Careful

Artist Bio

Careful is the art pop project of multi-instrumentalist/producer Eric Lindley, officially formed in early 2010, in Brooklyn, just before the release of “Oh, Light.” Careful grew out of the cross-stream of art rock and concert music in LA, while Lindley studied with composer James Tenney by day and played bills with bands like Xiu Xiu, Mount Eerie, and Julia Holter by night.

Lindley released “Nightcat!” as Nightcat in 2006, then as Careful, the albums Oh, Light in 2010, Because I am always talking in 2012, and The world doesn’t end in 2014.

The world doesn’t end was a concept album: a set of duets between his own voice and a version of his voice digitally altered to sound like a woman’s. The technique enabled Lindley to explore his own queer & nonbinary identity in the music, as well as the storytelling opportunities opened up by adding this additional voice. Lindley created most of the sounds on all of the albums himself with an assortment of standard pop tools like guitar & piano, as well as more esoteric instruments like folk harp, harmonium, toy piano, and electronics. Live shows featured various collaborators over time, including Qasim Naqvi and Aakaash Israni of Dawn of Midi, Stephanie Richards (St. Vincent, David Byrne), and interdisciplinary artist Miwa Matreyek.

Then, after regular shows in NYC and positive write-ups from outlets like NPR and the New York Times, Careful was dormant for almost a decade. Lindley had a child and worked full-time on, among other things, medical AI research, but was all the while quietly obsessed with storytelling and songwriting.

Lindley now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is putting out Careful’s fourth release, Promise / Practice in September 2023. The new songs bring together many of the elements of Careful’s earlier work, but have much more bare, plainly spoken emotion and crisp melodic songwriting, to contrast the sometimes surreal, poetic lyrics, complex arrangements, and digitally altered vocals.

Lindley will tour a handful of cities in the US with the release. A writer, Lindley is also releasing a collaborative book of poetry in 2023, written as new dictionary definitions to familiar words.

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