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With six studio albums to date, fans and the industry alike welcome their seventh, When Tigers Smoked, with open arms. This characterful, unvarnished album, produced by Salim Nourallah over six days, showcases thirteen stunning tracks, blended with effort, heart, and a hard-fought journey.
Developed by Daniel Hines and Brian Lee after Hines underwent multiple surgeries, the record carries the weight of uncertainty, renewed purpose, and, in its sound, a connection that conveys the determination behind the band’s return.
Discussing the album, Left Arm Tan explains:
“When Tigers Smoked is a Korean expression that roughly means ‘once upon a time,’ and the more distance I get from making this record, the more appropriate that title feels. In 2025, I went through five surgeries and basically stepped away from live music indefinitely. For a while, I genuinely didn’t know if I would ever play again. I was home recovering, alone with my thoughts in a way I hadn’t been in years, and something cracked open. Songs just started coming. I wrote more than 50. They were about mortality and resilience, getting older, being Gen X, taking inventory of your life and trying to understand what remains when some of the things you thought were permanent suddenly aren’t. I started sending them to Brian Lee, our singer and main songwriting collaborator, and as we worked through them together, we both felt something different was happening. Something we hadn’t quite reached before”
After three and a half years away from live shows, Left Arm Tan’s return grew out of Daniel Hines’s heap of tracks, each crafted with care before being refined. Alongside this release, the aptly named documentary Handmade Things will follow. Featuring human creativity at its heart, the documentary features a host of volunteers, including gardeners, painters, and furniture makers, putting tired hands to work.
Despite their time away from the live circuit and the day-to-day of band life, Left Arm Tan are certainly not tired. The band is renewed, reborn, and When Tigers Smoke is a testament to that.
