The alias of Lawrence, Kansas-based singer/songwriter Taryn Blake Miller, Your Friend began as a one-woman show, with Miller working out her enigmatic songs in a live setting via her atmospheric guitar work and soaring voice. Through word of mouth and a flurry of high-energy house shows, Miller eventually moved on to bigger venues, often enlisting a rotating cast of local musicians to back her up, and eventually landing opening slots for national touring bands. A recording deal with Domino Records was struck, and Miller began working on her debut EP with co-producer Jordan Geiger (Hospital Ships), who helped Miller flesh out her dreamy indie rock anthems with layers of bass, drums, keyboards, and vocals. The resulting much buzzed-about Jekyll/Hyde was released in early 2014. After a major tour supporting the EP, Miller returned home to Kansas to write the material for her first full-length, which she recorded with producer Nicolas Vernhes (the War on Drugs, Deerhunter) in Brooklyn, New York. The highly textured LP Gumption arrived via Domino in January 2016. ~ James Christopher Monger