(Photo Credit: Ray Flotat)

Following the enormous news of a full N.W.A reunion the evening prior, the final Sunday of Coachella was a relatively low-key affair (at least as low-key as Coachella is able to be). However, indie pop duo Matt and Kim did offer fans one big surprise midway through the day’s festivities. That day, a brand-new four-song EP was released on Spotify and announced by the band on-stage. Titled We Were The Weirdos, the music on this short album was recorded during the week between each Coachella festival.

The band played the album’s third song “Please No More” and announced the album. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, vocalist/keyboardist Matt Johnson said “These songs will be as brand-new to us as they are to the world.” While the recording of the album was impromptu, the writing sessions for the music occurred earlier in the year when the band took their longest break from touring since 2004 – a grand total of three months.

We Were The Weirdos was recorded with producer Lars Stalfors, who assisted them in recording their 2015 release New Glow. Other tidbits about the album include the fact that it is their first to feature guitars and that it marks the band’s return to FADER Label after their last album was released by Harvest Records.

“We sometimes put these restraints on us for no apparent reason until you realize there are no rules,” Johnson said to EW about adjusting the band’s sound. “You get a different perspective on songwriting. I came from playing guitar in punk bands, that was my introduction to music. There’s something thematically about these songs that feels like going back, even back to an earlier Matt and Kim or where we came from.”

The cover art for We Were The Weirdos appropriately features a picture of Johnson from his high school yearbook.

We Were The Weirdos:

1. Fall to Pieces
2. Let’s Run Away
3. Please No More
4. Haunting Me