NONPOINT's ELIAS SORIANO On Upcoming 'The Last Word' Album: 'We Really Worked Hard On This Record'

In a new interview with Hollie Nicole of Teaser Talk, NONPOINT singer Elias Soriano spoke about the band's latest single, "Is It". The track, which was made available on May 8 on all major digital streaming platforms, serves as the first release from NONPOINT's upcoming full-length album, "The Last Word", arriving in late summer 2026. Elias said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We've been playing ['Is It'] on this recent tour. A lot of people have gotten a chance to hear the new music before it even drops. And that's been very exciting. It's been getting a great reaction."

Regarding the lyrical inspiration for "Is It", Elias said: "'Is It', it deals with guilt and the battle of guilt and regret when you're making a decision that there is really no right and wrong. It's whether or not it's gonna help this person or hurt this person, and there's no other choice. That it's definitely gonna hurt this person, and it's definitely gonna help this person, but you have to be the one to make the choice. And there's so many factors to why we make the choices that we make, the lines of right and wrong start to get blurred, and I think the song kind of starts to address that."

Asked if there was a specific personal experience that inspired the song, Elias said: "Yeah, I think it was the general setup of about — it was honestly us about to step back into the business of the release and the business of promo with the new music. And it ramps up and you start to make choices, and sometimes you hope those choices are gonna be in your best interest, and you start realizing that sometimes your best interest isn't in the best interest of everyone else. And then that struggle back and forth with those moments is really what kind of inspired it. So, really getting back into the business of the business really started to make the wheels turn on me fighting in between what's right and what's wrong for our next steps."

On the topic of "The Last Word" album, Elias said: "This is the first time in three years that we've dropped a full-length record — almost four years. So, the anticipation of that, it was a bit nerve-racking, setting up for this. We weren't exactly sure, when we hit song number 15, what we were doing artistically with the new music. And it took till song number 27 for us to go, 'Okay, this is what we wanna do.' And waiting for almost four years to drop something, we just didn't wanna put out anything. So, we really worked hard on this record. I think people will notice that."

Both NONPOINT and the band's independent record label 361 Degrees Records LLC are positioning "Is It" as the opening statement of a new era, setting the tone for the new album's themes and energy of the new record. Rather than following a traditional rollout, the song debuted in the form of a hand-drawn, animated lyric video, offering a unique visual experience that complements the song's message and listening experience while giving fans an early, immersive look into the creative world of "The Last Word".

When "Is It" was first made available in late April, Elias said in a statement: "In a world that sometimes wants to put a timestamp on creativity, 'The Last Word' is our way of saying we're just getting started. We're pushing back against expectation and pushing forward into our own next chapter."

Regarding the lyrical inspiration for "Is It", Elias said: "'Is It' is that internal conflict where you question getting too involved? Did I push too hard? Did I ask too much? It's that feeling of wondering if doing what you thought was right actually meant hurting the people around you."

Elias explained the bold concept behind his design imagery on "The Last Word" cover, saying: "This album cover tells a piece of our story. After years of making music, we feel more aligned than ever — musically, visually, and creatively. We're writing some of the strongest material of our career, our live shows are as powerful as they've ever been, and the band feels focused and energized. The pencil on the cover represents what it's like to be handed one last tool and expected to fit everything you have left to say into it. Not because the ideas are gone, but because longevity often comes with assumptions and limits. 'The Last Word' isn't about accepting an ending. It's about challenging that narrative. If this is the pencil we're being handed, we're going to use it — and make sure the words written with it still matter."

NONPOINT performed two new songs, "Is It" and "Red Yeti", the latter of which features a guest appearance by SUMO CYCO frontwoman Skye Sweetnam, during the band's headlining concert on April 25 at Ritz Ybor in Tampa, Florida. The show, which was part of NONPOINT's "The Outta Control Tour", featured support from SOIL and SUMO CYCO. Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below (courtesy of IFM RAW).

