Music
Press
"Much like the death-defying motorcycle jumping performance artist for which they’ve named themselves, this Wisconsin trio is fearless in their pursuit of artistic glory. Seems they do what they want, and they do it extremely well. Fans of Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens definitely need to check it out." - My Old Kentucky Blog
"...Raw emotion is deep within the unexpected tone of The Nature of Things, which breathes a refreshing poise into the album’s core. The album reflects a true simplicity, one that would be daunting to try and tackle, yet The Daredevil Christopher Wright do it with ease." - Paste Magazine
With lightness, vigour & appetite, these Wisconsin folkies set themselves apart from all the lonelies and weepies. The Daredevil can sing in three-part harmony but their music isn't posed, over-deliberated. Nor has it been imposed upon some poor back-porch... "The Animal of Choice" is a journey, a romp. It roams from samba to bruised pop, each section like a sideways step. Three minutes after it opens with lyrics about wolves, bears, "sympathetic tragedies", Jon Sunde (?) is singing happily, catchily, about hideous bros. Do you think those dudes were just born plain horrible? / Nah, I don't think so / but then I been wrong before. As a song it's absolutely fucking delicious, a newsletter I would like to subscribe to, a plant I would water every day...Do go see them - I will vouch, vouch, fistpump for the quality of their live show. - Said The Gramophone
This album is definitely a journey. When you reach the end, it'll feel like you've witnessed a carefully planned work of art coming to fruition. In Deference Of A Broken Back will stay in your stereo for months while you try to unravel all of its intricacies. - .
If these three left one lasting impression, it's that they've constructed some of the sweetest vocal harmonies in modern music. If the band doesn't work out, they can always fall back on careers as choir directors. - .
Like any good escape artist, the band’s refusal to surrender to presumed restrictions seems to be the key to their success. - .
...In Deference to a Broken Back gives life and thrill to a genre I had mostly left for dead. This is folk-rock still fiercely flowering, bloody bleeding, finding new trees to climb.
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The passion that is inside every one of the Daredevil songs generates feelings of...tantalizing possibility where the sky can break off from the dirt that holds its roots hostage.
- Sean Moeller
...whimsical melodies and whip-smart lyrics...When I saw them open for Cloud Cult in Chicago last November, they converted the crowd from a skeptical group of strangers into lifelong fans...
- Tyler Huckabee
...I feel better for having an opportunity to listen to [In Deference to a Broken Back] - .
Discography
The Nature Of Things (June 26, 2012)
The Longsuffering Song (2011 EP)
In Deference to a Broken Back (2009)
The East Coast (2008 EP)
Self-Titled (2005 EP)
Photos
Bio
Born in 2004 out of the thriving music scene in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, The Daredevil Christopher Wright unites brothers Jon and Jason Sunde with the percussion and vocals of friend Jesse Edgington. Their first full length album In Deference to a Broken Back, an expansive and collaborative effort, was released through Amble Down Records. Their sophomore album, 2012‘s The Nature of Things, is a result of asking what can be created by three men at ease with their instruments; storytellers at heart.
Where In Deference enlisted the help of a large group of friends and fellow musicians, The Nature of Things scales back. Recorded by Patrick Stolley, founding engineer for the celebrated music blog Daytrotter, the album reflects simplicity.
“With The Nature Of Things, we made an intentional effort to focus and tighten the writing. To try to confine the arrangements to elements that the three of us could perform,” says Jon.
Their classical voice training and pleasing, sometimes unexpected harmonies are evident throughout the album in pieces such as “Church” and “Ames, IA,” where we we are allowed to glimpse, in eavesdropped conversations—a couple divorcing, a meth addict begging for freedom and church bells tolling for no other reason but that the dead rest below.
Like the Wanderer who returns home only to find what’s already “written on the spine of every holy lowly man, woman, creature, and child,” the experience of seeing something in its stripped away form is “a love letter in kind” (“Andrew the Wanderer”), a gift to those who “keep hobbled hopes under lock and key” (“We Fold Inside of Us”). “The world is full of many things to be loved and despised, but also simply seen,” says Jason. “What is the nature of things? You’re looking at it, however it may be, right now.”
Recent History
The band toured across the US in support of In Deference to a Broken Back and then in Europe after the release of the record there in 2010.
They subsequently recorded a new record at futureappletree studio too in Davenport, IA with Patrick Stolley, who also engineers with that wonderful recording project, Daytrotter.
Most recently, they toured the breadth of their neighbors to the north supporting Canadian rising star Dan Mangan.
Links
