Released on May 2, 2025
HWY-091
LP, Digital
"Today's Top Tune: Recalls early Bob Dylan and Kurt Vile...brings to focus the burdens of daily reality we all must endure." — KCRW
“A grand, neo-psychedelia take on Americana…sweeps along like an old drop-top on a highway." — Consequence
"a mix of dreamy introspection and quiet strength... Carriers have this magical ability to turn raw emotion into sound." — Cincinnati City Beat's Artists to Watch in 2025
Today, Carriers — the project helmed by Cincinnati, Ohio’s Curt Kiser — announces Every Time I Feel Afraid, their debut album for Brassland due out May 2. It’s a project that reckons with the realities and hardships of a life spent running down a dream; a cosmic swirl of heartland hallucinations, motorik Americana, and plainspoken poeticism in the vein of Tom Petty or Amen Dunes; the sound of a dreamer faced with a put-up or shut-up moment, and delivering.
Carriers also have shared "Blurry Eyes," a new single that follows last month's "Sometimes." Featuring contributions from Bryan Devendorf (The National), Dave Hartley (The War On Drugs) and Ben Lanz (Beirut, The National, Sufjan Stevens), it's a song about mustering the belief to overcome doubt, hesitation, and uncertainty. Kiser's gentle, Neil Young-adjacent vocal is cast against swelling brass and a gorgeous landscape of bleeding sonic colors.
Watch the video for "Blurry Eyes" — a collage of animation (courtesy of Mark Neely) and studio footage of Bryan, Ben & Dave recording with Carriers
Speaking about announcing the LP at this moment Curt says: "Right now is a weird time to be putting out music and promoting myself, but I'm grateful to share art during such a heavy time. I hope the songs find people when they need it most, and that they can provide some kind of solace — whether an escape from the situation, some magic in the atmosphere, or maybe a lyric to help them process what's going on."
The album’s title — pulled from the track of the track of the same name — is a rallying of internal resources to emerge from tough times with resilience. “It's a kind of mantra I used to get through a really hard week,” Kiser explains. “While driving, my partner and I were hit by a drunk driver, then assaulted by the guy who hit us. A few days later my van got robbed in Chicago while I was on a short run of shows between Ohio and Illinois. We borrowed some gear, got through the gig, and I returned home. My laptop was one of the things stolen, so I knocked out the song on an old Fostex multi-track borrowed from a friend."
That kind of optimism and bounce-back spirit exemplifies Kiser, who has become something of an Ohio talisman. "I have a beautiful, symbiotic relationship with Cincinnati,” he says. Some of Cincy’s most enduring civic entities agree.
During the fall 2024 NFL season, the Cincinnati Bengals tapped him to play a set during a Monday Night Football game. He and his dad ("trust me, he shreds”) rocked out in front of 60,000 fans. Shake It! Records, one of the Queen City’s most beloved local vinyl shops, is working with Carriers on a series of special vinyl LPs. John Curley of Cincinnati alt-rock legends The Afghan Whigs recorded Now Is The Time For Loving Me, Yourself & Everyone Else at his studio. And, finally the Carriers project recently signed to Brassland, an esteemed Brooklyn label co-founded by one of Cincinnati’s most renowned 21st century cultural exports, The National. (That band’s drummer Bryan Devendorf contributed to Curt’s last LP and, in return, Curt did session work on The National’s pair of 2023 albums.)
Love for Carriers extends well beyond Cincinnati city limits. Carriers has opened up for the likes of Big Thief and Damien Jurado and, in summer 2024, nabbed opening slots on tours with Band Of Horses and Fruit Bats. Sharon Van Etten even listed Carriers in the “Recommended Listening” section of the liner notes for her 2019 LP Remind Me Tomorrow.
It’s the result of Kiser’s dedicated songwriting practice. As he explains. “When I was 19 years old, I looked to the heaven’s and asked what I should do with my life. I grabbed the old 1950s Goya guitar which was passed down to me from my great Uncle Andy, sat on my porch in Cinci’s Camp Washington neighborhood and proceeded to write one of the first songs I’d ever written on my own. From that point on, I’ve never stopped writing. It’s my therapy.”
With Every Time I Feel Afraid, Kiser takes heed of all of the little signs the universe has sent his way and commits to his destiny as a songwriter. “It’s who I am and what I’m good at,” he says. “It’s taken a few hundred songs to feel confident in it, but I’m there now. I’ve accepted it as my life’s work no matter how successful I’m perceived to be in the world outside my home.”