Dry the River

East London served as the base for Dry the River, a group likened to Mumford & Sons, Fleet Foxes, and Noah and the Whale. Norwegian-born singer/songwriter Peter Liddle initially launched the project as his solo outlet, characterizing its sound as “folky gospel music played by a post-punk band.” Liddle drew lyrical themes from medicine and anthropology, the disciplines he pursued at university, before enlisting guitarist Matt Taylor, bassist Scott Miller, violinist Will Harvey, and drummer Jon Warren. The completed lineup secured a deal with Transgressive in 2009. Strong notices for their sets at Glastonbury and South by Southwest drew further industry interest, leading the band to track its debut EP with Peter Katis, producer for the National, by the close of 2011. Shallow Bed, their first full-length release, appeared the next year and prompted festival dates across Europe, including Roskilde and 2000 Trees, plus transatlantic shows at Sasquatch, Lollapalooza, and Austin City Limits. In 2013 the musicians headed to Iceland to cut their second album, Alarms in the Heart, whose string arrangements were handled by local producer Valgeir Sigurðsson; the record surfaced in 2014.