Riddles

Description

Ed Schraders Music Beat needed to make this record. 19 tours in the U.S. since the Baltimore-based duos formation in 2010, from headlining underground spaces to opening massive venues for Future Islands, had left vocalist Ed and bassist Devlin Rice exhaustedand hungry to take their music to the next level. Ed and Devlin dreamed of a fuller soundlayered, breathing arrangements their early rapid-fire compositions always seemed to imply, without yet having the tools to realize.

On Riddles, their first release for Carpark, the Music Beat begins their new life. In search of a fresh direction, Ed and Devlin invited their close friend, electronic-pop maestro Dan Deacon, to expand their sound and experiment with them as the albums producer, arranger, and co-writer. Working steadily in Dans studio for two years in total collaboration, three evolving musicians pushed through an intense period of personal tumult and found purpose in the sounds they were committing to record. The result: a polished and passionate masterpiece of nuanced alt-rock. From driving opening track Dunce and the soaring single Riddles to the disarmingly gorgeous closer Culebra, Ed and Devlin unapologetically channel a personal pantheon of pop and rock gods while growing into the bandand peopletheyd previously kept caged inside.

Dan, Ed, and Devlin all poured emotions produced by major life changes into these sessions. While in Puerto Rico on a rare vacation, Ed learned of the death of his stepfather, a charismatic but abusive figure whod cast a dominant shadow on his formative years (feelings explored on the elegant Tom, and crucial to the flow of the album). Devlin sat at the bedside of his brother, whod long lived with a terminal illness, as he saw through his choice to die with dignity. And Dans longest relationship, which had stretched across his entire career as a musician thus far, came to an end. I looked forward to these sessions when everything else in life was a shit-show, recalls Devlin, who began the record commuting from Providence to Baltimore, but moved into Dans studio as it neared completion.