Cal in Red

Cal in Red, the emerging band of brothers Connor and Kendall Wright, today announced their debut album Low Low will be released August 30th, 2024 via B3SCI Records. The Grand Rapids-based duo also shared the album’s blissed-out lead single “She Won’t Say” alongside its Kelly McKerr-directed video that brings a daydream to life. Featuring lilting guitar and synth melodies and a club-ready rhythm that gently references ‘90s house music, “She Won’t Say” gradually builds into a heavenly earworm. “This song comes out of the gate quickly and was always meant to be short. It didn’t need three choruses and a massive intro,” says Kendall. “The subject matter might feel deep, but it’s also very simple. The line ‘He’s just thinking what she won’t say,’ sums up the whole song. It’s about not wanting to come to terms with the inevitable, as woozy synths lock into this hazy, smokey trance.”

Cal in Red will embark on a headlining U.S. tour later this month beginning in St. Louis, MO on June 19th. A current itinerary is listed below and tickets are on-sale now. Low Low is now available for pre-order HERE.

After meeting Cal in Red, you’d be hard-pressed to feel moody, maudlin, or even just meh. That’s because both the delightfully chill duo and their dreamy, indie-pop music come with an immediate contact high. So why, then, did they name their first full-length Low Low?

“You know how there’s low, and then there’s low, low?” says Connor Wright. “It’s more tongue-in-cheek,” interjects his brother Kendall, laughing. “We’ve spent all our time and resources towards this thing, this dream. Like, are we putting ourselves in a bad place here? I actually hated the line at first. But then I came to love it.”

But really, what’s not to love? Two years ago, their effervescent, entwined cover of Dayglow’s “Can I Call You Tonight?” and Wallows’ “Quarterback” broke out on Spotify, establishing Cal in Red as deft creators of life-affirming, intoxicating melodies. Soon after, “Corvette” (off 2022’s Sink EP) and “Zebra” earned both radio rotation and streaming service playlist adds, including Spotify’s All New Indie, New Music Friday, and Today’s Indie Rock, as well as Apple Music’s New in Alternative. They also opened for Bastille and played the Treefort Music Fest. Meanwhile, The Shins frontman James Mercer (a longtime inspiration for the brothers) is a professed fan, and even lent his vocals to Low Low’s levitating, lovesick single “Kitchen.” 

Although there’s an enviable ease to their music, it took a vigilant four-year creative process to create Low Low. “We gave in to some musical urges we never would’ve before,” Kendall says. To that end, the 10-track LP dabbles in a bit of ’90s indie-rock, makes a brief detour to the ’80s, and even explores some twang. Still, they never lose their way: At heart, these are melodic vignettes that feel as though they’ve been put through a dream-glow filter.

Live, you’ll see Kendall on guitar, with Connor on bass and synths. But at home, both pen tracks, with Kendall taking over most lyrical and vocal duties–though Connor, who produces the tracks, sings roughly a third of them. The slice-of-life “Zebra,” all breezy falsettos and otherworldly synths, is the latter’s proudest moment. “It was the first song that I officially mixed. I remember I spent two days on it, carefully watching YouTube videos and trying to apply it to this track,” Connor says. “The next day, I drove to work and played it, because, you know, that’s the final frontier of mix-referencing: playing it on your car speaker.”

The brothers have been making music together for eight years now, first in their previous band Mertle and, for the past five years, as Cal in Red (Mercer discovered the duo while they were in Mertle, after they won his band’s 2017 Van Contest with a cover of “Painting a Hole”). They never played together until their cousin recruited them for Mertle (Connor was still in high school at the time). This intangible bond, it turns out, is their superpower. “Communication with siblings is completely different than with anyone else,” Connor adds, appreciatively. In the end, “We have a similar perspective, a similar end goal.” They even share the same inspirations: Porches, Tame Impala, Husbands, The Strokes, MGMT, and French Cassettes, to name a few. “We fall in love with songs and artists, and we want to be that same thing for other people,” he says, of their knack for irresistible, joyous melodies. “That definitely transferred to how we write music. If we’re writing a song, it needs to be the best song.”