Boy Harsher

After months in the studio, juggling streaming releases and new projects, many bands eventually start to long for the stage again. It’s only through direct interaction with the audience that songs reveal their full power, take on new energy, and develop an intensity that’s almost impossible to capture on record. This is exactly where Boy Harsher comes in. With their new “The Heartbreak Tour 2026,” the American duo is returning to European concert stages this fall and will be performing new tracks from their upcoming album “Get Mean” for the first time.

The tour kicked off just a few days ago with the single “Jeans,” which serves as both their first musical sign of life in quite some time and a harbinger of a new chapter. After years in which Jae Matthews and Augustus “Gus” Muller focused increasingly on film and soundtrack projects, their attention is now once again turned to what has made Boy Harsher—since their founding in 2014—one of the defining bands at the intersection of dark wave, EBM, and minimalist electro-pop: haunting songs, stripped-down arrangements, and an unmistakable atmosphere.

Matthews and Muller met while studying film in Savannah, Georgia. Their shared passion for cinema continues to shape their work to this day. With “The Runner,” they released not only an acclaimed soundtrack in 2022 but also a horror short film they wrote and directed themselves. The duo is currently working on their first feature film, “The Lonely Woman,” which stars Chloë Sevigny, FKA twigs, Sturgill Simpson, and Will Oldham, among others.

Musically, too, Boy Harsher has never been tied exclusively to any one scene. Post-punk, industrial, minimal synth, and electronic body music fuse into a sound that is as cool as it is emotional. Muller’s analog synthesizers and powerful beats form the foundation, while Matthews lends each song additional depth with her distinctive voice and commanding stage presence. Fog, sparse lighting, and massive bass frequencies turn their concerts into an intense, immersive experience that extends far beyond the music itself.

The upcoming European tour follows an extensive North American leg and marks the duo’s first major concert tour on the continent in quite some time. For many fans, this will be their first opportunity to experience the new songs from “Get Mean” live—along with tracks from a discography that has earned a reputation in recent years as a modern classic of the underground electronic scene.

In the fall of 2026, Boy Harsher will come to Germany and Austria for a total of seven concerts. On numerous dates of “The Heartbreak Tour 2026,” they will also be joined by the American synth-pop band Choir Boy, whose melancholic sound—blending dream pop, post-punk, and the synthesizer sounds of the 1980s—will set the mood for the evening.