Drugdealer, Reverend Baron

×

Expand

Tessa Binder

A person in a pink shirt standing in the dark.

Michael Collins of Drugdealer.

WUD Music. Free.

media release: Led by frontman and primary songwriter Michael Collins, Drugdealer expands on their 1960s and '70s-inspired sonics with the new album Hiding in Plain Sight, out now via Mexican Summer. The project arrives featuring previously released singles “Pictures of You” featuring Kate Bollinger (Ghostly International), "Madison" and "Someone to Love."

The third and most seasoned Drugdealer album, Hiding in Plain Sight, almost didn't happen at all. Frustrated and insecure with his own singing voice prior to the pandemic, Drugdealer founder and primary songwriter Michael Collins was nearly ready to throw in the towel. With hits like "Suddenly" and "The Real World" (from the band's 2016 debut, The End Of Comedy) and "Honey" (from their first album for Mexican Summer, 2019’s Raw Honey), Collins had plenty to be happy about. But due to a frequent impulse to hand over the microphone to friends and collaborators like Weyes Blood, Jackson MacIntosh, and his trusty musical companion Sasha Winn, Collins became increasingly unsure of himself as a singer. Then, amidst the windswept art colony of Marfa, Texas, a chance encounter with the visionary artist and composer Annette Peacock changed his outlook.

While attending Mexican Summer's annual Marfa Myths festival, Collins ran into Peacock backstage. "I was so inspired by [Annette]. But similarly to all these other vocalists I'd worked with, I didn't feel like I had it in me." he recalls. "I told her my plight, then I played her a song, and she told me I wasn't singing high enough for my speaking voice. When I returned to LA, I started coming up with new progressions, which I'd modulate up three half steps. It forced me to find a new way to sing."

In the valley of the shadow of doubt, during a period when Collins was considering giving up on music and embarking on his lifelong dream of filmmaking, a furtive conversation with a legend allowed him to find his own distinctive voice. But, as the title implies, the lockdown era during which Collins wrote the bulk of the record was a time spent searching for answers – searching for love.  

"Madison," the opening track on Hiding in Plain Sight, is the first song Collins wrote singing in this suggested range. His newfound confidence as a yarn-spinning vocalist in the gruff tenor tradition of Nick Lowe, or even Van Morrison, is readily apparent, with Conor "Catfish" Gallaher's pedal steel adding a dusting of cosmic country to Collins' down-hard love song.

But this quest spanned beyond the traditional conception of love. It takes a village to put together Drugdealer records. The Greek term for love of friends, philia, translating to "the highest form of love," is evident in a deep cast of characters including Drugdealer band members Mikey Long, MacIntosh and Josh Da Costa (CMON), as well as Southland virtuosos like John Carroll Kirby (Frank Ocean, Stones Throw) and Daryl Johns (Mac DeMarco, The Lemon Twigs). 

Mainly, however, the record acts as a welcome showcase for Collins as an emboldened lead singer, a wayward bandleader who has found a way to love himself as a singer, songwriter and storyteller. Taking inspiration from a canon of gruff but soulful rock vocalists like Phil Lynott, Collins looks back on his nocturnal meanderings through LA's warrens of bars and clubs ("New Fascination"). He’s right up front in the mix, detailing a search for love in all the wrong places. All the while, his band turns on a dime, with Long and Sergio Tabanico trading respective electric sitar and electric sax solos.

Ultimately, Hiding in Plain Sight is an odyssey from philautia—the ability to love oneself —to philia, a greater ability to love and embrace the contributions of those around you. Only then does a path clear for an encompassing and passionate romantic love, eros. Ultimately, Collins finds love all around and, finally, feels in possession of the voice to sing about it, resulting in the most joyful and fully-realized Drugdealer album to date. 

In support of the new release, Drugdealer will set out on their headline tour across North America this month. The 25-date run will feature support from Reverend Baron, aka Danny Garcia.

Hiding in Plain Sight follows Drugdealer's latest full-length album, Raw Honey, which Pitchfork described as "a pristine portrait of early-’70s AM radio" and includes the tracks "Honey," featuring Weyes Blood, and "Fools," along with their 2016 debut album, The End of Comedy, and its Weyes Blood-featuring hit track "Suddenly."

What the press is saying about Drugdealer

"sounds like a piece of pop-rock history" - Buzzbands.LA

“Hiding In Plain Sight has Collins at his most confident and creative with lush production and vague yet intriguing songwriting that burst with color and personality.” - Glide Magazine

"glorious, breezy, and an absolutely essential addition" - Gorilla vs. Bear

10 Albums We're Most Excited About in October - Paste

Pitchfork Selects Playlist - Pitchfork

"louche, funky, extremely ’70s" - Stereogum