Alt-rock outfit PICKLE JUICE share their brand new single “Halfway,” a raw and restless track that digs beneath the postcard-perfect image of ski town-living to expose the emotional turbulence that often hides beneath the surface. Driven by gritty guitars and a relentless pulse, “Halfway” captures the uneasy tension between daytime freedom and the darker cycles that can follow once the adrenaline fades. It’s the first single to drop from PICKLE JUICE’s upcoming sophomore EP, The Whiteroom, officially out June 12th, 2026.
“We’re a band that met while chasing winter, bonded over a shared love of snowboarding and the ski town lifestyle,” explains vocalist Tim van der Krogt. “On the surface, it’s this dream world, somewhere people spend thousands of dollars to visit for a week. It looks like pure freedom and happiness. But when you actually live there full time, especially within the seasonal and transient worker communities, depression and substance abuse rates can be really high.”
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“People live these active, healthy lifestyles during the day, and then completely unravel at night,” Tim continues. “A lot of us are wired for that adrenaline rush, and we chase it however we can get it. This song is about getting stuck in that cycle, the highs and the lows, and feeling trapped in something that should feel like a dream.”
Written in fragments over time, “Halfway” began in humble surroundings before eventually evolving into one of the band’s most powerful recordings. “I wrote the melody and chord progression in our shitty band shed while [drummer] Pete [Lavery] was practicing a completely different song,” Tim recalls. “We fleshed it out a little that evening and then ended up putting it aside for almost a year. When we finally revisited it, we weren’t even in the same place geographically, so it came together in chunks. I never once thought it had single potential, but once we recorded it and heard it back properly, it was undeniable.”
Sonically, “Halfway” leans into the band’s alternative and garage rock roots, embracing the unpolished urgency that has become central to their sound. “This song has always carried a raw punch,” says guitarist Ben Matsis. “When it came time to record it, preserving that energy was essential. The final track doesn’t shy away from that intensity. We knew that pushing the song any further would risk making it feel forced rather than natural.”