Tune-Yards

Merill Garbus and Nate Brenner make up the duo tUnE-yArDs, weaving emotive singing, unconventional rhythms, and incisive observations on society into their singularly energetic sound. The outfit first drew notice with the unfiltered assemblages of BiRd-BrAiNs, issued independently in 2009, thanks to its fervent textures and perspective. Although Garbus and Brenner refined their approach on later releases including Nikki Nack in 2014, the fusion of probing themes around race, gender, and privilege with daring structures rooted in playground chants, labor songs, and traditions from beyond the West stayed equally singular and celebrated. On i can feel you creep into my private life in 2017 the pair adopted a more inward, synthesizer-driven direction, yet Sketchy. from 2021 saw them merge intimate lyric writing with the rousing, propulsive character of their initial recordings.

Garbus, born in New York City and raised there plus in Connecticut, arrived with a wide-ranging artistic history that included puppeteering at Vermont’s Sandglass Theater and playing ukulele for Montreal’s Sister Suvi. She launched the tUnE-yArDs name in 2006, layering early material via a portable recorder and basic mixing programs. Two years of work produced BiRd-BrAiNs, which she first made available on cassette and through a pay-what-you-want download on the project’s site. Steady road work alongside Thao together with online enthusiasm turned the album into a devoted favorite. Marriage Records put out a cassette edition in June 2009; that August 4AD followed with a limited screen-printed pressing, then issued the CD version in November to accompany a tour supporting the Dirty Projectors.

After BiRd-BrAiNs appeared, Garbus relocated to Oakland, California. In 2010 tUnE-yArDs contributed to Citay’s Dream Get Together. During the same stretch she began shaping the next album alongside bassist Nate Brenner, who became both her artistic and personal partner. Brenner shared songwriting credit on several tracks of W H O K I L L, recorded in April 2011 at Oakland’s New, Improved Studios with engineer Eli Crews. The set’s clearer production and sharper cultural focus earned broad praise and led the Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop critics’ poll. It also charted at number 17 on the U.K. Independent Albums Chart and number eight on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart. That year tUnE-yArDs joined Afuche’s Highly Publicized Digital Boxing Match and produced Thao & Mirah’s self-titled joint release. Further 2012 collaborations included work with Elephant & Castle and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, plus a version of Fela Kuti’s “Lady” featuring Questlove, Akua Naru, and Angelique Kidjo that landed on the Red Hot Organization’s Red Hot + Fela tribute.

Early 2013 brought the Yoko single, in which Garbus and Brenner reworked two Yoko Ono pieces to aid the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance after Hurricane Sandy. Later they appeared on the Blind Boys of Alabama’s I’ll Find a Way and produced two tracks for Latryx’s The Second Album. A visit to Haiti shaped the third album, while sessions with producers Malay and John Hill—recognized for prior work with Big Boi and M.I.A.—alongside Roomful of Teeth added further range and immediacy to Nikki Nack, released in May 2014. The record reached number 11 on the U.K. Independent Albums chart and number four on Billboard’s Independent Albums chart in the U.S.

Before tUnE-yArDs’ fourth album, Garbus produced Thao & the Get Down Stay Down’s A Man Alive and Sonny & the Sunsets’ Moods Baby Moods in 2016. She also hosted the Red Bull Radio program C.L.A.W. spotlighting female-identifying artists and held a weekly DJ residency at an Oakland bar. Those sets, combined with electronic, Haitian, and Kenyan elements, guided i can feel you creep into my private life, issued in January 2018. The album climbed to number ten on the U.K. Independent Albums chart and number 11 on the U.S. Independent Albums chart; Garbus and Brenner co-wrote and co-produced it, tightening the arrangements while addressing intricate subjects in the words. That year tUnE-yArDs supplied the score for Boots Riley’s satire Sorry to Bother You. After joining Battles on 2019’s Juice B Crypts, the duo began their fifth album, favoring acoustic instruments over electronics, recording extended jam sessions, and drawing from Beastie Boys Book and Questlove’s Creative Quest. The outcome was Sketchy. in March 2021, which extended the reflective tone of the prior release through a livelier energy recalling earlier tUnE-yArDs work.