After spending two years living on opposite coasts and pursuing their own creative projects, Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp returned last spring to set to work on the sixth full-length album from the Rosebuds. Joining up with Bon Iver front man Justin Vernon (a friend and former band mate who, in a 2011 interview, noted that the Rosebuds make 'some of the most important music in the world'), the North Carolina-bred duo spent a week in Vernon's studio teasing out a batch of songs that effortlessly weave the hooky song craft of classic jangle-pop, the cagey romanticism of new wave, and a refined yet full-hearted sensibility all their own. Featuring Vernon on guitar and synthesizers' as well as Bon Iver drummer Matt McCaughan and Sylvan Esso's Nick Sanborn on bass, both longtime pals and cohorts of the Rosebuds, the resulting SAND & SILENCE radiates both a graceful intensity and the loose, joyful energy that comes from making music with friends.