When former bandmates Chris Mueller and Andy Hittle reunited to develop a new musical project,
they envisioned a big band: lots of moving pieces, perhaps even a Voltron-like collective that could
size up or down as needed. After casting about for bass players, the two found NYC transplant Nate
Stevens, who immediately convinced them to scuttle their outsized plans and close the circle into an
unanticipated configuration: a multi-hyphenated instrumental power trio that braids post-rock,
psych, Americana, prog, ambient, and jazz into a restless and radiant soundtrack. The new group
would indeed be big, but with minimum instrumentation—guitar, bass, drums—and a lot of joyful
work.

As the three veteran musicians jelled in their Dayton, Kentucky, practice space with no particular
pressure or timetables, the Red Bud sound began to take shape. The trio experimented with odd
time signatures, hypnotic drones, jagged riffs, dubby pulses, harmonic complexity, and
unpredictable arrangements, sometimes stitching a few songs together into byzantine suites. As
much as they wanted to surprise eventual listeners, Chris, Andy, and Nate kept deconstructing their
quickly accumulating pool of songs for the sheer thrill of bending and breaking the music until
something enigmatic and compelling emerged.