André Costello

If you slip up and call André Costello’s band “The Coal Miners,” you’re not alone. The wordplay isn’t unlike the play on emotion Costello’s music conjures: on the border of folk and rock, many of his songs dance between the upbeat and the melancholy, often landing on both at once. Costello isn’t so much a storyteller as picture-painter in his songwriting (painting pictures isn’t so unfamiliar to Costello, a graphic designer by trade).

Costello started his solo career with a self-titled album issued in 2011. “I wasn’t sure if it would turn into a full band,” he explains. “So ‘André Costello and the Cool Minors’ could have been just me and the chords I was playing.” The band solidified - and hit its stride - around 2012’s Summer’s Best and 2015’s The Rattling Arcade (all made for Wild Kindness Records). Resident Frequencies is his first release for Misra.