The Format – the indie pop duo of Nate Ruess and Sam Means – have announced they have reunited 12 years since they broke up.
The band originally formed back in 2002. They released two albums in their time – Interventions + Lullabies in 2003 and then Dog Problems in 2006 – before breaking up in 2008.
Means embarked on a solo career post-dissolution, while Ruess would go on to form the very successful pop trio Fun. alongside Jack Antonoff and Andrew Dost, perhaps best known for their mega-hit ‘We Are Young’.
Earlier this week, The Format performed a surprise acoustic performance in Phoenix. As Rolling Stone reports, Ruess explained the motivating force behind the reunion during the show.
“About a year ago, I was driving and I was listening on random, and Interventions came on,” he told the crowd.
“And I was listening to it, and I was like, ‘I should probably skip this.’ And I listened, and I thought, ‘Holy shit, this kicks ass. This is totally rad.'”
The band will kick off a series of reunion shows in the States in March.
To coincide with the announcement, they’ve also released a live concert film from back in 2007 called Live at the Mayan Theatre – the footage is up on Amazon Prime, while the audio can be streamed through Spotify, Apple Music et al.
Who knows whether this means the band will be writing and recording new material – but given Fun. have been on hiatus for around five years at this point, anything’s possible.
Watch the band play Dog Problems favourite ‘She Doesn’t Get It’ live at the Mayan below.
