In 2026, good news feels increasingly precious, so Team Dresch’s return is worth celebrating. Thirty years after their last full-length, the legendary queercore punks are back with Furthermore, out via Jealous Butcher Records on 18 September. Lead single One Song arrives as a rush of guitars, booming drums and soaring melodies, carrying a message of queer hope across generations. More than three decades after their formation, Team Dresch remain as loud, vital and gloriously unruly as ever.

Thirty years is a pretty spectacular gap between full-length albums. When did making a new Team Dresch record become a serious possibility?

Mel: We probably have all kinds of different recollections! Mine is that we started to seriously look at playing shows as a five-piece, with two drummers. I started to come out to PDX more and I know we were interested in playing new material. My memory is working on Still Your Room with Jody. I think it truly sunk in when we booked the studio time and the Northeast tour.

Jody: Not writing and recording was increasingly wearing on me. We just kept saying yes to shows without stopping to make time to record. I kind of hit a wall at one point when our manager started talking about booking more 30th-anniversary shows. I bet Mel and I started working on Still Your Room around that time — but I defer to her better memory! Booking the studio time made it happen, though. We couldn't have done it without the generosity of Greg Griffith from Peacedale.

Donna: We've actually been playing shows pretty regularly for the last 20 years, and we've recorded a few new songs here and there. But we were at a vegan restaurant in the East Bay, California, and out of nowhere Jody stood up, flipped the whole table over and yelled, “I'm not playing another show until we have a new album!”

So if we wanted to play any more shows, we really had no choice. Replacing tables at vegan restaurants could get expensive.

One Song’is described as a love song to your younger selves. What do you think those younger selves would make of the Team Dresch that exists today?

Mel: This might sound silly but I would LOVE it! I would look up to this band. I did 30 years ago too, so I doubt that would change.

Marcéo: I think I would have a combination of feelings. I would have been pretty stoked to see variations of identities being represented but for sure stoked to see a trans masc drummer.

Jody: It felt life or death to find each other as queer musicians with overlapping musical loves who wanted to push for more cultural space and meet other freaks among freaks. I think we believed that we'd still be together 30 years later, so we wouldn't be surprised about that.

I think Donna and I would be surprised that we hadn't learned more about fixing amps, and that we still have so much of the same gear. I'd be surprised that we didn't make more records, but I didn't know anything about how life happens!

Donna: It's true, I think my younger self would be like, “Well, good thing you're still playing all that same gear. Now it's vintage.”

I think 1993 me would be psyched that the chosen family we were making has survived and thrived. We've all been through so much, and we're still here, still close, still making music together.



There's a line in the album's story about queerness being “a dreamland full of feral, playful joy”. What does that dreamland look like in 2026?

Mel: Being ourselves, love and joy.

Jody: It looks like the unlimited permutations of gender expressions and identities that I'm lucky enough to see every day in Portland, Oregon, USA, and on the internet from all over the world. It looks like kids growing up and getting to explore who they are and who they want to be with openness and curiosity. Their gender, but also everything about themselves and how they want the world to be.

There was a time when you could find out whether someone was your kind of queer by asking if they listened to Team Dresch. What's the modern equivalent of that question?

Mel: Interesting question. I really think it's so different now. In my mind everyone is QUEER! So I don't see one band providing that QUEERdar. Maybe it's more tied to sports? So many great, young, queer bands today!

Jody: I'm way too out of the loop to know the answer to that, but there are probably 100 equivalents now.

Donna: I have no idea and that's probably a good thing!

You've had three decades of life, change, work, relationships and experiences between Captain My Captain and Furthermore. Did you find yourselves writing songs differently because you're different people now?

Mel: You know, it's interesting. When we first started writing new songs for the record we were also preparing for our 30th-anniversary shows. And the band I was in when I first met Team Dresch, Vitapup, opened the East Coast leg. So it's like I was immersed in '90s queercore. I feel that really influenced my playing and writing for this new record. I think that's pretty cool.

Marcéo: I don't think I personally write songs or parts differently. I think having 30 years under my belt has made me more self-aware and confident. So maybe the change is I'm less afraid to try something new, or approach something in a way that I wouldn't have years ago.

Jody: I've kept writing for other projects so I didn't notice a big change, but I like what Marcéo said about being less afraid to try something new. To that end, I love collaborating more and more, so I embraced that with band members, with our producer Greg, and also with friends and my wife on lyrics, and with a friend and voice teacher, Wolf Carr, who wrote the harmonies on I Won't Tell.

Donna: I think I'm less precious about it now, and less concerned with trying so hard to invent something that’s never been invented before. I've also learned to trust the process.

I know I can bring in some weird shit, and these guys know me so well they'll know what I'm trying to do and help turn it into something amazing.

Kaia: Absolutely! I have really thought about the three-decade gap a lot, and sure we could have put out maybe 15 albums in that time, but something about saving up all that living to churn it into just ONE album feels like it made the record much more dynamic and BIG.

Our songwriting for this process had some separation to it — Melissa lives far away from the rest of us — where we utilised recording demos and meeting sometimes on Zoom, and just different ways to share and get to know the songs as they were being written.

In terms of just my experience as a songwriter, I found myself really getting deeply into songcrafting in a way that was totally new. I spent WAY more time getting my contributions as good as I could, while still making sure to keep the parts and lyrics and melodies in their raw, honest places.

