How We Lost

Windsor For The Derby spent the last year and a half writing and recording the “How We Lost” record. Holed up for days on end in their Philadelphia studio, they recorded and re-recorded obsessively until every sound was exactly where they wanted it. Gear broke, hard drives crashed, gear broke again, and nervous breakdowns ensued. It seemed at times that this record would never be completed but the band persevered just as they have managed to do for the past dozen or so years, as the music industry fluxed around it.

Despite the connotation of its title, “How We Lost” is a celebratory album. It’s a reflective record and, in its own way, celebrates the WFTD continuum that’s been created from their first release (Calm Hades Float, 1996) to their last (Giving Up the Ghost, 2005). Each of these recordings is a sequel to the next both in narrative and musically and as the band’s first two records (Calm Hades Float and Minnie Greutzfeldt) were re-released last year they found themselves in constant dialogue about their body of work and the paths they’d chosen. Also a part of that ongoing dialogue were the records that the band finds itself consistently re-visiting (Swell Maps, Section 25, Psychic TV and much of the Factory Records catalog) and what makes those recordings timeless and resonate in a personal way with the band. The songs on “How We Lost” are reflections of those records and those conversations. It’s about the band and the ways the band has changed over the years, the things they hold onto and what’s been left behind.