Andrew Shepard was looking for a fresh start.
The Athens, Georgia-based guitarist and songwriter had been acting as the frontman for his previous band, Roadkill Ghost Choir, for eight years, playing every major festival, Late Night With David Letterman, and touring alongside Band of Horses.
But Shepard was feeling constrained by the expectations placed on him in that band. He felt that their songs had to sound a certain way—dark, foreboding, and moody—and he wanted to break out of that mold and start with a clean slate. “We did a lot of cool stuff and had a great time doing it” Shepard says. “But I wanted to sonically explore stuff I hadn’t been able to really do before.” Though he didn’t know it at the time, that was when his new project, Lo Talker, was born.