Battleme is the inner psyche and stage moniker of songwriter Matt Drenik. He is also a contributing member to LA’s The Forest Rangers featuring Katey Sagal and Bob Thiele. On his debut EP, the predominately lo-fi folk record Big Score, Drenik played, recorded and produced everything on his own. The record’s success allowed him to share the stage with the likes of Joe Ely and Joe Pug as a solo artist, in addition to having songs included on FX’s Sons of Anarchy and NBC’s Chuck.
For his debut LP, Drenik signed to Austin, TX label Trashy Moped Recordings. The label was mostly known for putting out the works of Austin’s Ghostland Observatory, an electro duo. Drenik worked with Ghostland’s Thomas Turner who produced and mixed the 11 track record. On its release in early 2012, the record was received to positive reviews, with Battleme sharing the stage with Walk the Moon, Neon Trees and landing slots at Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party and SXSW 2013. The record was a departure from the initial lo-fi material, with Drenik and Turner combining elements of concrete folk, garage, sludge and electro to create a record combing through a wide variety of musical landscapes.
In the winter of 2012, Drenik started writing songs for what would become his 2nd full length album under the Battleme moniker, Future Runs Magnetic. He signed with LA’s El Camino and enlisted producer Doug Boehm (Girls, Guided by Voices) to capture a bigger, broader sound that developed with the band that Drenik had put together to support the last release. Portland’s Zach Richards and Eric Johnston formed a bombastic rhythm section that lead the newly written songs into a sustained, thrashy, more organic sound. It was tracked mostly live in the spring of 2012 in Portland, OR and LA, CA. On Oct 8, 2013 Battleme released a 4 song EP titled Weight on the Brain via El Camino that comprised of tracks from the upcoming full length, Future Runs Magnetic, due out in January 2014.