This past March, Soriano told Super Cool Radio about the musical direction of NONPOINT's upcoming full-length album: "The overall vibe of the record is very, very heavy, very, very new feeling, especially with the addition of Jason [Zeilstra, guitar], addition of some of the textures and layers that we're playing with sonically just in the general mix of our music, keys and strings and stuff that we played with on our [2018] 'X' record that we fooled around with a little bit during the 'Heartless' [2023] and 'Ruthless' [2021] era. So, we're really gonna bring all those in the fold. But I think I took steps way, way back and really started to pay attention to what people were asking of me of the collabs that I was doing with them and having that epiphany of, 'Hey, maybe this is what people wanna see me do more on my record. So let me lean in that direction' and go really back to basics and go back to a lot of my cadence play, a lot of my lyric play, a lot of metaphors and double and triple entendres and things that make people hopefully want to re-listen and dig in and find a meaning in there somewhere."

He added: "It's all fun and games and great in the pit, and I love to excite people with trigger words, but at the end of the day, I want them to read further and have their own epiphanies."

Elias also talked about the NONPOINT songwriting process, explaining: "Well, from what the guys usually send, there's a song in there within the song. Sometimes it's just there. When it comes to what I see and what I translate into a song and lyrics and meaning, [it] usually comes from how the music paints itself in the room mood-wise — [how] aggressive [it is], how much of a rollercoaster it is. If it's more linear, then that's where I have to be the rollercoaster. If I can't find something that's more, maybe it rests on me to do that. So I like to allow the players and the other guys in the band to play and write stuff that they like themselves… That way they spend all the time, beat their heads against the wall, rewrite the riff a dozen times, and then finally get to this point. And then sometimes what they feel like might be a verse, may feel like a chorus to me, and I write a vocal line over top of it that, [which] now has them flipping their thinking on what they wrote because they expected it to be a chorus. There's this dance that comes with, 'Hey, write whatever you wanna write. But at the end of the day, it's my turn next to then be inspired by it enough to then lay something down that feels even exciting for me to wanna present.' And sometimes in its first incarnation, it doesn't always present itself that way. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it's just, like, 'Yeah, that's a verse. Yeah, that's a chorus.' It's really letting the current kind of take things where they're gonna go, and then me just steer to the most beautiful shore I can find."

Also in March, Elias told Rev. Tom Brice of Sportzwire Radio about his expectations for NONPOINT's upcoming full-length album: "I think people are gonna have fun with it. It's different than what's on the radio. It's different than what people are dropping right now. It's not what anybody else is doing. That's the best way I can describe it. It's NONPOINT. It's NONPOINT and it's only NONPOINT."

Soriano also talked about how he feels about the supposed nu metal resurgence in recent years, partly thanks to a whole new wave of exciting revivalists. He said: "I think people remember how fun it was back then. The music right now leans — it's decorating a time that's kind of sad. There's a lot of struggle and a lot of money problems in the world and war problems in the world, and mental health because of post-pandemic generation, and that is what paints new inspiration. So music, I think people are starting to remember, is for getting away from all that. So when you go to the playlist to find something, a lot of it doesn't inspire you to get creative, to get out of your funk, all that stuff. And sometimes you just wanna do it all for the nookie, you know what I'm saying? Gimme something to break. Put that fucking finger up your ass. That kind of whole time of music in the early 2000s was a spectrum of power and excess. I think fans and everybody, we all miss that. So, we definitely are trying to bring that back to this new music."

Elias added: "I think people are gonna hear our new record and they're gonna have fun. I really feel like they're gonna have fun again, in the way that we intend it to be, I feel, which is empowering, which is retrospective, which is painted with a little bit of self-awareness, a little self-growth and then some initiative and drive and motivation peppered throughout."

NONPOINT is:

Elias Soriano (Lead Vocals)
Robb Rivera (Drums)
Rasheed Thomas (Guitar, Backing Vocals)
Adam Woloszyn (Bass)
Jason Zeilstra (Lead Guitar)