The War On Drugs has signed with John Silva’s Silva Artist Management, PvNew has learned. Until this spring, the Philadelphia-reared rock act had been represented for more than a decade by Fort William Artist Management co-founder Ami Spishock.
After two EPs and three studio albums on Secretly Canadian, including the 2014 breakthrough “Lost in the Dream,” the Drugs jumped to Steve Ralbovsky’s Canvasback/Atlantic, which released 2017’s Grammy-winning “A Deeper Understanding” and last year’s “I Don’t Live Here Anymore.” Those albums spawned two No. 1 hits on Billboard’s adult alternative airplay radio chart (“Pain” and “I Don’t Live Here Anymore” featuring Lucius) and another that reached No. 3 (“Holding On”).
At Silva, the Drugs join a high-profile roster including Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails, Beck, Queens Of the Stone Age, St. Vincent, Spoon and the Chicks, among others.
PvNew understandsthe Drugs are currently out of their two-album Atlantic deal. The group’s publishing is administered worldwide by Secretly Publishing, an offshoot of Secretly Canadian.
The Drugs are a consistent touring draw both in North America and abroad — in January, the band notched their first Madison Square Garden appearanceamid a New York blizzard. Frontman Adam Granduciel told PvNew in a November 2020 interview that the “Deeper Understanding” tour cycle was a Eureka moment of sorts in the Drugs’ evolution, during which he saw “each member of the band step out with his own identity. Not only is the music significantly better, but everyone’s invested. I think that really comes across in our show. For me, that has been the most enjoyable part of the whole thing.” A live album from that tour, appropriately titled “Live Drugs,” was released in November 2020 on Granduciel’s own Super High Quality imprint.
The band, which also includes bassist Dave Hartley, drummer Charlie Hall, keyboardist Robbie Bennett and multi-instrumentalists Anthony LaMarca and Jon Natchez, has extensive touring on tap through mid-October, including a show Friday (Aug. 5) at the Edmonton Folk Festival, a big hometown concert just across the Delaware River in Camden, N.J., on Sept. 16 and appearances at both weekends of Austin’s ACL Festival.
