D.C. based indie duo The Raised By Wolves team up with PureVolume to premiere their new music video for the track, “Freddy Freaker.” The video was written, directed, and edited by The Raised By Wolves in collaboration with D.C. based filmmaker and longtime friend, James Robertson.
As the band explains it, “The video is a surreal exploration of the inevitable and often dissonant evolution of friendships over time.” The song “Freddy Freaker” is off the band’s debut LP Sadie Hawkins (2013), an album that The Washington Post recommends for fans of Elliot Smith, Weezer, and The Flaming Lips.
The Raised By Wolves are Dusty Durston (vocals, drums) and Ben Eskin (guitar, bass, keys, backing vocals) – two lifelong, musically gifted friends hailing from Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. The two began writing songs together as early as middle school and have used the past decade to hone their musical craft. Although they decided to attend different colleges, Durston to NYU and Eskin to Macalester College in Minnesota, the musical collaboration continued as the years passed. Both would write remotely and reconvene on academic breaks to play together. When they both graduated college in 2012, they decided to move back to Washington, D.C. to expand upon the unique sound they had been forming over the years. Quickly, the two realized they were creating tunes that were unique, refreshing, and deserved to be shared.
The duo decided that, when they first announced the creation of this band in the summer of 2013, they wanted the band’s presentation to the public in a manner that would reflect the unconventional nature of their pop rock tunes. While they spent much of 2012 and 2013 recording the new tunes and polishing their written repertoire, Durston and Eskin kept all of this entirely under wraps. It wasn’t until they had completely finished producing, editing, mastering the LP, creating the art for the album, and building the new online presence for the band, that they unveiled to even friends or family they had created The Raised By Wolves. Then on July 23, 2013, just a week after introducing themselves to the public, they released Sadie Hawkins, their 9-track debut LP – an album representative of their dedication to writing heartfelt pop songs and presenting them in unorthodox ways.
The album has since received acclaim from press and fans alike, launching the band onto the local scene and quickly landing them the coveted title of The D.C. Deli Magazine’s Band of the Month for October 2013. The Washington City Paper featured Sadie Hawkins and raved about Eskin’s guitar work, likening it to Andy Summers of The Police, and calling this aspect of the tunes is what pushes it into “memorable territory.” Tastemaker music blogs like Hype Machine, All Things Go, Indie – Music, Brightest Young Things, Listen Local First, and Mostly Junk Food have also been especially supportive – helping to gain the band a national reach and growing fanbase.
Since creating a live band to match the quality of the album, the band has since risen to prominence in the D.C. scene with their high energy live show. Most recently the band joined some of D.C.’s top rising acts, Drop Electric and Young Rapids, performing with them for a show case that sold out the legendary 9:30 Club.
The band is already in the midst of writing their follow-up to “Sadie Hawkins,” set to be released in late 2014.