New Pornographers Plot Return With New Album ‘The Former Site Of’

Following a three-year studio hiatus and the arrest of their now-former drummer Joe Seiders on child pornography charges, Canadian indie rock supergroup the New Pornographers are returning March 27 with their new LP The Former Site Of. The band also released the video for lead single “Votive.”

Many musicians have come and gone from the New Pornographers over the past 30 years, but the core lineup of Neko Case, John Collins, Carl Newman, Todd Fancey, and Kathryn Calder remains. They were joined on the album by session drummer Charley Drayton, though Josh Wells will be behind the kit when they tour.

According to a press release, The Former Site Of features “ten short stories of people at personal and societal extreme.” In a November 2025 exclusive interview with Rolling Stone where Newman discussed Seiders’ arrest and the aftermath, he also explained what he wanted to accomplish on the album. “This new record was just going farther down a path I wanted to go to on [2023’s] Continue as a Guest,” he said. “I think to make life more interesting for myself, I decided that this record would be a little more narrative-driven, which has really made me annoyed at people who listen to it and can’t figure out the narratives. I’m just like, ‘How much simpler do I have to be? Do I have to write ‘Glory Days’?’”

They were working on the record throughout the past three years, booking sessions around Case’s schedule, when the news hit in April 2025 that Seiders — who had played in the band since 2014 — had been arrested for possession of child pornography. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in state prison. They fired him immediately, severed all ties, erased all his work on the album, and brought in Drayton to redo the tracks.

The entire thing was incredibly traumatizing. “It was dark, weird, and confusing,” Newman told Rolling Stone. “And it was terrifying, because there’s three of us [in the band] that have kids. We all felt afraid. We were all like, ‘When was our child with him?’ Everybody’s going through their heads, ‘Were our kids ever alone with him?’ Which was terrifying, like a horror movie where you can’t see the monster. We didn’t know what was going on. And then, as days passed and we were beginning to piece things together, there was just that liminal space of, like, ‘Well, this is gonna explode.’”

For a moment, they even thought about changing their name. “The day [we found out], we were all like, ‘Obviously we can’t call ourselves the New Pornographers anymore,’” Newman said. “And then time passed. A few weeks later, I ran into my friend Zach Djanikian, who played on this record and Continue as a Guest, and I was talking about the band name possibly changing, and he had the first violent reaction, which was, ‘No! You can’t change your name. You worked too hard for that name.’ And I thought, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’”

The New Pornographers kick off an extensive U.S. tour April 22 in Boston that wraps up May 21 in Washington, D.C. They’ll be joined on every date by Will Sheff of Okkervil River.

The Former Site Of Track List
1. “Great Princess Story”
2. “Pure Sticker Shock”
3. “Ballad of the Last Payphone”
4. “Spooky Action”
5. “Wish You Could See Me I’m Killing It”
6. “Votive”
7. “The Wine Remembers the Water”
8. “Calligraphy”
9. “Bonus Mai Tais”
10. “The Former Site Of”