S. Carey

Sean Carey, a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter based in Wisconsin, maintains a parallel identity as S. Carey through a sequence of chamber-folk albums that have earned consistent critical notice, while also serving as drummer and pianist in the indie-pop collective Bon Iver. His independent discography opened in the 2010s with Range of Light in 2014 and continued with Hundred Acres in 2018; the introspective Break Me Open arrived four years later in 2022.

Born in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Carey took up drumming at ten and later earned a classical-percussion degree from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. Upon completion of his studies he entered Justin Vernon’s Bon Iver project, where he functions as drummer, pianist, and backing vocalist; during the same period he began shaping original material that fuses classical textures with indie-folk structures and dense vocal harmonies.

His debut release under the S. Carey name, All We Grow, emerged on Jagjaguwar in August 2010. Written while touring and recorded in the intervals between Bon Iver commitments, the album merged a standard rock-band configuration with chamber-pop, fusion, and jazz-drumming elements, resulting in a meditative, cinematic atmosphere. The Hoyas EP followed in 2012, after which Range of Light appeared in 2014—an evocative work of chamber folk whose imagery drew from the Sierra Nevada range. The natural-world focus central to Carey’s orchestral Americana resurfaced on the 2015 EP Supermoon. In 2018 he adopted a leaner palette for the quietly reflective Hundred Acres.

After another four-year interval he issued his fourth solo album, Break Me Open, again through Jagjaguwar in April 2022. The characteristically contemplative set examines love, fatherhood, and emotional exposure.