On August 12th, 2022, Sylvan Esso will release their most fearless and frenetic, intimate and enigmatic album to date: No Rules Sandy. After surprising the audience of Newport Folk Festival just moments ago, with a live performance of the project in its entirety, Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn have marked the official launch and full embrace of their next, unpredictable chapter. Defined by a mentality of directness and disregard for preconceptions, Meath says that No Rules Sandy "feels like who we actually are. It just feels like us. We're not trying to fit into the mold, just happily being our freak selves."
"I think that the ultimate effect of our last record and the pandemic has been the feeling of like, 'Fuck that, I know what I want,'" adds Sanborn. "And it's now, or never. So let's get out there and do it."
Listen to new single "Didn't Care," out now via Loma Vista Recordings, and watch the visual here:
Tracing the emotional journey from a humble meeting to life-changing love, "Didn't Care" builds on recent singles "Sunburn" and "Your Reality." Like much of No Rules Sandy, the song leaps from the framework of pop music into a wilder unknown, full of the loose, live-wire energy that inspired the album's unforeseen creation.
Sylvan Esso had never been a band who could make a record on short-term writing jags, let alone the best of their career. But at the beginning of 2022, they drove from their home of Durham, NC to Los Angeles, CA, where they set up a makeshift studio in a small rental house and wrote a song. Then another, and another, until a full record took shape and they found themselves impressing each other like never before.
Describing their first three albums as a trilogy that is now complete - following multiple GRAMMY nominations and countless other, crowning milestones - No Rules Sandy marks the beginning of a new era that is stranger and more cathartic than Meath and Sanborn have ever been. Produced and written by Sylvan Esso, with additional recording taking place at their own Betty's studio in Chapel Hill, NC, No Rules Sandy coalesces as an unbroken ribbon of sound, featuring drummer TJ Maiani on "Your Reality" and "Alarm," a string arrangement from Gabriel Kahane on "Your Reality," and saxophone by Sam Gendel on "How Did You Know" and "Coming Back to You," the LP's haunting, acoustic closer that's unlike any song in the Sylvan Esso catalog. From the glitchy "Moving" to the delicate "Coming Back to You," to all the ecstatic, inspiring pieces in between, No Rules Sandy's most private moments come as interstitial diary entries, filling the spaces between tracks with voicemails from loved ones, birdsong from outside Betty's, children and other life sounds.
At a pair of free DJ Nights at Brooklyn's Pioneer Works on July 27th, and Los Angeles' Gold Diggers on August 4th, Sylvan Esso will present an early experience of No Rules Sandy in its full, seamless completion. Then the band will head out to play more than 30 of their biggest shows yet, joining ODESZA on a national tour of amphitheaters throughout the summer and fall, which arrive after Meath and Sanborn have headlined multiple festivals, hosted a sold-out residency at their hometown's Historic Durham Athletic Park, appeared on Ellen and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, taped an episode of Austin City Limits, expanded their own Psychic Hotline record label and Betty's studio, launched additional duos such as The A's and GRRL x Made of Oak, and more in this prolific year alone. Find the full list of dates here.
No Rules Sandy Tracklist:
Moving
Look at Me
(Bad Fills)
Echo Party
How Did You Know
(Betty's, May 4, 2022)
Didn't Care
(Vegas // Dad)
Your Reality
(#1vm)
Cloud Walker
Sunburn
(?)
Alarm
(No Rules Sandy)
Coming Back to You
Sylvan Esso 2022 Tour Dates
7/27 - Brooklyn, NY - Pioneer Works^ SOLD OUT
7/29 - Seattle, WA - Climate Pledge Arena* SOLD OUT
7/30 - Seattle, WA - Climate Pledge Arena* SOLD OUT
7/31 - Seattle, WA - Climate Pledge Arena* SOLD OUT
8/4 - Los Angeles, CA - Gold Diggers^ SOLD OUT
8/17 - Phoenix, AZ - Ak-Chin Pavilion*
8/19 - Austin, TX - Germania Insurance Amphitheater* SOLD OUT
8/20 - Dallas, TX - Dos Equis Pavilion* SOLD OUT
8/21 - Dallas, TX - Dos Equis Pavilion*
8/23 - Atlanta, GA - Lakewood Amphitheatre* SOLD OUT
8/25 - Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion* SOLD OUT
8/26 - Forest Hills, NY - Forest Hills Stadium* SOLD OUT
8/27 - Forest Hills, NY - Forest Hills Stadium* SOLD OUT
8/30 - Philadelphia, PA - TD Pavilion at The Mann* SOLD OUT
9/1 - Toronto, ON - Budweiser Stage*
9/2 - Montreal, QC - Parc Jean-Drapeau*
9/3 - Gilford, NH - Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion* SOLD OUT
9/4 - Boston, MA - Xfinity Center*
9/7 - Cincinnati, OH - The ICON Festival Stage at Smale Park* SOLD OUT
9/8 - Detroit, MI - Pine Knob Music Theatre* SOLD OUT
9/9 - Chicago, IL - Huntington Bank Pavilion* SOLD OUT
9/10 - Chicago, IL - Huntington Bank Pavilion* SOLD OUT
9/14 - St. Louis, MO - Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre*
9/16 - Denver, CO - Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre* SOLD OUT
9/17 - Denver, CO - Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre* SOLD OUT
9/18 - Las Vegas, NV - Life is Beautiful Festival
9/20 - Salt Lake City, UT - USANA Amphitheatre*
9/22 - Ridgefield, WA - RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater*
9/23 - Vancouver, BC - PNE Amphitheatre* SOLD OUT
9/24 - Vancouver, BC - PNE Amphitheatre* SOLD OUT
9/26 - Bend, OR - Hayden Homes Amphitheater* SOLD OUT
9/27 - Boise, ID - Fort Idaho Center Amphitheater*
9/29 - Sacramento, CA - Heart Health Park*
9/30 - San Francisco, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre* SOLD OUT
10/1 - San Francisco, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre* SOLD OUT
10/27-30 - Live Oak, FL - Suwannee Hulaween
^DJ Set w/ GRRL x Made of Oak
*w/ ODESZA
