The Loved: 'Back To Me' [Song Premiere]

When The Loved's drummer emailed me at the beginning of the year asking me to check out his new project, I paused. Jake Endicott—that name was familiar. Why?

I checked out the songs and dug them; we emailed back and forth a few times. Still though, what was the connection?

Then I realized: Endicott is a drummer, through and through. Not only does he hold down the fort at Revival Drum Shop, he also provided the catchy backbeats for the summery, saccharine pop of Oh Darling. Now alongside singer and guitar player Lael Alderman and bassist Daven Hall in The Loved, the trio recently recorded an 11-track, full-length debut.

"We are following up on a self-titled, five-song EP we released independently last summer," Endicott says. "We were fortunate enough to come out of the recording session for the EP still on a creative streak and writing enough to complete a full-length album within a handful of months."

"Between the three of us, we have probably recorded something like 20 albums over the last two decades," he continues. "Recording an album is always its own special thing—sometimes it is really difficult and not much fun; other times, that difficult work helps you dig deep and find some magic; and other times, still, what you feel as magic just sort of walks into the studio with you the day things start. The recording of this album was very much the last experience: an easy deal where we just kept bumping into great ideas and things flowed effortlessly from one song to the next."

Working with Rian Lewis (he engineered, produced and mixed the album), "We recorded the bulk of album, all 11 songs, live in two days," Endicott tells. "There was a vision for this album going into the studio, where we could find an album that would move you, that would sometimes rock you, and where there would still be plenty of space for things to breathe—and we walked out off there with all that."

The record's first single, "Back To Me," was a "lightening in a bottle" moment for the band. A tightly crafted pop rock song about—you guessed it—love, it came together so perfectly so fast that once "you get that one song, and then you start thinking about the other handful of songs you have pulled together over the last months, and you start to get serious about how are going to pay for making an album," Endicott explains. "You want to share these songs with everybody that wants to listen."

"'Back To Me' and its B-sides are the first in a series of three-song singles we plan to release over the spring and summer of this year," he continues.