Photo courtesy of POND Creative
Hot on the heels of their signing to Grand Jury Music and the release of their first single for the label “L-Train,” TOLEDO have announced their debut album How It Ends will release on Sept. 23. In celebration of the announcement of the 12-track project TOLEDO shared a pair of songs titled, “Climber” and “Leopard Skin.”
On How It Ends, TOLEDO–comprised of Dan Álvarez de Toledo and Jordan Dunn-Pilz–showcases a sound bubbling with chemistry, varnished with a confident vulnerability that clearly developed through a shared sense of self-reflection. Through years of hard work coupled with divulgence, TOLEDO explores introspective and tender themes with impermeable harmonies, gentle arrangements and slides with ease on the razor’s edge separating the softer side of indie rock and the darker fringes of mainstage pop.
“As best friends, we know what’s going on in each other’s lives and we’ve been there for most of them,” said Dunn-Pilz who has known his bandmate Álvarez since they were having sleepovers in Newburyport, Mass. “We’ve been saying for a while that we should write around these experiences with our families.” The duo realized they were fast approaching the age of their parents when they were born, they decided to explore what they witnessed together as kids and how those experiences are tethered to who they’ve become.
“Everything feels like it still connects back to the influence from your parents,” added Álvarez. “You watch two people being in love or falling out of it and realize what that does to you. It affects who you are and the relationships that you have now.”
The now Brooklyn, N.Y.-based duo worked directly with Jay Som’s Melina Duterte to produce their latest efforts and the project was mixed alongside Brandon Shoop and mastered by Joe Lambert. Additionally, the music video for “Climber” and companion visualizer for “Leopard Skin” shared today were produced by Matt Hixon.
Of “Climber,” TOLEDO shared, “It’s a love song from a place of deep insecurity. A product of viewing yourself as inherently lesser than.” Dunn-Pilz added, “As kids, we look to our parents to give us an idea of what a relationship might be like, and for Daniel, he saw his dad pining after someone whose mind was elsewhere. We wanted it to sound like a ‘love song’ a la Michelle Branch or Sixpence None The Richer.”
On “Leopard Skin,” they shared, bluntly and coyly, that it is a “song about a hickey.”
Pre-order How It Ends here.
Listen to “Climber” and “Leopard Skin” below.
How It Ends Tracklisting
1. Soda Can
2. Boxcutter
3. Hideout
4. Keep It Down!
5. How It Ends
6. Climber
7. Flake
8. L-Train
9. Leopard Skin
10. What Happened to the Menorah?
11. Ghosty
12. Fixing Up the Back Room