Tough Cookie will release their new Extended Play (EP), Devotion, on October 23rd.
It’s technically the band’s second project, following 2025’s The Countryside Is Good for You, but Devotion feels like a true debut, the moment years of writing together clicked into place. The EP takes its name and emotional thread from Patti Smith’s book of the same title, which frontperson and lyricist August was reading while writing the record on the road, between load-ins and late-night drives. After committing to therapy, August found a new level of emotional honesty in their writing, with the book helping crystallise the project’s throughline: devotion to their art, to healing, and to continuing through uncertainty.
New single ‘Let Me Die (Curled in Your Arms)’ captures that emotional core, following recent release ‘Mercy!’. August has described it as being about getting close to someone or something because of how good it makes you feel, even when there’s something slightly unhealthy about the attachment.
The full EP traces the aftermath of emotional wreckage and the helplessness of watching someone you love disappear into their own difficulties. Central to it is the creative relationship between August and bandmate Dan, whose long conversations shaped how emotion was translated into harmony, texture and arrangement, drawing on the yearning of Jeff Buckley, the intensity of Smashing Pumpkins and the intricate songwriting of Elliott Smith.
August recorded and produced the entire EP over two weeks in the band’s rehearsal space, a converted East London church basement, while also creating a series of paintings for each single and the EP’s artwork. Though written from August’s perspective, the record became a collective act of healing and growth for the band.
Devotion is out October 23rd.
