Young the Giant Comes Full Circle at the Santa Barbara Bowl

Young the Giant’s story with Santa Barbara is almost as long as their career itself. The band first came up from Orange County to play Isla Vista parties, State Street’s Sandbar, and even UC Santa Barbara frat houses, long before they were headlining the Bowl.

Now, more than 20 years in and headlining the Bowl for the third time, they arrive with Victory Garden, a sixth album shaped by intensive writing retreats in Idyllwild and Joshua Tree, where the band lived, cooked, and wrote together like they did in their early days. 

Lead guitarist Jacob Tilley describes the record as a fresh chapter, born from major life changes (including marriage and his first child), and grounded in songs like “Ships Passing,” “Are You With Me Again,” and “Evergreen,” which wrestle with connection, legacy, radical empathy, and staying hopeful amid a noisy world. 

In this Q&A, Tilley talks with the Independent about that evolution, the band’s deep roots in California, and their upcoming show on Saturday, July 18, at the Santa Barbara Bowl. 

You’ve played Santa Barbara before. What memories or moments stand out to you about performing here?

Santa Barbara feels like a hometown show for us. We grew up in Orange County, so it was always within reach — we played Isla Vista, the Sandbar on State Street, frat parties, and UC Santa Barbara campus shows. We’ve headlined the Santa Barbara Bowl multiple times, and it’s one of our favorite venues in the country. You can’t beat looking at the Pacific Ocean from the stage. 

Tell me about the new album Victory Garden. Does it feel like a fresh chapter, or more of a culmination of everything you’ve built?

It’s very much the next chapter. It’s our fifth studio album, and we’ve been a band for [more than] 20 years. We’ve done the live band thing. We’ve done The Postal Service’s recording methods. We’ve stacked tracks, but this was a return to form in some ways. We went back to writing and living together, like when we were young and broke and sharing a house. After the more siloed process of American Bollywood during COVID, we did intensive writing retreats in Idyllwild and Joshua Tree, removed ourselves from day-to-day life, and really reconnected as friends. It feels like we’re finally claiming what Young the Giant is, and not shying away from the things that make us who we are. 

Do you have favorite tracks on Victory Garden? 

“Ships Passing” is a big one for me. It was a catalyst for the whole writing process. Lyrically, it came straight out of late-night conversations about how we’re often like ships passing in the night — never fully on the same page or able to open up. The song feels live and dynamic because we wrote and recorded it all together.

“Are You With Me Again” has a bridge that really resonates. It’s an honest disclosure of struggle and the desire to break free from an ongoing existential crisis and not let it dominate your life.

“Evergreen” is the opener and came out of a late-night jam in Joshua Tree. It started with that bass line over a sunset and evolved into a song about legacy, radical empathy, and leaving the world better than we found it — refusing to let the 24-hour news cycle kill our sense of hope and resilience.

Looking ahead, what are you most excited about right now?

On a personal level, I’m excited that my wife, my young son, and our baby on the way will all be at the Santa Barbara show. My son is almost two, already in love with music, playing guitar and singing all day. Sharing this part of my life with him is incredibly meaningful. More broadly, I’m trying to live one day at a time — surfing in the morning, watching the World Cup with friends, playing shows. We’ve already achieved more than I dreamed of, so now it’s about being present and enjoying this life we’ve built. 

When you think back to when the band formed, could you have imagined it becoming what it is today?

In some ways, yes — we always had these grand, almost foolishly big dreams, which is part of why we chose the name Young the Giant. That childlike audacity to shoot for the stars helped make this a reality. It’s not exactly the version I pictured, but in many ways it’s better. We didn’t become a band on the level of Maroon 5 or Coldplay, and I’m actually grateful for that. It’s kept us hungry and committed to getting better instead of coasting. I honestly think this latest record proves we’re still improving and not just phoning it in as some bands do late in their careers. 

What do you hope fans walk away with after the Santa Barbara show?

I hope they walk away with a very human experience. A lot of our fans have grown up with us and watched us evolve into who we are now. We’ve never really played the industry game — we’ve tried to stay true to ourselves and what our brotherhood stands for, including the philanthropy we’ve been involved in. I hope the show feels like a celebration of this chapter of Young the Giant, and that the music helps people through whatever they’re going through — whether that means tears of happiness or tears of sorrow. It’s about giving people space to feel. 

For more information about Young the Giant’s July 18 Santa Barbara Bowl show, see sbbowl.com 

Watch their music video for their song “Different Kind of Love” here.