3 Facts For Those New to The War On Drugs

If rock and roll was either dead or was going to die, no one told The War On Drugs leader Adam Granduciel. Since forming in Philadelphia in 2005, the indie rock band has quietly become a must-see live act that tours relentlessly in the spirit of the Grateful Dead. Additionally, you can hear traces of the band’s essential LPs, Lost In The Dream (2014) and A Deeper Understanding (2017), in artists like Sam Fender and Noah Kahan.

So if you are new to The War On Drugs, here are three random facts to get you hooked on a group making the case for best American band.

Kurt Vile

Before becoming an indie rock hero in his own right, Kurt Vile was the lead guitarist in The War On Drugs. He appears on the band’s first two studio albums, Wagonwheel Blues (2008) and Slave Ambient (2011), as well as their first EP, Barrel Of Batteries (2008). But Granduciel also appears on Vile’s early work. Check out the hazy “Freeway”, the opening track on Vile’s debut, Constant Hitmaker, featuring Granduciel’s cosmically fuzzed guitar playing.

A Giant Pedalboard

The War On Drugs’ heartland tracks are threaded with layers of space rock and neo-psychedelia. Though the fingerprints of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan are noticeable in Granduciel’s writing, you can also spot the hallucinatory DNA of the Spacemen 3. And it seems the center of Granduciel’s universe is his giant pedalboard. The hulking collection of guitar pedals features a multitude of effects and triggers for syncing his live band to the tempo of his modulating wall of sound.

A Name Change

Dylan’s songs have been a North Star for Granduciel, but Robert Zimmerman’s name change created a different kind of blueprint for The War On Drugs leader. Born Adam Granofsky, his high school French teacher noted that Gran-of-sky translates to Gran-du-ciel. Later, he’d mark early demos with the decoded Granduciel. It offered a kind of bulwark against self-doubt as he began releasing music.

Granduciel often writes about anxiety and depression. And his dense and meticulously crafted recordings are no accident. But as you can hear on the band’s latest single, “Who’s That”, he continues to search for ways out of the emotional tumult. Dylan, coming to terms with his own mortality, once sang, “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.” But you get the sense that Granduciel, beneath all the echo and reverb, still navigates toward the light.

Photo by Marc Grimwade/WireImage