Biography
Cigarettes After Sex serves as the creative vehicle for singer/songwriter Greg Gonzalez, who channels the peaks and valleys of romance and desire into hushed ambient pop. Built around Gonzalez’s smoky vocals and echoing guitars, the band’s dreamy, restrained sound cultivated a loyal global following throughout the mid-2010s. Carefully shaped singles, EPs, and widely shared YouTube videos paved the way for the self-titled 2017 debut, which earned gold certification across several countries. Although the project refined its textures slightly on the 2019 release Cry, Gonzalez sustained the same unhurried, spectral atmosphere for the 2022 Daniele Luppi collaboration Charm of Pleasure and for the Tejano and soft-rock inflected material on 2024’s X’s.
Gonzalez started composing at age ten, cycling through instruments and genres before merging the hypnotic qualities of Erik Satie, Ennio Morricone, and Cocteau Twins with the spare imagery found in the poetry of e.e. cummings and Richard Brautigan. He assembled Cigarettes After Sex almost by chance in 2008 while based in El Paso, Texas. As a University of Texas student, he tested ways to capture expansive acoustics by recording inside a four-story campus stairwell. That period shaped the project’s identity through tracks that surfaced on 2009’s I Can See You and 2011’s Romans 13:9, preceding the debut EP I in 2012.
After moving to Brooklyn, Gonzalez expanded the lineup with a fluid group of musicians that included Phillip Tubbs, Randy Miller, Jacob Tomsky, Steve Herrada, Emily Davis, and Greg Leeah. The collective’s work surfaced chiefly as singles and EPs, among them 2015’s “Affection,” whose B-side reworked REO Speedwagon’s power ballad “Keep on Loving You,” alongside widely viewed YouTube performances.
Rising online interest prompted Cigarettes After Sex to prepare a full-length debut. Captured before a small audience with Miller, Tomsky, and Tubbs, the June 2017 album Cigarettes After Sex presented a more expansive rendering of the band’s twangy heartache. It reached charts in the U.S., Australia, and multiple European territories, securing gold status in the U.S., U.K., and four additional countries while attaining platinum in France. The single “Apocalypse” gained indie traction across parts of Europe and peaked at number 16 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart in the U.S. In 2018 the group issued “Crush,” a track cut during the same sessions as the debut.
While touring behind the first album, Gonzalez kept writing material for its follow-up. Tracked in Mallorca, October 2019’s Cry retained the same core personnel yet adopted marginally smoother production. Bolstered by the single “Heavenly,” the album entered charts throughout Europe and reached number one in Portugal. The following year the band released “You’re All I Want.” Gonzalez next joined composer Daniele Luppi for the EP Charm of Pleasure, issued on Monitor Pop/Slowplay/Verve in September 2022; its gentle, symphonic textures incorporated harp and mallet percussion alongside synths and strings. Two months later Cigarettes After Sex returned with “Pistol,” their first new recording in more than two years. The next twelve months brought two additional standalone singles, “Bubblegum” and “Stop Waiting,” plus a cover of Radiohead’s “Motion Picture Soundtrack.”
In early 2024 the band unveiled “Tejano Blue,” drawn from Gonzalez’s time in El Paso, which served as the lead single for July’s X’s. Supported by Miller and Tomsky, Gonzalez introduced understated soft-rock and Tejano elements to songs that examined the aftermath of a four-year relationship.
Gonzalez started composing at age ten, cycling through instruments and genres before merging the hypnotic qualities of Erik Satie, Ennio Morricone, and Cocteau Twins with the spare imagery found in the poetry of e.e. cummings and Richard Brautigan. He assembled Cigarettes After Sex almost by chance in 2008 while based in El Paso, Texas. As a University of Texas student, he tested ways to capture expansive acoustics by recording inside a four-story campus stairwell. That period shaped the project’s identity through tracks that surfaced on 2009’s I Can See You and 2011’s Romans 13:9, preceding the debut EP I in 2012.
After moving to Brooklyn, Gonzalez expanded the lineup with a fluid group of musicians that included Phillip Tubbs, Randy Miller, Jacob Tomsky, Steve Herrada, Emily Davis, and Greg Leeah. The collective’s work surfaced chiefly as singles and EPs, among them 2015’s “Affection,” whose B-side reworked REO Speedwagon’s power ballad “Keep on Loving You,” alongside widely viewed YouTube performances.
Rising online interest prompted Cigarettes After Sex to prepare a full-length debut. Captured before a small audience with Miller, Tomsky, and Tubbs, the June 2017 album Cigarettes After Sex presented a more expansive rendering of the band’s twangy heartache. It reached charts in the U.S., Australia, and multiple European territories, securing gold status in the U.S., U.K., and four additional countries while attaining platinum in France. The single “Apocalypse” gained indie traction across parts of Europe and peaked at number 16 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart in the U.S. In 2018 the group issued “Crush,” a track cut during the same sessions as the debut.
While touring behind the first album, Gonzalez kept writing material for its follow-up. Tracked in Mallorca, October 2019’s Cry retained the same core personnel yet adopted marginally smoother production. Bolstered by the single “Heavenly,” the album entered charts throughout Europe and reached number one in Portugal. The following year the band released “You’re All I Want.” Gonzalez next joined composer Daniele Luppi for the EP Charm of Pleasure, issued on Monitor Pop/Slowplay/Verve in September 2022; its gentle, symphonic textures incorporated harp and mallet percussion alongside synths and strings. Two months later Cigarettes After Sex returned with “Pistol,” their first new recording in more than two years. The next twelve months brought two additional standalone singles, “Bubblegum” and “Stop Waiting,” plus a cover of Radiohead’s “Motion Picture Soundtrack.”
In early 2024 the band unveiled “Tejano Blue,” drawn from Gonzalez’s time in El Paso, which served as the lead single for July’s X’s. Supported by Miller and Tomsky, Gonzalez introduced understated soft-rock and Tejano elements to songs that examined the aftermath of a four-year relationship.
Albums
Singles
