The Hard Quartet, the supergroup of Stephen Malkmus (Pavement), Matt Sweeney (Chavez), Jim White (The Dirty Three) and Emmett Kelly (Cairo Gang, Ty Segall), will release their debut album next week. While some or most of the names are familiar to indie rock fans, The Hard Quartet as a band may not be, so Matador Records have made a 12-minute short, A Tender Look at The Hard Quartet, where the four of them talk about how it all came to be.
Topics of discussion: coming up with a band name (that scribbled list was real); how they all met (it involves a belt buckle for French prog band Magma); and how their unique chemistry allowed for collaboration between four very creative musicians.
“Getting to play with Emmett is this lucky thing that happened to me and I wanted to make sure we could up the stakes and force it to happen more,” Matt Sweeney said of Kelly; they got to know each other playing with Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Kelly said, “I didn’t go to New York assuming I was going to join a band, I was just going to go play and record some stuff. But it was so cool when it clicked in my head. One of those days in the studio, I was like ‘this is a band, this is crazy!'”
Malkmus, meanwhile, seems a little humble. “I do feel like, they’ll say that I’m playing myself down, that I’m really with these intuitive genius musician types and I’m the brute…and they’re like really good at it. I like to learn from that, too.”
The short has indie rock behind the camera too. It was directed by Matt’s old Chavez bandmate Clay Tarver, and it was edited by Les Savy Fav guitarist Andrew Reuland. Watch below.
The Hard Quartet’s self-titled debut is out October 4, and shortly after that they’ll play their first live shows, including NYC’s Webster Hall on October 17 with Weak Signal. They also have shows in LA and London and those are listed below.
The Hard Quartet – 2024 Tour Dates
Oct 10 – Los Angeles, US @ The Belasco w/Papa M (tickets)
Oct 17 – New York, US @ Webster Hall w/Weak Signal (tickets)
Oct 22 – London, UK @ Electric Ballroom w/Tubs (tickets)