#THE DRIVER ERA DRIVER#

I was excited, maybe a little more nervous than usual, you know? But we literally are breaching like 400 shows at this point in our career. Tell me about that first time getting back on stage after all of this вЂ“вЂ“ how were you both feeling throughout the day and what do you remember about that first moment stepping on stage again? And while making them, it wasn't really like, 'yo let's do some dance tracks,' but somehow we arrived there. Like, Swedish House Mafia could almost put out one of these. Rocky: I know Ross has said they're dancey, but it's like, they're actual dance tracks. So a lot of these songs that we're writing right now are very dancey, they're very uptempo. But I think since this tour, we'll probably put even more focus on the fact that we want the shows to have a lot of energy. So we ended up with a lot of mid-tempo songs, which is fine вЂ“ we love all of our music. Ross: Honestly, we weren't really thinking of it much when we were in the studio pretty much for a long time. What was your experience heading into this album without knowing for sure if playing shows would be on the table?

#THE DRIVER ERA DRIVER#

Performing live has become such an integral part of The Driver EraвЂ™s DNA. And you know, just wanting to get better at writing and a better musician, a better songwriter and just trying to do our best to be authentic in our expression of our feelings in our music. With us honestly learning so much from our girlfriends and them teaching us to be better men and then us writing about that was a big part of this record.

Ross: I feel like it's just exactly as your question states, it is a capsule for this era in our lives. How does this record function as a capsule of this era of your lives? With Girlfriend in particular, youвЂ™ve both managed to capture these huge feelings and emotional breakthroughs in a way that sounds equally as all-encompassing as it feels. That will happen if you make something that's worth listening to. I think that's the byproduct of writing good music, just trying to do our best. And you're kind of just trying to shoot as much of that energy into it as possible. It's kind of, you know, what is magical in this moment with this track you're working on or whatever. Rocky: Also, when we are writing, there's not much of like, вЂњokay, how can we grab someone's attention?вЂќ That's not really ever a thought. And so I think that is a big part of making music now, nowadays вЂ“ just keeping people on their toes and moving quickly and shorter songs.

But I think we've always been good at keeping the songs entertaining and keeping the fans engaged in listening to the whole thing. Obviously they're our fans so they would say something like this, but a lot of our fans say that we have no skip songs, which is honestly a great compliment. Ross: I feel like we've always had a knack for keeping people engaged in the song.

As songwriters and producers, how does that need to capture peopleвЂ™s attention factor into your creation process? WeвЂ™re living through an age where, especially over these last almost two years now, people have so much time and access to listen to new music вЂ“ but thereвЂ™s almost an overwhelming amount of it readily at our fingertips. With only a few dates left on their Girlfriend tour, The Driver Era spoke with The FADER about finding reassurance as songwriters and producers, getting back into the swing of touring, and challenging themselves to make something brand new. The time in lockdown altered The Driver EraвЂ™s creative process, allowing the band to tug on a string that would unravel into their most clarifying project yet. It marks the first record the pair have created where they serve as the sole songwriters and producers, their passion for the craft shining through a stacked tracklist on songs like вЂњHeart of MineвЂќ and вЂњLeave Me Feeling Confident.вЂќ Pulling on experiences and stalled ideas dating back to 2016, Ross and Rocky challenged themselves in the recording and reinvigorated them as musicians, blending influence from pop, rock, and hip-hop. When they found themselves languishing at home during the early months of the pandemic, the forced pause unexpectedly led them straight into the creative process of their sophomore record Girlfriend.

The driver era