Emblem3 Talks New Album After 'Crazy Highs and Lows,' Announces Tour: 'We Are So Excited'

Rebeca Parida

Emblem3 is back with new music and is thrilled to reconnect with their fans.

Ahead of the release of their new album, Songs from the Couch, Vol. 2, the pop-rock trio — composed of brothers Wesley and Keaton Stromberg, along with Drew Chadwick — opened up to PEOPLE about the "crazy highs and lows" of their journey to produce their forthcoming tracks as well as exclusively announcing their epic comeback tour this year.

"I'm thinking of it, personally, as a warmup album for the year, and it's connecting with where we left off with the fans and bringing back that same original Emblem sound," Drew, 30, explains. "And at the same time, bringing in and showcasing some of the new experimental directions that we're going to take the sound as well in the future."

"It's very dynamic, and it's a really good starting point for us this year," he adds.

Discussing the inspiration behind the title of the new album, the band explained it is a tribute to their very first album which they released almost a decade ago in June 2014.

Rebeca Parida

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"Our very first album that we made as Emblem3 was Songs from the Couch, Vol. 1. I don't even know why we called it Songs from the Couch, Vol. 1…" Drew says before Wesley, 29, chimes in: "Well, we wrote all the songs on a couch in the studio, I guess."

Continues Drew, "And then we're like, 'I guess we'll call it Volume One.' And so here we are, 10 years later after just crazy highs and lows."

Emblem3 rose to fame after being a contestant on The X-Factor in 2012, finishing fourth on the show's second season. Their success in the music competition franchise prompted them to sign a deal with Simon Cowell's record labels including Syco Records and Colombia Records before releasing their first single "Chloe (You're the One I Want)." The track later became a hit and secured a place on US Billboard Hot 100 and US Mainstream Top 40 in 2013.

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The band has since taken their career to new heights, serving as headliners on tours both locally and internationally as well as hitting the road with Selena Gomez. In 2014, the group announced Chadwick would be leaving to pursue a solo career. The band later reunited for a sold-out tour in 2016 before going on hiatus for several years and returning with new singles in 2021.

In addition to Chadwick, Wesley also has released music as a soloist, while Keaton, 26, performed as the frontman of the band The Social.

Reflecting on their break from the band, Keaton tells PEOPLE, "For me, the hiatus I think allowed me to grow a lot and get a lot more confident in myself and learn a lot of new things and better myself in a lot of ways."

As to what prompted them to get back together, Drew shares, "For me, it was loneliness. I had gotten out of a long relationship and it was a really painful breakup and it was terrible, and I just found myself sitting there, friendless and with no creative partners."

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Rebeca Parida

"While Drew's doing that, I'm doing the exact same thing," Wesley recalls, telling himself at the time: "I'm so lonely. I miss touring with the band. It's just way better."

"At this time, I'm trying to do solo s—. It's just not working. It's just not as fun. I'm up on stage and I'm looking at my right and I'm looking at my left and there's no one there and it's so sad," he continues.

With the new album, the band is now gearing up for a tour which they exclusively announced to PEOPLE. The first three dates and locations include Vivo Live Music, Overland Park on March 4, House of Independents, Asbury Park on March 18, and The Teragram Ballroom, Los Angeles on March 25 (three additional shows will be revealed in the upcoming weeks following this story).

"I want to perform, I want to sing, I want to play. I feel like I want to do that the most. I just want to sing. That's all I want to do," Wesley says when discussing what he looks forward to the most about embarking on the tour.

"Just leaving and just never coming back," Drew adds while Keaton shares, "I'm excited to see the fans again."

Leading up to the release of Songs from the Couch, Vol. 2, the band and their management company Next Step Talent collaborated creatively to craft a marketing campaign that only costs $184.81, reaching "#8 trending (USA) on Twitter, 3.1M Tweet impressions, 50.1M+ hashtag views on TikTok, 920K+ website views, 50K+ fan-generated Tweets/Instagram comments, and a combined following of 100K across Twitter and Instagram at its peak," according to a press release.

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"It definitely created a lot of excitement," Wesley tells PEOPLE of the campaign. "[The management company] put a billboard up down in Hollywood and one of the One Direction fans, I think, tweeted it or something and it got a million or plus impressions or views or likes or whatever. And then the hashtag of the boys are back got 50 million views on TikTok."

"It got a lot of people paying attention. Whether they even pre-saved it or not, they're now aware that we're doing something," Drew adds.

Being in the industry for almost a decade has definitely taught the band some great wisdom including surrounding the subjects of persistence and passion.

When asked for advice he has for anyone who wants to pursue music as a career path, Keaton replies, "I think also finding joy in just the act of making music and just doing it and being content with where you're at also and accepting where you're at."

"Being excited about the future of course, but it can be really easy to get down if you put a song out, it doesn't get a million streams. You're like, 'Oh, man.' But you have to just keep going in order to build and get better," he says.

Looking ahead, the band is ecstatic to share their music with the world and showcase the new version of themselves.

"We're so excited for everyone to hear it. Can't wait for everyone to see the new and improved Emblem3 and to see everyone on tour," Keaton tells PEOPLE. "It's going to be amazing. Just that we love everyone who's stuck with us for the last 10 years because that's incredible and just mind-blowing to me and can't wait to see them."