Self Defense Family

Self Defense Family emerged as an experimental rock outfit guided by punk's emphasis on independence and open-ended creativity rather than any fixed sonic formula. Vocalist and songwriter Patrick Kindlon assembled the project as a fluid collective drawn from musicians based in and near Albany, New York. The ensemble grew out of the comparably flexible group End of a Year, shifting toward subtler, more spacious arrangements for Kindlon's words once it adopted its current identity. Alongside frequent standalone tracks, the band delivered its debut full-length, the austere Heaven Is Earth, in 2015; two years later, Have You Considered Punk Music intensified the same lean yet incisive approach.

Since 2011, most musicians passing through Self Defense Family already belonged to other groups yet sought an extra creative channel, and the collective has maintained its ethos so rigorously that every recording and performance features a distinct roster—Kindlon himself occasionally steps aside, all while maintaining his roles in Drug Church and as a writer and visual artist. The project originated under the name End of a Year, borrowed from a song by Embrace, the brief alliance between Ian MacKaye and Alec MacKaye. That title aligned with the band's initial sound, which echoed the exploratory spirit of certain Dischord acts; End of a Year first appeared publicly at a 2003 show at State University of New York Albany, distributing a lo-fi demo on site and following it months afterward with the more refined Warm. Their first album, Disappear Here, arrived in 2004 via Oneohfive Records; the next year brought the initial single, a split 7" with Three Fifteen. One such 45 prompted Revelation Records to issue the second album, Sincerely, in 2006. In 2010, Deathwish Inc. released You Are Beneath Me.

Shortly after that record, Kindlon sought a fresh name for the band, likening the change to Will Oldham's successive renamings of Palace Brothers, Palace Music, and Bonnie "Prince" Billy as the music continued to broaden. The 2011 single "I Heard Crime Gets You Off" appeared under the hybrid End of a Year Self Defense Family, after which a handful of releases used simply Self Defense before the 2014 concept album Try Me, issued as Self Defense Family, examined the career trajectory of adult-film performer Jeanne Fine (also known as Angelique Bernstein), who appears in interview segments recorded by Kindlon. For Heaven Is Earth the following year, the musicians pursued fresh textures by tracking the songs across four previously unvisited studios. On Have You Considered Punk Music in 2018, Kindlon and his rotating partners ventured further into atmospheric and dynamic territory, favoring a measured murmur over earlier declamatory styles.