Friday Pilots Club + Circa Waves

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Chicago's Friday Pilots Club are known for their soulfully moody and sonically textured guitar-based sound. Following a string of buzzed-about EPs and singles, they released their full-length debut, Nowhere, in 2024. Formed in 2017, Friday Pilots Club is fronted by singer Caleb Hiltunen, bassist Drew Polovick, guitarists Sean Burke and James Kourafas, and drummer Eric Doar. All five members studied at Chicago's Columbia College where they met and individually played in various projects before forming the band. An Indiana native, Hiltunen had previously performed alongside a different lineup, touring and recording a handful of songs. However, it was after that version of the group folded and he joined forces with Polovick around 2016 that they picked up creative steam. With the lineup solidified, singles followed, including "Hot Mess" and "Better With," both of which ended up on the group's 2022 EP, I LOVE YOU, ROBOT SUPERSTAR! Several standalone singles followed a year later, including "Pushing Daisies (Oh My My)," "Life Support/Ms. Supernova," and "Sleeping on the Ceiling." In 2024, they released the single "Vampire Disco" preceding their full-length debut Nowhere. 

Circa Waves was formed in Liverpool in May 2013 by guitarist and singer Kieran Shudall, who had decided to "knuckle down" and commit fully to music after spending years in a succession of no-hope garage bands. After writing a batch of songs and putting some demos online, he recruited second guitarist Joe Falconer, bassist Sam Rourke, and drummer Sian Plummer (replaced by Colin Jones in 2015), and the band undertook a few short tours of the U.K. and Europe. Their melodic, propulsive rock sound, heavily inspired by the Strokes and often compared to the Vaccines, was well-received by audiences, and such a buzz built around them that they were soon offered a deal with Transgressive Records, erstwhile home of Foals, the Subways, and Mystery Jets.
The reception they received for their debut instilled them with a greater sense of confidence, and as a result they returned to the studio almost immediately after touring; with their renewed vigor they created a heavier, beefier sophomore record, 2017's Different Creatures. Produced by Alan Moulder, the album fared well, hitting number 11 on the U.K. album chart, and spawning the singles "Wake Up" and "Fire That Burns."
The band's third full-length, What's It Like Over There?, arrived in 2019 and included the single "Movies." A Top Ten album in the U.K., it again found the band working with Moulder and embracing a more nuanced pop sophistication. In early 2020, they delivered Sad Happy, which featured production by singer Shudall and mixing from Matt Wiggins and Dan Grech-Marguerat. Prior to the album's full release, it was split in half and issued on two separate EPs, Happy and Sad. It was the group's highest-charting effort to date, peaking at number four on the U.K. charts.
Circa Waves returned in January 2023 with their fifth full-length, Never Going Under. Informed by Shudall's experience becoming a father and his worries over climate change and the state of the world, it featured the singles "Hell On Earth", "Do You Wanna Talk", "Carry You Home" & "Never Going Under." Written throughout the pandemic and produced by Kieran Shuddall himself, ‘Never Going Under’ is the most comprehensive Circa Waves album to date, both thematically and musically.