Tim Presley of
White Fence and
Cate Le Bon were both well-regarded neo-psych recording artists in their own right, and fans of each other's work, when they decided to team up under the name
DRINKS. Both had moved to Los Angeles,
Presley from San Francisco and
Le Bon from Wales, in 2013 to record her
Mug Museum album, and lived in the same Highland Park area.
Le Bon also joined the
White Fence live band, so it seemed natural for the pair to collaborate on a new project. Renting out a downtown L.A. studio space and bringing in
White Fence drummer Nick Murray, the duo explored the more experimental nature of their respective styles. Neither artist was allowed to bring a finished song to the sessions and a great deal of time was devoted to just playing guitar until something sounded good. The resulting album was titled
Hermits on Holiday and released by
Presley's Birth Records label in August of 2015. The duo stayed busy, both separately and together over the next few years.
Presley, released an experimental album under the name
W-X in 2015, and in 2016 he and
Le Bon issued albums.
Presley's
The WiNK was produced by
Le Bon and her
Crab Day was influenced by the time she spent playing with
Presley. The duo toured together in 2017 and signed with
Drag City for a second
DRINKS record. They decamped to the South of France to spend a month writing and recording, with only
Stephen Black (of
Sweet Baboo fame and the bassist in
Le Bon's live band) along to record the proceedings. John Thomas of
Le Bon's band added drums later and the songs were mixed by
Samur Khouja in Los Angeles.
Hippo Lite covered the same sonic ground as their first album and was released in April of 2018. ~ Tim Sendra