THE WAR ON DRUGS
When The War on Drugs’ Lost in the Dream became arguably the most widely-acclaimed album of 2014, it was easy to be happy for Adam Granduciel. Here was a true indie rock lifer, a guy who had bounced around the margins of the indie scene for over a decade with limited success, and he had created the rare album that cut through our fragmented musical culture to become a genuine cultural moment. So how does a 35-year-old singer/songwriter follow-up the album he had probably spent his life dreaming about making? If you’re Granduciel, you waste no time. You write and rehearse songs while on tour so you can start planning your next album as soon as the last gig is over. You move from your home in Philadelphia, where you’ve made all of your albums, to refine your recording techniques with super-producer Shawn Everett. You write two dozen songs and whittle them down to A Deeper Understanding , a laser-focused set of songs that explore themes of loss and loneliness while expanding your sonic palette. Here, Granduciel explains his insatiable creative drive, how he struggled with living up to the success of his previous work, and how he has learned to simply sit back and appreciate his new album—at least until the rest of the world hears it. [Note: These are extra portions of
