Alt-pop duo joan open up about the intimate moments and big life questions at the heart of ‘this won’t last forever,’ their cinematic and emotionally charged sophomore album. In conversation with Atwood Magazine, Alan Thomas and Steven Rutherford discuss the peace they’ve found in impermanence, the purpose that comes from pouring themselves fully into their craft, and how learning to sit with uncertainty made them stronger artists and people.

for fans of The 1975, Valley, Del Water Gap

Stream: “this won’t last forever” – joan

Look up kid, you’ve got it made; quit looking for a hurricane while you should be dancing in the rain.

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joan’s second LP is built for that exact moment when the sky threatens and the floor still begs you to move – when everything feels fragile, fleeting, and impossibly beautiful all at once.

Out of a season that blurred hope and fear, the Arkansas duo of Alan Benjamin Thomas and Steven Rutherford turn life’s heaviest questions into something cinematic and alive, channeling the deep pulses of ‘80s dance and synthpop with an irresistible, timeless, modern warmth and sheen. They dive headlong into body-moving, heart-scouring sound on this won’t last forever, a beautifully radiant reckoning with impermanence and presence – a record about looking up, loving well, and learning to live in the grey.

Released September 25 via Photo Finish Records, this won’t last forever expands the Little Rock duo’s universe in both sound and scope. Since first bursting onto the scene in 2017, joan have carved out a luminous space in the indie/alt-pop landscape with their nostalgic yet forward-looking blend of heart-on-sleeve emotion and shimmering production. Over the past eight years, they’ve released four EPs, toured globally with artists like COIN, The Aces, and MisterWives, and amassed more than 200 million streams – all while writing, producing, and designing every aspect of their art themselves.

Their 2023 debut album superglue marked a creative turning point – a beautifully cinematic meditation on life, death, and everything between that saw the pair reflecting on fatherhood, faith, and meaning. Atwood Magazine praised it as “a release full of honesty and pure passion, pure energy and raw emotion… a companion for life’s highs and lows.” Where that record asked the big existential questions, this won’t last forever embraces the in-between: The grey areas, the quiet joys, and the beauty in impermanence. It’s the sound of a band stepping into themselves, grounded in gratitude and glowing with self-assured light.

The phrase this won’t last forever first appeared in a poem Steven Rutherford wrote while his wife was pregnant with their second child – a high-risk pregnancy that blurred hope and fear into one fragile, unshakable feeling.

“Last year, my wife and I were pregnant with our boy, and we were told that he had a kidney condition where he would have only one working kidney, which put him under the category of an ‘at risk’ pregnancy,” Rutherford tells Atwood Magazine. “We found this out at the same time joan was having some of the highlights of our career: We’d just finished our first album cycle, we just got home from touring so many parts of the world, and we just moved into our studio which we had dreamt about having for years. On top of that, Alan just had his second child, and we had more song ideas than we had ever had before. It was this incredibly tangible intersecting feeling of total hopefulness and hopelessness – like having a clear path ahead, but knowing that there is something just over the horizon blocking the way.”

“I remember one day during that period just envisioning this dark cloud looming over me, following me wherever I went. Even on my best days, it felt like everything was overshadowed by this potential darkness in the distance.” Out of that painful season came the phrase that would define everything: this won’t last forever.

“One day, I wrote a poem to try to process these feelings, and out of that poem came the phrase ‘this won’t last forever,’” Rutherford continues. “That phrase seemed to haunt me over the next year, reminding me to take advantage of the sunny days we were in and that the dark days always end. Nothing lasts forever – good times or bad – and that gave me light.”

As the band’s world was expanding – new music, new studio, new milestones – Rutherford found himself haunted and comforted by those words: A reminder that everything moves, everything changes, and everything ends. “We wrote this album with that phrase as the framework: Every lyric, every sound, every concept, even the tracklisting,” he says. “This album is a year of pouring our heart into the songs amid long days at the studio.”

That sense of emotional duality runs through every note of the record.

Musically, this won’t last forever draws from the deep wells of ‘80s dance and synth-pop – echoes of Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, New Order, and The Cars shimmer through its neon-lit atmosphere – but it’s filtered through joan’s distinctly modern lens. The duo weave glossy textures and pulsing basslines with an intimate, human core, creating songs that feel as confessional as they are cinematic. In spirit, they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with contemporaries like Valley and The 1975: Artists who blur nostalgia and presence with catchy hooks and bold melodies, pairing glossy production with unflinching heart. The result is a collection of songs that moves as much as it heals – euphoric, reflective, and deeply alive.

Heartfelt and intentional, album opener “this won’t last forever” perfectly sets the scene – it’s intimate and irresistible, grounding the record in reflection while reaching for release. From there, joan let emotion and motion collide. Tracks like “body language” and “lucid dreaming” burst with kinetic energy, translating catharsis into pure, unrestrained movement. “supernatural” rises and unravels in slow, cinematic waves; “heartbodymindsoul” burns bright with feverish devotion; and closing track “space” ends the journey on its own spellbinding high. “Call it a dream, I see you in my sleep / Call me your moon, I revolve around you / Call me insane, I’m in love with your space,” Thomas sings in the finale – a fitting exhale for a record that holds the light and the dark, the certainty and the unknown, all in the same breath.