Kaia's description of the new record includes “metal-flange-goth-grunge-punk-ass-rock-and-roll”. Who gets the award for coming up with the most ridiculous Team Dresch genre description over the years?

Mel: Kaia

Donna: Kaia gets that award.

Kaia: Cool, really? I love awards!

The band has always been fiercely political and proudly queer, but also incredibly melodic. Do you think people sometimes hear the politics first and miss just how beautifully crafted and catchy the songs are?

Mel: I'm sure some do and some don't.

Marcéo: This is really an interesting question. I have no idea, but I personally am a sucker for melody, so when I listen to music, I hear that first.

Jody: Thank you for the kind words about the songs. An interviewer the other day said that they were drawn to the positivity of the music long before they knew anything about the lyrics, so I think it goes both ways. I loved hearing that.

Kaia: What a rad question and THANK YOU FOR SEEING US. Yes, definitely, I think some listeners have trouble seeing us for the forest that our music is.

You've got both Marcéo and Melissa involved on drums now. Does having two drummers create friendly competition — or is it more of a “please stop arguing about drums” situation?

Marcéo: I think Melissa and I being able to play together on parts of songs, locked in unison, you can see how much we love each other and love playing together. It's so much fun and I feel super lucky to be able to experience the double-drummer thing with Mel!

Mel: What Marcéo said. I've always been inspired by Marcéo's drumming and style. It's so fun and liberating to have another drummer next to you live. We are the M&Ms.

Kaia: As a non-drummer I can say the two drummers become a ONE.

One Song features Jody's daughter in the video. What was it like watching the next generation become part of the Team Dresch story?

Mel: Not my daughter but I love Twy and for me it was most amazing and beautiful. Twy helped us be cool.

Marcéo: It was so beautiful, I got choked up when I first watched the video.

Jody: Unimaginably beautiful.

Kaia: SO incredibly special and inspiring!

At the Personal Best 30th-anniversary shows, you had longtime fans, their children and completely new young fans in the audience. Was there a particular moment when you realised just how far the music had travelled?

Mel: It's so cool seeing that. I am truly honoured. It's sometimes hard to comprehend too!

Marcéo: I remember at a show we played in LA a couple of years ago, looking out into the crowd and seeing two young trans girls singing along, crying and screaming with excitement. It was an emotional moment for me. I felt humbled and honoured.

Jody: It always moves me when I find out a teenager knows us. Recently I went to a show at the new all-ages club in town and the young person at the door said they loved TD. I think Marcéo said it best, I felt honoured. We're so lucky that we can connect with young people through the band. I don't want to lose touch with young people as I get older.

Donna: Yep, humbled and honoured.

Kaia: I have always felt blown away by the humans who come to our shows — they are family and the family just keeps growing!! I always say we are the luckiest band for this.

If you could send one Team Dresch song back to yourselves in 1993 with the message, “Don't worry — you have no idea what this is going to become,” which song would you send?

Mel: I'd send the whole record! I LOVE EVERY SINGLE SONG! I'd also send a note that says, “And guess what? You will be playing with Marcéo Martinez on the same stage!”

Marcéo: Ha Mel! I don't think I can pick only one song!

Jody: Last One at the Party! Sorry to kill the vibe, 1993, but you're going to lose a lot of friends over the years, so flip over the record and stay later while you've got them with you. Also, don't worry, you'll still get to be goofy when you're old.

Donna: Hmm, I think I'd send One Song back, since that's basically what it already is.

I like the idea of younger me hearing this record and knowing that we keep sounding better, and that these people are still going to be in your life 30 years from now.

Kaia: TOO HARD ha ha whole album!

The world has changed a lot in the 30 years since Team Dresch last released an album. What are the biggest positives and negatives in terms of the queer world from your perspective?

Mel: Positives outweigh any negatives (which I can't think of any). Right now I am obsessed with underscores. It gives me hope. The kids truly are alright and oh so inspiring!

Jody: The negatives are still caused by the religious extremists. Using trans people as a political wedge is unconscionable and I'd like to kick some people. Hard.

The positives are the explosion of identities and that there is more space for queerness. Also, there are more ways for people to find each other — even though it can still be so hard that the comparison over time is probably meaningless.

Finally, after all these years, what still makes you excited to get in a room together, turn the amps up and be Team Dresch?

Mel: The songs are so fun to play.

Jody: It's still the place I feel most myself and I love seeing the beautiful faces of the people singing and yelling along.

I used to say that what I liked about rock was soundcheck — because you can goof around and play and sing anything — jumping, sweating, getting paid, and buying things for girls. It's mostly the same, but I can only jump about an inch and I'm buying things for my wife and kids.

Marcéo: There is an electrical energy when we are all plugged in, dialled in, smiling, playing loud and playing our hearts out that makes it exciting to play.

Donna: It's easy, these are my best friends and we get to have the best crowds at our shows. The shows feel like a family reunion for people who may or may not even know each other yet.

Kaia: There is something magical that happens between all of the members of the band when we play music together — for lack of a better way to describe it, it's chemical, it's chemistry — and it happens between us and then extends to when we play live.

And then, because our fans are our family, it just keeps growing. It's full of life and light and energy that, even when shit is really, really hard and sad, helps us feel grateful to be here.

'Furthermore' will be released via Jealous Butcher Records on 18th September.