Indiana's Kevin Krauter is touring in support of his debut solo LP Toss Up, that came out June 15, 2018 via Bayonet Records. The album was listed on Pitchfork's guide to new summer albums, and its richly melodic lead single "Rollerskate" was featured on Steven Hyden's April Mixtape for Uproxx. Follow up track "Keep Falling In Love" is "a silky smooth, instantly familiar love song" that'll pair perfectly with a balmy summer night.
You can catch him at Urban Artifact on Monday, June 25th
Best known as one of several guitar players, songwriters, and vocalists in the Hoosier indie-rock band Hoops, Krauter has been making music all by his lonesome for much longer. He grew up in a family heavily involved in local musical theater, even appearing in three productions of Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He played in high school bands but didn’t get serious about writing and recording until he enrolled at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana. His first efforts — recorded in his dorm room — weren’t intended for any kind of audience, but a friend asked him to record a few tracks for a class project. Eventually those sessions became 2015’s Magnolia EP, a short collection of gentle, gauzy songs that reveal his early obsession with one of his first musical heroes, Vashti Bunyan.
‘Useful solitude’ is the phrase Krauter uses to describe Toss Up, both the conditions in which it was created and the prevailing theme of these nine iridescent indie-pop songs. In between tours, he spent long hours in his basement, guitars and vintage keyboards his only company, and tested out ideas, explored new sonic avenues, savored new sounds, and taught himself how to play a few instruments. The riffs and melodies became mantras, repeated back to himself until they became the rhythmically intricate, melodically bold, and emotionally complex songs that comprise his solo debut. An insightful songwriter with a lyrical style that is both economical and evocative, Krauter crafts unique soundscapes that scramble a range of influences: ‘60s flower pop, ‘70s easy listening, ‘80s New Wave, ‘90s alt-radio, ’00s indie rock.