Together, all these songs trace a full-bodied arc – from late-night introspection to daybreak release – with sequencing that breathes, surging and settling so every high has consequence. The hooks stick, the lines linger, and the drum-machine pulse and glistening keys wrap human-scale stories in widescreen light. Threaded through it all, this won’t last forever isn’t resignation but permission: feel it fully, let it pass, and move again. By the time “space” dissolves, you’re lighter, charged, and a little more present – the storm still on the horizon, the dance still in your bones.

With this won’t last forever, joan have crafted an album that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant – a soundtrack for change, resilience, and all the beautiful chaos in between.

“I hope people listening to it feel how much time and intention we’ve put into this record,” Rutherford says. “We went to work every single day for a year and a half with the sole focus of working on this album. We carefully crafted every sound, every drum hit, every lyric, melody, visual, whatever. We put our heart and soul into this album until we didn’t have anything left in us.”

He continues, “I hope it gives you light if you’re feeling dark and helps you feel seen. Either way, this won’t last forever.” The record glows with that intention: It’s a reminder to stay present, to keep moving, and to dance even when the rain starts to fall.

In conversation with Atwood Magazine, Thomas and Rutherford reflect on the making of this won’t last forever, the power of impermanence, and the joy of creating something that feels entirely, unmistakably their own. We also discuss the band’s growth since superglue, the stories behind some of the album’s standout songs, and what it means to make peace with the passage of time. Dive into our conversation below, as joan open up about creativity, connection, and the beauty of knowing nothing lasts forever.

For an album that’s all about “confronting impending doom,” joan leave us feeling hopeful, revitalized, strangely at peace – crafting an experience that turns fear into beauty and uncertainty into something softly, defiantly human. Stream this won’t last forever wherever you listen to music, and watch joan’s exclusive performance on Atwood Magazine‘s IGTV concert series, Live: From Anywhere, Everywhere! 

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Stream: ‘this won’t last forever’ – joan

A CONVERSATION WITH JOAN

joan: If you’re just now meeting us, hi! We are called joan, we’re a pop duo, and we make everything – every song, lyric, visual, design, whatever – ourselves. We care so much about our band and the records we make, and we want everyone who listens to our music to know exactly who it comes from.

joan: We bought a house and turned it into a studio after we released our last record. We renovated it and immediately started recording ideas. We had dreamed of having our own studio for so long; we had just been in each other’s spare rooms since the beginning of joan, and this was a dream of ours from the start. We started and finished this record in this studio — it’s the only music we’ve made in this house, so it has a really special place in our hearts because of that. We started releasing songs for the record as we were finishing the record — we wanted people to be able to watch us form it into existence. It was a really fun process.

joan: We definitely think it feels more mature? Maybe? With superglue, we were asking ourselves a lot of questions about life and existence and just what everything means, and it almost had this curious lightness to the record. In contrast, I think this won’t last forever came from a mindset of knowing there will always be more questions than answers, and to live in the grey area of life. There’s no hurry; there’s more confidence in sitting with feelings more. It just feels overall more confident in who we are as people and artists, I think.

joan: “This won’t last forever” as a phrase and concept came from a poem I (Steven) wrote during the pregnancy of our second child. He had been labeled as a “high risk” pregnancy, and we really had no idea what life was going to be like once he was born. It was a time in my life that felt completely unknown, and I remember feeling like this darkness was following me, even on the best and most hopeful days of my life. I wrote a poem to kind of process those feelings, and “this won’t last forever” ended up being something I just kept being reminded of. It has been a really potent reminder since then, and we just felt like it needed to be the framework of this album.

joan: It’s a commentary about life in the modern world. We’ve got information all around us, and we have more tools at our disposal than ever before. At the same time, people are more depressed than ever; there’s more division than ever, blah blah blah, you get it. The thought behind the song is trying to process what to do with it. It’s a call to stop worrying so much about what’s in your hand and focus more on what’s in your actual life. “Look up kid you got it made, quit looking for a hurricane while you should be dancing in the rain.”

joan: “supernatural,” for sure. It’s long and dynamic; it’s almost like two songs in one. A lot of people have been really digging that one, which has been nice to see.

joan: “space” feels like one of those songs that was given to us rather than us actually writing it. It feels weird saying it about your own song, but if that was a song we heard someone else sing, we’d wish we would have written it, if that makes sense. [laughs]

joan: So many – honestly, we’re really proud of how we communicated in this album. Here’s a few off the top of my head:

• “Got a penthouse view of the typhoon coming for us.”
• “You walk in the door, I see your clothes hit the floor, your body’s haute couture, and God is your designer.”
• “You just can’t be bothered, in one ear out the other, my useless diatribe.”
• “If I’m the ship, then you’re the water. You wreck my life, you blew my cover.”

joan: Confronting impending doom.

joan: I hope people listening to it feel how much time and intention we’ve put into this record. We went to work every single day for a year and a half with the sole focus of working on this album. We carefully crafted every sound, every drum hit, every lyric, melody, visual, whatever. We put our heart and soul into this album until we didn’t have anything left in us. I don’t feel like there’s many artists that are willing to do that these days, just because everything moves so fast. So we hope people give it the time it deserves.

joan: “heartbodymindsoul” was the first single we put out for the record. It felt like a big left turn for us in a really nice way, and it’s what got us really excited about working on music again. “space” was the last single we put out for the record because it holds a special place in our hearts, even though it’s not necessarily what the industry would call a “single.” We just love those two songs a lot.

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