Laura Veirs Embraces Familial Chaos on New Song “Pulse”

Laura Veirs has released “Pulse,” the second single from her forthcoming album Temple Songs, out August 14 on her own Raven Marching Band Records. Where May’s “Flying Into Darkness” introduced the record on a more atmospheric note, “Pulse” is deliberately built up—the most sonically crowded track on the album, assembled piece by piece in the studio.

Veirs recorded her niece’s bass and her stepkids’ drums, giving the song what she calls a “layered, familial energy.” That density finds its sharpest moment in a dissonant duet between her electric guitar and a saxophone played by guest “Filthy” Lucre, a point of tension she describes as a favorite. The song itself is about sensing movement beneath the surface—”trusting that something good is still moving toward us, even in the middle of chaos and suffering.”

The video mirrors that controlled disorder. Shot in a home gym, it features Veirs’ blended family, a cake, silly string, a hamster, and a nod to her recent weightlifting routine. She used the exercise setting to echo the title’s elevated pulse, and the result is both deadpan and genuinely strange. Veirs says she can now deadlift 110 pounds, a detail that sits easily beside the track’s celebratory noise.