The follow-up to their 2017 full-length Routines, will be out October 2nd via Fat Possum Records, featuring their new single "Fall Back", a song about a long-distance relationship. Pre-order your copy here.
In July 2018, the trio, formed by Auscherman, Kevin Krauter and Keagan Beresford, announced they were taking an indefinite hiatus. They left it open-ended, but it felt permanent. And it felt like a relief. “I had to rediscover why I wanted to be in a band and make songs and perform,” says Keagan Beresford. “I had been having a lot of anxiety when I was onstage. I wasn’t even thinking about playing. I was just thinking about getting through the set without falling on my face. It’s crazy to think about all the shows we did where I wasn’t really present.”
In December 2019, Beresford called up his old friends to see how they felt about reviving the band: “I missed working with those guys. I’d been writing these songs and I thought we could do well together. They’re my best friends and my favorite collaborators, so I was happy they were so receptive to it.”
Just a few months later, they met up in Bloomington, Indiana, to record Halo at Russian Recording, the studio that had been home to L’il Bub (RIP). They invited their friend Ben Lumsdaine to produce. In addition to mixing and producing records for locals Amy O and Steve Marino, he had worked on Krauter’s solo albums and toured with him, and he immediately settled in as the fourth Hoop.
An album defined by musical exuberance, full of gratitude and generosity to counteract and compliment the deep undercurrents of melancholy coursing through every hook and riff, Halo sounds like a lively conversation among close friends, each song a high five, as they look for some stability in their lives and figure out what they owe themselves, each other, and everyone around them. Reaching this point nearly destroyed the band, but Auscherman, Beresford, and Krauter emerged stronger and closer for their time apart. “This record is a more honest representation of our influences and interests as musicians,” says Auscherman. “We’ve grown a lot in four years, as people and as listeners. We’re starting to sound more like ourselves.”
Check out the album's tracklist and listen to "Fall Back" below.
Halo Tracklist
01. Glad You Stayed
02. Fall Back
03. Blind
04. Ride
05. Everyone You Know
06. Heart Never Stops
07. They Say
08. Quiet Games
09. Total Disregard
10. I'm On TV
11. When It Goes
Tags: Hoops
