Contact: thewaltersmgmt@7smgmt.com
The first time they ever tried writing a song together, The Walters came up with a bittersweet track called “I Love You So”: a time-bending piece of indie-pop that perfectly encapsulates their heart-on-sleeve songwriting and harmony-driven sound. Not long after self-releasing “I Love You So” in 2014, the Chicago-bred five-piece experienced massive streaming success, quickly progressing from playing DIY house shows around town to touring all over the country—including a particularly grueling 2017 run that prompted them to take an indefinite hiatus. Just as they began plotting their return, the band found themselves thrown back into the pop zeitgeist when “I Love You So” exploded on TikTok in 2021. With the song soon reaching platinum status and climbing the charts at Top 40 radio, The Walters landed a deal with Warner Records and completed their long-awaited new EP Try Again—a six-track effort that marks their most exquisitely realized body of work yet.
Their first new project since 2015’s Young Men, Try Again came to life in The Walters’ new homebase of Los Angeles, an environment that’s ineffably deepened the sun-soaked charm of their sonic aesthetic. In an undeniable triumph for the band—lead singer and guitarist Luke Olson, lead guitarist Walter Kosner, rhythm guitarist/vocalist Michael James Tirabassi, bassist Daniel Wells, and drummer Charles Ekhaus—the EP spotlights their newly sharpened songcraft and more expansive musicality while deliberately retaining the homespun quality first revealed on “I Love You So.” To that end, nearly all of The Walters’ output to date finds Ekhaus taking the reins as producer, expertly preserving the carefree intimacy that makes their songs so magnetic. “My favorite songwriters are the ones whose lyrics have a real simplicity to them, like Neil Young—anytime he opens his mouth to sing, I believe him,” says Olson, also naming James Taylor among his main inspirations. “My biggest hope is for our songs to connect with people in that same way.”
Spiked with elements of surf-pop, ‘70s classic California sounds and gently inventive alt-rock, Try Again features the first song The Walters created after reuniting, the breezy yet urgent “Million Little Problems.” “It’s about taking accountability and recognizing that we all have our issues, but you’ve just got to acknowledge your own faults and try to coexist,” says Olson. With its shifting tempos and spellbinding textures, “Black Moon” slips into a strangely enchanted mood as Olson narrates a sublime but all-too-fleeting escape from the city. On “Lover,” The Walters bring their swooning harmonies to a tender meditation on loneliness and longing, drifting into a dreamlike haze at the track’s guitar-drenched bridge. For the elegantly stripped-back “Eyes for You,” Tirabassi takes the lead vocal and offers up a beautifully understated expression of devotion. And on “I’ll Make You Mine,” The Walters capture the dizzy euphoria of pure infatuation, closing out Try Again with a sweetly sprawling reverie in the song’s final seconds.
Recorded at Kosner’s house, with frequent trips to the backyard sauna and ice plunge, Try Again emerged from the same spirit of easy spontaneity that’s always defined The Walters. After first crossing paths at Bonnaroo in 2012, thanks to an introduction from Tirabassi (Olson’s hometown friend and Kosner’s college classmate), Olson and Kosner bonded over their shared musical tastes and soon discovered a natural creative chemistry. “The night we wrote ‘I Love You So,’ we were just at my place drinking whiskey and working on this melody that we thought was really catchy,” Kosner recalls. “We used my laptop to record different versions of the lyrics, and by the time the night was over we had a song.” Following the track’s breakout success, The Walters independently released their debut EP Songs For Dads in 2014, then put out their sophomore EP Young Men in 2015. With their fanbase growing exponentially, the band took the stage at major festivals like Riot Fest, recorded their 2017 single “She’s Gonna Leave You” with esteemed producer Phil Ek (The Shins, Built to Spill, Fleet Foxes), and eventually embarked on a 2017 tour that would prove to be disastrous. “At that point we’d only ever toured for a week at a time, but we decided to jump into this months-long tour that we booked ourselves,” says Kosner. “We’d play a show, drive 12 hours in the middle of nowhere to get to the next venue, play the next show, and repeat that cycle over and over. It crushed us.” Signing off with a crowd-thrilling set at Lollapalooza 2017, The Walters ultimately parted ways that summer. “The funny thing is that last tour was all sold-out shows,” says Olson. “We were on a rise, so who knows what would’ve happened if we didn’t split up?”
Known for their exhilarating live show, The Walters recently hit the road for a spring headlining tour and found their audience more passionate than ever. “When people come to see us for the first time, it’s definitely not what they were expecting,” Olson points out. “There’s way more of a rock-and-roll energy, and I always try to make my performance very theatrical and leave everyone wondering what they just saw.” With Olson noting that “the best work is still to be done,” The Walters are now gearing up for a debut album that fully delivers on their promise as a musical and creative force. “With this new EP, it felt like we were finally coming into our own in terms of our songwriting,” says Kosner. “We got back to the magic we found in the first era of The Walters, and now we’re just really excited to keep pushing that forward.”