Voxtrot have today released their new video and single titled ‘Fighting Back’ from their first album in 19 years titled ‘Dreamers in Exile’, dropping February 27th, 2026, via their own label Cult Hero Records.
Picking up right where they left off, musically, with their self titled debut, Voxtrot never skip the beat or leave anything unturned with this sweet preview of things to come this February. With such a sparse catalog, Voxtrot’s impression on the indie music scene is even more impressive in that they have that uncanny ability to leave a dark mark within all of that white noise.
With ‘Fighting Back’, we get that signature sound of anthemic hooks and original musical personality with the style and bravado of legends and purveyors of the sonic arts.
‘Dreamers in Exile’ Tracklist
- Another Fire
- Fighting Back
- New World Romance
- Dreamers in Exile
- The Times
- Esprit de Cลur
- Quiet Noise
- My Peace
- Change
- Rock & Roll Jesus
- Babylone
About ‘Fighting Back’
After more than a decade apart, Voxtrot has reconvened with a renewed sense of purpose. Dreamers in Exile is the bandโs first full-length in nearly twenty years. Written and self-recorded in Lockhart, Texas at bassist Jason Chronisโ Haunted Air Studio, and mixed by Dean Reid (Lana Del Rey, James Blake), the album captures a group both wiser and bolder.
Where the early records chronicled the wide-eyed tumult of youth, Dreamers in Exile is an album of reckoning and renewal, tracing the passage of time, the distance between past and present, and the hope of connection that endures through it all. It is at once a continuation and a reinventionโthe sound of Voxtrot returning not to reclaim their legacy, but to expand it.
Today the band is also announcing a North American tour in support of Dreamers in Exile. The tour will include shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Toronto, Brooklyn, Washington, D.C. and more. The Bandsintown pre-sale begins today, followed by venue pre-sales tomorrow; the general on-sale is this Friday.
To mark the albumโs release, the band is sharing its new single โFighting Backโ along with a Super 8โshot video directed by longtime collaborator Annie Gunn, with cinematography by Peter Simonite. Inspired by Ramesh Srivastavaโs time spent living in Los Angeles, the song transforms a period of uncertainty into something defiant and cinematic, capturing the albumโs core themes of self-reckoning, survival, and hard-won joy.
On the song the band’s Ramesh Srivastava says:
“I moved to Los Angeles in 2015. Voxtrot had been broken up for a few years by that point, so I decided to throw myself headfirst into the entertainment industry and see what Tinseltown had to offer. On the drive from Texas to California, I caught wind of a room for rent on Rosemont Street in Echo Park and agreed to move in, sight unseen.
My three roommates were musicians as well: two were in an indie band called Cold Violets (who opened for Voxtrot at the Regent Theater during our 2022 reunion tour), and the third was a bluegrass musician who plays in a band called The Hillbenders.
For a few weeks I worked for a courier company. It was early spring, so a big part of my job was picking up haute couture from boutiques on Beverly Hillsโ Rodeo Drive and delivering it to actors and musicians to try on ahead of the Oscars and Grammys. Having had a bustling career myself not long before, a job like this was obviously a significant blow to my ego, but it catalyzed a long process of coming back to myself.
In general, those days were bizarrely shapeless. Often I would wake up at 5 a.m. and wander the streets of Los Angeles, stopping in coffee shops to write poetry and stare into infinity. But with that directionlessness came a certain levity, and I relished the nights hanging out with my roommates โ drinking, singing, playing acoustic guitar, and listening to records. It was a freedom I hadnโt felt in a long time.
Musically, ‘Fighting Back’ echoes the catchy propulsiveness of early Voxtrot, but my favorite element is the cornucopia of synths peppered throughout. Jason and I borrowed a Juno and went to town! I love the dark โ80s atmosphere, and whenever I hear it, I picture the crimson-lit bar scenes in American Gigolo, which were filmed at the Beverly Hills Hotelโฆ where I distinctly remember the doorman shouting that I had ten minutes to make my delivery before he was gonna tow my car.
The video for โFighting Backโ was directed and filmed by our longtime friend and artistic collaborator Annie Gunn. Sheโs taken many pictures of us over the years, including the majority of our record covers, but this is our first time working with her on a video. Cinematography was by Annieโs partner, Peter Simonite, with whom she previously co-directed Explosions in the Skyโs โPostcards from 1952.โ Peter also brings a deep feature-film background, including second-unit and additional photography work within Terrence Malickโs filmmaking world (including The Tree of Life, To the Wonder, and Song to Song), and he has also directed music video work for Spoon.”
On the video, Annie Gunn adds:
“Iโve been collaborating with the band since the early 2000s on stills for album artwork. The visuals Iโve made for the band have always been in the analog black and white world so it felt fitting that the video for ‘Fighting Back’ also be shot on film. I wanted to bring some of the grainy, textural, imperfect nature of the stills weโve done into motion. Peter Simonite as cinematographer brought his 1960s super8 camera and we shot on different film stocks, embracing all the organic the fame lines, light leaks, grain and imperfections we could. I hope the result feels like a moving collage of the bandโs performance and I love how it ties into the visual world weโve been creating for the last 20+ years.”
About Voxtrot
In 2022, more than a decade after disbanding, indie heroes Voxtrot reunited. Formed in 2003, the Texas group quickly earned global attention with their EPs Raised By Wolves and Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives, released on their own Cult Hero Records. The band, vocalist/guitarist Ramesh Srivastava, guitarist Mitch Calvert, bassist Jason Chronis, keyboardist Jared van Fleet, and drummer Matt Simon, rode the momentum of the 2000s blog-era to chart success, with 2006โs Your Biggest Fan debuting at #3 on Billboardโs Hot Singles Sales chart and their 2007 self-titled LP reaching #14 on Heatseekers.
Their 2022 return, including the Early Music EP reissue, the Cut From The Stone rarities collection, and their first tour in over ten years, was met with overwhelming enthusiasm. Energized by that response, the band committed to making new music. โIn the green room before the last show of the reunion tour, we decided to make a new album,โ says Srivastava. By January 2023, they were recording Dreamers in Exile at Chronisโ Haunted Air Studio in Lockhart, Texas, later mixed by Dean Reid (Lana Del Rey, James Blake).
The resulting 11-song album feels both like a continuation of Voxtrotโs 2000s sound and an evolution shaped by time. Opener โAnother Fireโ sets the tone with a gorgeous, wistful rumination on time and historyโboth personal and politicalโitโs a wonderful expression of how the past is a constant influence on the present. Songs like โFighting Back,โ โNew World Romance,โ and the anthemic title track explore hope, disillusionment, and resilience; โEsprit de Cลurโ and โRock & Roll Jesusโ deliver pointed social commentary without sacrificing melody; and closer โBabylone,โ inspired by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergรฉ as well as Srivastavaโs own past relationship, ends the album on a haunting, cinematic note.
Though all five original members contribute, Dreamers in Exile centers around the creative core of Srivastava, Chronis, and Simon, recapturing Voxtrotโs chemistry while expanding their legacy. โThereโs so much optimismโthis bright, happy qualityโon this record,โ says Srivastava, โand I think the reason is because we’ve learned from everything weโve experienced in the past. And the most important thing we learned is that we are the people who bring the energy into the room. You canโt wait for it to appearโor for other people in the industry to give you permission. Thatโs why weโre putting this out on Cult Heroโwhen you bring your own enthusiasm into the world, itโs truly magnetic. Because it’s absolutely real.โ
Featured image by Annie Gunn.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/voxtrot/
https://www.instagram.com/voxtrot_atx
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZKqnZs7q39yo8teu55iXng
