Driver Friendly

Formed initially back in 2002 by students still enrolled at a North Houston high school, the Texas pop-punk outfit Driver Friendly began their collaboration years before any wider recognition arrived. Local performances gradually built a solid regional audience, prompting the collective in 2004 to pack up and move to Austin in hopes that industry attention would follow. Their independently issued debut EP Not Home Yet surfaced in 2006, and two years later the full-length Chase the White Whale arrived under the shortened Driver F. name. With no label contract secured, disillusionment set in and activity dwindled to occasional sessions throughout the ensuing period.

A disappointing showcase at a 2011 SXSW event brought matters to a decisive juncture, leading the musicians to grant themselves one final opportunity. They leased an isolated cabin in North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains, spending several weeks focused solely on developing a single track strong enough to record. Upon departure they carried ten completed songs along with a sharpened sense of purpose. Funds raised directly from supporters financed the 2012 album Bury a Dream, after which the band launched an extensive U.S. tour. Results followed: Hopeless Records in Los Angeles added them to its roster before year’s end.

The label’s first Driver Friendly project, the 2013 Peaks + Valleys EP, combined selections from Bury a Dream with fresh material. Subsequent inclusion on the Vans Warped Tour placed them alongside Motion City Soundtrack and Relient K, and in July 2014 the group delivered its third album, Unimagined Bridges—the initial full-length issued through Hopeless.