The Black Drumset Releases New Single And Video “Friends In Dark Places”

On July 17, Austin-based band The Black Drumset will release their new album Friends In Dark Places (pre-order). Today the band is excited to release the album’s title track along with its accompanying music video, shot by the visual artist Seth Orion Schwaiger, using a phone and edited by the band’s Brian Willey.

Written during a period of isolation in Tucson, Arizona, the song traces a journey from grief and uncertainty toward hope, celebrating the resilience and unexpected connections that can emerge from life’s darkest moments. The track also marks the first time Willey has written and sung from a first-person perspective in a The Black Drumset song.

On the song, the band’s Brian Willey shares:

“This was the first song I started for the new album, and in many ways it is my favorite of the bunch. I was living in Tucson, AZ, hiding out during the worst of the pandemic, and this song kind of burst forth after a period of not making any music at all and being very depressed from lockdowns and the whole musical ecosystem going on hold.

We sometimes find true friends or positive things within ourselves when going through the darkest times. The song begins in darkness and loss and ends with an insistence on finding joy. This was the first time I sang in first person on a Black Drumset song (I previously had a ‘rule’ for this project that I would never sing in first person).”

The Black Drumset is the recording and live music project of multi-instrumentalist Brian Willey. Founded in 2009 in Austin, TX, The Black Drumset’s music lives somewhere between various rock genres: psych, drone, kraut, indie and shoegaze, with influences from many genres and musics from around the world. Reviewers often use words like cinematic and driving, which sounds about right. The Black Drumset has always focused on drums and percussion, with two drummers for live performances. The new record is preceded by two critically acclaimed albums, The Black Drumset (2009), and Charged (2019).

The new album, Friends in Dark Places, written and recorded by Willey from 2021 to 2025, was started during the two years he spent living in the beautiful Sonoran Desert of Tucson, AZ during the worst of the Covid pandemic and was finished back in Austin, TX. The record retains the heavy synth drones and rhythms from the first two albums, but departs with a new focus on guitars and vocals, and more personal and direct lyrics. Perhaps the experience of going through a pandemic and continuing political turmoil resulted in a need to bring things in a bit closer.

Willey spent his youth in and around Birmingham, AL…running around in the woods; discovering punk rock and skateboarding; enduring family turmoil, Catholic school, and various self-destructive behaviors. He then took off to NY for college and new adventures, and then onto grad school at the Art Institute of Chicago. He later founded and directed Tiny Park, an art/music/film/literature space in Austin, TX. Nomadic for much of his adult life – he has spent time living in NYC, Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, Boston, Austin, and Tucson.