“The song isn’t just about love. It’s about trust. It’s about second chances. It’s about finding someone who believes in you when you’ve forgotten how to believe in yourself,” says drummer Mark O’Connell of ME. about their second single ‘Grown Man’ from their debut ‘All Good Things’ (independently released on July 24th, 2026).
“It’s a song about finding someone who makes you want to put your guard down again. Someone who reminds you that being strong isn’t about building walls. It’s about having the courage to stay open after life has given you every reason to close down.” The new track is a follow-up to their first single ‘Special’ that shows another side of the band. Anthemic and passionate, ‘Grown Man’ finds the band cementing their foothold into alt-rock’s foundation, establishing them as a new force in the music world. Together with guitarist Eddie Reyes (both of whom are former members of Taking Back Sunday), ME. presents a new beginning with a new sound and musical outlook for them. With the additions of vocalist Mike Jansen and bassist Neal Amiruddin, ME. opens a whole new book. “We want to share this with the world and go back to having fun again.”
As with most of the music for ‘All Good Things’, ‘Grown Man’ began with the instrumentals between Reyes and O’Connell. Learning that the alchemy they had in their former band was still intact, the passion and emotion pours through their guitar and drum parts that explode in technicolor. ‘Grown Man’ in particular, started out with inspiration Reyes found within his daughter. “For me personally, the idea came from hearing my daughter vocalizing in her room,” he explains. “I paired it with riffs I had floating around in my head. I also knew just getting together alone in a room with Mark, we were going to create some fucking good music, I want listeners to know that we’ve been through a lot, all of us respectfully, and it’s just a new, fresh breath of air in our lives.”
Once the musical bed was ready, Jansen added his lyrical magic, which he too drew from personal experience. “When I wrote this, I had not met anyone in the band. I was at home in Chicago. Married around a month at that point, I wrote a song about falling in love and the decision to ask someone to spend the rest of their life with me. It’s scary and beautiful.” Reflecting on the move through his own personal experience in relationships, O’Connell’s new start to trust in love (as well as O’Connell and Reyes‘ ability to write together again), Jansen was the puzzle piece needed to lyrically and vocally complete the new single. “In a lot of ways, ‘Grown Man’ is what the whole album is about – choosing love and fighting for it by fighting for yourself,” Jansen adds.
“The interesting thing is that Mike didn’t change the direction at all,” O’Connell says. “He somehow found exactly what was already living inside the song and amplified it.”