Many bands experience growing pains when creating the Difficult Second Record. Still, that’s cold comfort when you are in the middle of it. Just ask Zayna Youssef and her bandmates in Sweet Pill. After generating significant buzz from their debut, 2022’s Where the Heart Is, playing festivals like Best Friends Forever and opening for emo institutions like La Dispute, Philadelphia’s Sweet Pill went through it in creating their latest, There’s Still a Glow, especially lead singer and lyricist Youssef. Their debut gradually found an audience organically through nonstop touring. Now, there is an audience keenly interested in their next move, and that anticipation is a double-edged sword for Youssef.
Eventually, that struggle became the lyrical basis for There’s Still a Glow. It is a triumph, a bold blast of cathartic energy that is likely to win the band an even bigger audience. Musically, it is a mix of the insistent, catchy energy and addictive hooks that made their previous release, Where the Heart Is, so replayable, and it is filled with lacerating lyrics in songs like “Smoke Screen” and ultimately, a hard-won, resilient optimism in songs like the opening track “Sunblind”.
Where the Heart Is was a school project for Youssef and guitarist Jayce Williams. After school, they decided to keep the band going, adding guitarist Sean McCall, bassist Ryan Cullen, and drummer Chris Kearney. “This is the first time we had a blank slate together. Now no one writes a full song. We all collaborate,” Youssef explains.
Youssef’s bandmates were ready to go, cranking out plenty of new music, but she struggled to write lyrics. “We are such harmonious songwriters, but I was having a hard time creating. The guys wrote great music, and we worked together on that. I had to ask them to keep writing more so I could keep trying to write lyrics. All the newer material became the album, and the songs that initially didn’t make the cut are now being used,” she shares.
“I had a mix of writer’s block and anxiety about having an audience for the first time. Those first songs were written just for us. Then, we did so well with the first record that I wasn’t sure how to one-up it. The pressure I put on myself made me struggle. Why would anyone care as far as my lyrics?” Youssef explains. “I had to stop thinking about that and go back to writing for myself. That’s when things got better.”
Once Youssef vanquished her writer’s block, she found she had another demon to slay. “As I started writing down one-word phrases and feelings, it became clear to me that I was angry at myself. I had a lot of unresolved feelings,” she shares. “I started taking medication and therapy. Part of that journey was admitting that I’m not perfect. I had to untangle those knots,” she explains.
She continues, “This was a big deal because mental health is not a priority in many Middle Eastern households. Going to therapy was unheard of in my family, but my writing became more truthful after I went. My parents are from Syria, and they own a flower shop. I grew up very Americanized, but I still have this mentality of doing my family proud. My dad encouraged me to go to college and get a job, then do what I want, but he saw how sad I was in the Nine-to-Five life, so he encouraged me to give music a year. In that year, we released our first record and went on tour with La Dispute.”
Youssef’s parents are huge Sweet Pill fans. “My mom and dad come to our shows. My mom is an artist and was an art teacher. She’s very proud. We had a Q&A at an acoustic show. My dad asked a question at the Q&A about how I was going to repay him for the money and the time I spent making a racket practicing at home,” she laughs.
With new insights and support, Youssef was able to leave writer’s block behind, finally. “We take cabin trips for writing sessions. “In March 2024, we wrote ‘No Control’ and started ‘Slow Burn’. After that, I started therapy, and we had another cabin trip in December 2024, then we recorded in July 2025. ‘Smokescreen’ is half and half, and you can hear that in the lyrics. There’s a rawness in the feelings, but the hopefulness is more prevalent after,” she explains.
Throughout There’s Still a Glow, songs veer from the destructiveness of fire to a flame symbolizing burning what must be left behind to the glow that regains power after. The album cover beautifully captures the themes of the record. On the surface, a house on fire is destructive, but it also symbolizes an internal fire that won’t go out. Youssef is also a graphic designer, so she is heavily invested in the collaboration with artists to create the record’s visuals.
“I connected with Kerry Dunn, who is a Philadelphia-based painter, and shared the lyrics, and he ran with that. From there, I decided on the album art and layout based on the image Kerry delivered. I love what he created so much. I can see my lyrics in the image, like burning the house I grew up in, and the line ‘My mouth is a torch.’ I love the 1990s-inspired look of it,” she says. “There is also some hope in there. No matter how small the fire, you can start it again. That was the whole point: hitting a rock bottom and wondering what’s next. Destruction and hope. Ultimately, it’s a hopeful album.”
Next up is a tour to promote the just-released album, and Youssef is feeling optimistic about the shows. “All of the advance singles have been played live for a year. When we played [album highlight] ‘Slow Burn’, a circle pit was happening. It makes me excited to get out there. I can’t wait for fans to know the rest of the songs,” she says.
The fun that comes with the live shows is hard-won for Youssef and her bandmates. “We all discovered our insecurities in the process of making this record. It took me forever to write lyrics. We spent a lot of time on mixing and mastering because it was challenging to decide what we wanted the sound to be, but now, the stress is gone, and we can enjoy it. We love what we made,” she beams.
