When Andrew Seward gave up bass duties in Against Me! in 2013 after 12 years of service, he didn't think he would be making music again anytime soon. Then he moved to St. Augustine, Florida, and started working with former True North frontman Ryan Murphy and drummer Jeremy Rodgers. The trio decided to start a recording project for fun, tracking instruments at Seward's house individually during lunch breaks or days off but then something unexpected happened: They fell in love with what they were creating. "The whole record was a freeing moment in the sense that we work so much that there wasn't time to make a professional record on a budget so we made something that was more fueled by sporadic intensity," Seward explains.That sense of liberation is evident on all ten of these post-hardcore ragers, ranging from the instantly infectious "Constance Demario" to the stripped-down splendor of "Boom Boom." While there isn't a lot of studio trickery or superfluous instrumentation on Deadaires, it does sound fantastic, which makes sense when you consider that the album was mixed by longtime collaborator J. Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines) and mastered by the group's friend Brad Boatright who has worked on everything from releases by NAILS to the breakout Netflix series Stranger Things. "We didn't plan on starting a band but the actual material motivated us to be a band," Seward says—and you really get a sense of that while listening to these songs… which, now that you mention it, you should be doing now instead of reading this.Deadaires is available via Anxious & Angry, the label run by Off With Their Heads' Ryan Young, and a pre-order of the vinyl will get you an OWTH flexi. It's also available on iTunes.
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