Carriers - Every Time I Feel Afraid (2025)

Today, Carriers — the project helmed by Cincinnati, Ohio’s Curt Kiser — announces Every Time I Feel Afraid, their debut album for Brassland due out May 2. It’s a project that reckons with the realities and hardships of a life spent running down a dream; a cosmic swirl of heartland hallucinations, motorik Americana, and plainspoken poeticism in the vein of Tom Petty or Amen Dunes; the sound of a dreamer faced with a put-up or shut-up moment, and delivering.

The album’s title — pulled from the track of the track of the same name — is a rallying of internal resources to emerge from tough times with resilience. “It's a kind of mantra I used to get through a really hard week,” Kiser explains. “While driving, my partner and I were hit by a drunk driver, then assaulted by the guy who hit us. A few days later my van got robbed in Chicago while I was on a short run of shows between Ohio and Illinois. We borrowed some gear, got through the gig, and I returned home. My laptop was one of the things stolen, so I knocked out the song on an old Fostex multi-track borrowed from a friend."