DWLLRS on Their New Album, Summer Tour and Creating Music

Fresh off the release of their latest album and the viral success of their single “one of those nights,” indie duo DWLLRS are hitting the road with renewed confidence and a clear mission: to create a concert experience that leaves fans feeling hopeful, connected and uplifted.

Ahead of opening night in Costa Mesa, the duo sat down to discuss the evolution of their sound, balancing faith with authenticity, the life-changing stories they’ve heard from fans and why they hope every person walks away from their shows with “transcendent joy and peace.”

Read on to dive deep with the duo, and be sure to catch them on tour.

Sweety High: First of all, congratulations on kicking off the tour. How are you both feeling heading into opening night?

DWLLRS: Super excited. We’re coming off the back of releasing our album, and we had a little bit of online hype and success with one of our last singles, “one of those nights,” which I feel like if we didn’t have that song, ticket sales probably would have been a bit worse.

So it’s nice just to have a little bit of padding of online momentum. We’re feeling really confident and excited.

SH: What are you most excited for fans to experience on this run?

DWLLRS: Obviously, the new album, the new songs. We’ve played enough shows where I feel like I hope we’re a little more dialed sonically, hopefully, and musically. Our set feels kind of perfect to me, but that could just be bias.

But just the experience of the show, I feel so confident in every single song. I think some of these newer songs, too, are potentially a little more heartfelt. I feel like all of our music is very heartfelt, but this new music touches on different things our previous music hasn’t before. Hopefully, people can feel that.

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SH: Every tour develops its own personality. What kind of atmosphere are you hoping to create each night?

DWLLRS: Fun summer night, a little sweaty, but you leave smiling and feel like your soul is bright. That’s what we want it to be.

That’s what this album is. We’re getting older, almost like unc status now. But I feel like in that, we’re starting to realize who we really are and who we want to be as husbands, fathers eventually and how that can still translate to music. And maturing in a lot of ways, I feel like. Just feeling self-aware and confident in who we are.

(Photo credit: Maddy Myer)

SH: Is there one song you’re especially excited to perform live because it takes on a different life on stage?

Bren Eismann: “tell you when you’re older,” “mud,” and “one of those nights,” for me.

Joey Spurgeon: “dwellers,” for me. This is our intro track. Yeah. Spoiler. And we scream on “mud.” “fed up,” too.

SH: Looking back at your earliest releases, where do you think you’ve grown the most as artists?

Bren: We’re still, even now, exploring sounds and vibes, but I feel like we’re kind of finding our vibe still. At least for me, this one feels like I can listen to the whole thing and not get tired of it. And there are a few songs that feel timeless to me. It goes kind of hand in hand with the lyricism of some of the songs; it feels the most intentional from a faith standpoint. Finding the balance, because that’s always been something we’ve wanted to find the balance of. Not being a shove-it-down-your-throat worship, because that’s not who we are, and that’s not what we listen to. But also still trying to be honest with our beliefs and how that translates to the sonic magic that is music.

Joey: Yeah, sonically too, it feels a little less polished than our last album, which I think is kind of cool. Which might feel like we’re going backward, just kind of, but it feels more raw. It feels authentic to us, and I think it works for a lot of the songs. We’re really proud of it.

SH: What’s your creative dynamic like in the studio?

Joey: I feel like it’s always kind hanging and different for each song. This album, we would create instrumentals or I would create something and send it to Bren, and then we would go back and forth on ideas, and he could record vocals, and then bring it all together. A lot of this album—“dwellers”—we made together, jamming. A couple songs just came to life together.

Bren: “meet me on the roof,” we jammed on that together. It was very fluid because I have a little studio in my house where I can record vocals, and sometimes I’m doing that for like three days in a row. It’s easier to just be in my own space. Even with our life dynamics getting more complex, we still make it work because it feeds our soul.

That’s what music is more and more becoming: a way to feed our soul and to really step into that secret place with God. And I think it’ll take even more of that precedent in the next album, hopefully.

SH: Your fan community has been incredibly supportive. What’s been one of the coolest fan interactions you’ve had recently?

Bren: I remember my parents were in Atlanta, and there was this guy—I don’t remember his name—but he had stud earrings, and he told my mom that he was gonna commit suicide, but that one of the songs saved him, essentially. And people have like said that online before, but to like actually meet somebody in person is different. He’s coming to the Atlanta show again. It makes it feel so much bigger than us.

Joey: For me, anytime people are just singing along to the songs, that always blows my mind. I’m like, “Oh, you guys actually listen to the music?” And that’s always really cool, just because we put so much work into it. It’s so rewarding to see people not only just listening to it, but also knowing the words. It’s really cool, and it means a lot.

SH: You just put out a new album. Does touring inspire new music, or do you prefer to separate writing from life on the road?

Bren: I think touring inspires music after the fact. My experience has never been wanting to write music during tour. But after tour, I look back on tour, and I think about what we would like to play.

Joey: With our setup, it’d be hard to write on tour. But tour definitely inspires songs. You can kind of see what people react to and resonate with live, which makes you want to make those songs to perform live.

SH: What’s one goal you hope to accomplish by the time this tour wraps up?

Bren: I’d like to sell out more than five shows. Because as of now, this is the only show that sold out.

(Photo credit: Maddy Myer)

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SH: For someone who’s never heard DWLLRS before but is thinking about coming to the show, what’s the first song you’d tell them to listen to?

DWLLRS: “Driving” and “one of those nights,” just because it’s the only one that I’ve been promoting lately; I just spam it and say you can see it live for the first time.

SH: Finally, what do you hope fans walk away feeling after spending an evening with DWLLRS?

DWLLRS: Hope, and connection with God. That would be the most ideal situation. Transcendent joy and peace. And the idea of a good representation of what Christians making music can look like, without forcing it, without feeling like it’s fake, but also being genuine and how we express our lives and our fears, and that’s what we’ve always wanted it to be. DWLLRS is about tapping into the duality of life. So knowing that people know that they’re not alone in that, and that God can be a go-to all the time.

Stream the band’s latest album tell you when you’re older, below.

For even more insights from our favorite artists, click HERE to read our interview with Sabrina Sterling on her An American Crime EP.