New Radicals’ Gregg Alexander Soft-Relaunches Band With ‘One Night Only’ Movie Song Ahead of Their First Album in 28 Years

The New Radicals' return to the public eye wasn't the result of a slick, corporate-backed campaign. Gregg Alexander, the fiercely reclusive mastermind behind the late-90s pop-rock act that flared brightly before disappearing almost overnight, has never played by the standard rules of the music industry. That's exactly why "One Night Only (Break Loose Break Free!)," the group's first new original track in nearly three decades, dropped last Friday without a whisper of advance promotion. The release was so low-key that devoted listeners were left scrambling to locate it across various streaming platforms; the song wasn't even listed on the band's official artist pages, yet it still managed to ripple outward through the media ecosystem with remarkable speed.

In an interview with Variety conducted just days after the surprise drop, Alexander reflected on the project's signature unpredictability: "It's like most things that happen in New Radicals' world: organically and seemingly out of nowhere." The buoyant track, written and recorded as the title piece for Will Gluck's newly released romantic comedy "One Night Only," picks up almost seamlessly where the band left off. It layers jaunty handclaps and sweet, sugary melodies over lyrics that probe the darker undercurrents of modern life. Alexander, who has deliberately kept a low profile for years, responded to the song's warm reception with his characteristic bluntness: "Sometimes, you just hop on the roller coaster and go along for the ride." That outlook, he suggests, has shaped the strange afterlife of a group that has somehow managed to outlive its original moment in the spotlight. Gluck, for context, is the director behind hits like "Easy A" and "Friends with Benefits," known for his sharp, comedic sensibilities—a fitting collaborator for a track that balances pop gloss with a biting edge.

Since releasing their sole studio album "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too" in 1998, the project's defining single "You Only Get What You Give" has evolved into something far more significant than a simple nostalgia trip. The track—which targets corporate greed with a chorus that has been passed down through multiple generations—saw an extraordinary resurgence over the past year alone. Brooklyn indie outfit Geese delivered a viral cover on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, the MTV Video Music Awards incorporated a re-recorded version featuring Benee into their promotional spots, and Journeys reimagined the song's iconic music video set to a Gus Dapperton cover. Alexander acknowledges that this wave of renewed interest partly drove him to resurrect New Radicals—a project he deliberately dismantled at its peak after witnessing the music industry's harsher realities from the inside. Yet the deeper motivation, he explains, stems from the band's foundational belief that a single song can fundamentally shift how people see the world. "I am intrigued by the idea of what would happen with a song as good as the best that I could do, if it went out there again," he muses during a sprawling three-hour conversation. "And I do have some songs, I think, that are in that pantheon and can proudly stand next to 'You Get What You Give.' I am a true believer that if it's meant to be to have a song reach the world the same way, then hopefully it will come to be."

The slow reawakening of New Radicals has been building for years. When Alexander and I first spoke in 2018, he jokingly mentioned having "seven to 10" unreleased New Radicals albums that might only surface after his death—a comment that drew hearty laughter when I brought it up again. Since then, the group has gradually stirred back to life. In 2021, Alexander teamed up with longtime collaborator Danielle Brisebois to perform "You Get What You Give" at President Joe Biden's inauguration. Brisebois, who co-wrote several key tracks with Alexander, has her own impressive songwriting résumé—she penned Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten" and "Pocketful of Sunshine," both of which enjoyed their own viral comebacks in recent years. Her versatility as a writer has kept her in demand across genres, a testament to her enduring creative partnership with Alexander.

In 2024, the duo released New Radicals' interpretations of Sophie Ellis-Bextor's "Murder on the Dancefloor"—a track that had its own revival after featuring prominently in the film "Saltburn"—and the Oscar-nominated "Lost Stars," originally performed by Maroon 5's Adam Levine for the 2014 movie "Begin Again." Alexander wrote both songs, with Brisebois co-writing the latter. Just last month, they joined forces with Michelle Branch for a fresh take on "The Game of Love," the 2002 Santana collaboration that Alexander originally penned before the demo passed through Tina Turner and Macy Gray's hands. The track, which won song of the year at the 2004 BMI Pop Awards, debuted on the Billboard Adult Pop Airplay chart last week—a bittersweet milestone, as Alexander learned of music mogul Clive Davis's passing while returning from Prague to surprise him with the new version. Davis, a legendary figure who founded Arista Records and guided the careers of everyone from Whitney Houston to Alicia Keys, was a towering presence in the industry. "Very few people lived as fully as Clive did, a family man who traveled everywhere and was a champion of music and artist rights," Alexander says. "The fact that we got to make this record and now that it's going out there and getting a special response, we're honored and touched because like anything I do, I always had zero expectations."

With "One Night Only" now out in the world, New Radicals are officially planning a return to the stage they once shunned. A sophomore album, tentatively titled "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed TWO (THE Heathen Will 'Con$pirituality' TROLL)," is in the works, though no release date has been set. Alexander describes the record as exploring "basically where we are right now between organized religion and politics and even social media." The positive internal response to "One Night Only" has only strengthened his desire to test the waters with new material. "It seemed like a point of entry in the same way releasing the demo of 'Murder on the Dancefloor' or 'Lost Stars' was a way of just reminding ourselves what we do best, which is really just writing songs and singing," he explains. "It's easy to get lost with all of the different distractions about what our purpose is on this earth. It could be caretakers for those we love. It could be if there's a cause that we believe in. It could be trying to be there as a support system if a friend is going through a depressing time. But at the core of who I am is a singer and a songwriter, and dare I say even occasionally an entertainer. It's good to remind yourself why you were put on this earth. And I think music was the main reason."

The irony of "You Get What You Give" being co-opted by the very systems it critiques hasn't escaped Alexander. The song's pointed lyrics call out "big bankers buying" and warn of "computers crashing down and cloning while they're multiplying." So it came as a shock when an AI-generated rendition of the track aired during a dramatic Super Bowl lead-in earlier this year, followed by another AI version used in an Olympic figure skater's routine in February. Alexander addresses the appropriations with a mix of resignation and urgency. "The sad thing is I can't speak to what will happen to all of people's jobs being replaced, your voice being replaced, your songs being replaced. I feel like it's so much bigger than that one usage," he says. "But I do also feel that people feel disempowered because, do they really want to let their lives become consumed by it, or does somebody want to go just write a better song? When are we going to wake up as the slow-boiling frog that we are and realize that if we don't collectively demand that from an ethical and integrity and economic standpoint and in a survivability of our actual species standpoint, if we don't collectively stand up to that, because it's in all of our best interests, then we're all fucked?"

For now, Alexander is looking ahead. He was recently credited as a songwriter on the Strokes' "Going to Babble On," a track he co-wrote with Julian Casablancas five years ago that appears on the band's new album "Reality Awaits." He's also preparing to roll out the video for "One Night Only," which he describes as a tribute to a pre-smartphone era when dancing like nobody's watching was still possible. Ultimately, he says, it's about creating music that resonates, regardless of how it finds its audience. "The songs that you think are your best ones are the ones that often people don't connect with," he reflects. "And then something that you write as a throwaway, like 'Murder on the Dancefloor' or 'You Get What You Give,' are the ones that people remember out of my body of work. You have to be humbled by it and go, wow, I have to follow the lead of whatever connects with people. Because once you put a song out into the world or you write a book or you make a film, as soon as it goes out there, it's really no longer yours. And so you have to just stand by and hopefully be proud of it if it gets a little bit of love from time to time."