love You.,” sports the iconic black-and-white clouds that many associate with “Sweater Weather” that reflects Rutherford’s red-green color blindness, or achromatopsia, a partial or complete loss of the perception of color.
Nearly a decade later, “Sweater Weather” and its iconic album cover rose to popularity once more in 2020. Taking pandemic-era social media by storm, “Sweater Weather” became used as a backing for many coming out posts on TikTok, primarily ones made by bisexual individuals. Even now, “Sweater Weather” holds a special place in the hearts of those part of the LGBTQ+ community, as it is coined the bisexual anthem. Its lyricism is believed to maintain a sense of intimacy with gender neutrality.
Now, “Sweater Weather” receives around 2 million daily streams and it is ranked the seventh most streamed song on Spotify.
Along the way of their musical journey, drummer Sammis left the band and was replaced by drummer Brandon Fried in 2014. However, drummer Fried was removed from the band on Nov. 13, 2022 because of a groping allegation by Maria Zardoya, the lead singer of The Marias. The Neighbourhood hasn’t announced a replacement drummer since. After leaving the band, Sammis went on to pursue his own solo career as Olivver the Kid, which harkens back to Rutherford and his solitary pursuits.
Rutherford released three albums: “&,” in 2017, “GARAGEB&,” in 2019 and “Wanted?” in 2024, all under the name Jesse®. He also collaborated with the rock band HEALTH in April 2022 and worked specifically on the song, “NO ESCAPE.” Even though The Neighbourhood was on a break, the entire band was credited on the song’s Spotify page.
In 2024, Rutherford was also credited as the lead vocalist and the cofounder of the hardcore band Valley Girl which is a stark contrast from The Neighbourhood’s alternative style. Due to Rutherford’s controversial live appearance as a member of a new band, the internet is questioning how this will affect The Neighbourhood. Rutherford’s performance is now circulating the internet on YouTube, as well as the band’s music. Rutherford hasn’t gone on tour since August of that year.
There is very limited information about how Freedman, Abels and Margott were doing in the rest of 2024, let alone in 2025. One easy way of obtaining information comes to mind, and that is the band and its members’ social media pages.
The band’s Instagram account, @thenbhd, is completely empty, but it still continues to post. A trusted source managed to screenshot a fairly recent post that The Neighbourhood made this past November. This post, sporting the description “‘tis the season” announced the release of new merchandise, which caused a stir in the band’s fanbase. The post has since been deleted, as have all the rest of the bands posts, but the merchandise remains in stock on The Neighbourhood’s online store in the form of a “Moonprint T-shirt” and a “Head in the Clouds Hoodie.”
A scant amount of fans have taken to Reddit to speculate that the reference to space and the sky is a relatively new concept for the band, as none of the band’s previous songs have referred to space in such a way, besides their song “Stargazing.” In addition, the T-shirt has “The Neighbourhood® 2025” printed on it, underneath a picture of The Neighbourhood’s house logo written on what looks like the moon’s surface.
As for their other social media accounts, the band has made a cryptic short video post on TikTok, The black and white video depicts several of the band’s members tuning and playing their various instruments, aside from a drum kit. Rutherford has also changed his TikTok profile picture into a picture of black and white static. Many fans have taken the post and the profile picture change as confirmation that The Neighbourhood will be returning in 2025, uploading a plethora of excited posts with captions centered around the band, having their iconic music playing in the background.
It seems that The Neighbourhood is only adding fuel to the fire with their activity during the hiatus, which some have referred to as a publicity stunt. On top of the aforementioned posts, the 10 year anniversary of the band’s album, “Wiped Out!” is approaching this October. With Jesse®’s solo career slowing down and the band’s recent activity, it is looking very likely that the band will return either in 2025 or the coming years.
