La Dispute find freedom in figuring life out

No One Was Driving The Car, La Dispute’s long-awaited new record, was devised in multiple practice spaces whilst making tour stops in England, South East Asia and Australia. Soaking in subtle moments of inspiration, the group brought everything together back home in Michigan, concluding its writing in December 2024.

Their promotion for the record started with a letter sent out to listeners signed up to their mailing list in April 2025. The letter led fans to a webpage that stated ‘I AM NO ONE’. This in turn hinted at cryptic themes for the upcoming album, including for opener “I Shaved My Head In The Sink”, an overbearing motif of superficial identity erasure and a yearning for control over one’s own life.

The choice to release in five segments throughout the year was suggested by the band’s manager, whom the group consider to be their sixth member. Dreyer elaborates that there was hesitancy from the band at first to release No One Was Driving The Car this way, with their previous albums having clearer track listings. But, as they soon found, this segmented approach could present the record the way it was intended to be consumed – emphasising a cinematic listening experience.

With the band’s early days consisting of bookings through word of mouth, Myspace, and later exposure through Blogspot and Tumblr, Dreyer acknowledges that La Dispute have always been drawn to unconventional ways to release their music. “We started by burning mini CDRs and binder notes very early on, I think giving people the opportunity to provide source material and early influences. As consumers, I think we've always been drawn to the exploration behind any given thing, so we felt pretty naturally called to do so with our music from an early era,” he explains, flinching at the term “consumers” as the “worst” word to use.

“I don't really think of myself as being the character in the story necessarily, but I don't think of the character as being separate from me either, if that makes sense?” offers Dreyer, speaking from a room surrounded by carefully arranged house plants. “A lot of the record is drawn from personal experience until [the protagonist] hits that weird cosmic shift in the record and things become a bit otherworldly.”

One of Dreyer’s main inspirations for storytelling, alongside archived material the band discovered regarding Grand Rapids from over 50 decades ago, comes from the 2017 A24 thriller ‘First Reformed’ – specifically from the floating scene in the film’s later half which is heavily referenced on the whirlwind album track “Top Sellers Banquet”. Directed by Michigan-based screenwriter Paul Schrader, whose credits include Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Dreyer says that he felt a kinship with what was being discussed in his films and the early religious environment that some of the band drew parallels to in their upbringings.

Dreyer himself grew up in the Christian Reformed Church, which emphasised to their followers that God's plan in life for humans is heavily pre-determined, including cycles of suffering and hopelessness, yet the punishment is equal. A particular line from track “Environmental Catastrophe Film” highlights this connection early on in the record’s runtime; “In heaven there’s a ledger and you’re circled there twice / on a line in the back / does it matter then?"

“The themes on display in ‘First Reformed’ are all pretty relevant to what I wanted to convey,” Dreyer explains. “I think that’s why I felt so drawn to it in the first place. The structure of the record itself seemed worth considering when we started to figure out how to make it,” he continues, noting that whilst it’s not an essential watch to understand the full concept of No One Was Driving The Car, the film “clues you into the mindset of the record, if nothing else.”

Alluding to non-fiction, reminiscent of the group’s second album Wildlife, the record references a houseless person burning in their tent, an incident that happened in Dreyer’s sphere, as well as a line about a woman overdosing, a traumatic event that he and a friend once witnessed at a bus stop. Given the heavy subject matter encapsulated in the record alongside every story that Dreyer wanted to tell, he agrees that sonically the album feels angrier as a result of observing his environment of Michigan and universal fears of technology that feels almost inescapable in the wider world. On “Sibling Fistfight at Mom's Fiftieth / The Un-sound” Dreyer delivers a rare swear word in the line “It’s a fucking complicated thing/joy and grief and in-between”. “I definitely surprised my bandmates with that one!” Jordan laughs, “I deliberately didn’t tell them it was coming but I think they’ve been wanting me to say ‘fucking’ on a song for a long time.”

“Just to be clear, it’s not like I’m afraid to swear in my writing but for that song, it’s the second line that repeats,” he shares. “The song has a note of resignation but not in a negative way, more like ‘here we are on earth and the mistakes that we make here are also the ways we do good and connect with people.” He adds, “Every project requires something different and, pretty early on, after I've pitched a concept, I have a pretty clear visualisation of what it will look and sound like sonically, dynamically. We have on the previous two records, especially a mix of highs and lows, peaks and valleys. The records that I love the most have each and having each allows each one to land at maximum impact, I guess, but ultimately from the idea you have and what you are trying to capture emotionally.”

22 years into La Dispute’s career, now more than ever, the band has seen a spike in popularity through the memefication of “Such Small Hands” and more recently “King Park”, the latter being used extensively on Tiktok and Instagram Reels, more often than not in a humorous context partly to Dreyer’s distinct vocal delivery, but also a removal of the context they were written in. Despite their ambivalence to perform “Such Small Hands” for many years, it quietly crept back into their setlist last year during the Australian leg of the Wildlife anniversary tour – even if La Dispute consider it to be a throwaway track that they wrote in their early 20’s to introduce 2008’s debut, Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair.

These days, Dreyer tends to lean into and acknowledge this side of attention that their music gets, as ultimately it can be a gateway: listeners who stumble upon the memes and become fans. Knowingly, he accepts that “you're making music for yourself and for each other, and the act of creating is fulfilling enough you don't want to heavily consider how people react or feel about it but when it is being misperceived it can be a bit frustrating. You get this perception that people think of you as the ‘Darling’ band or whatever or even just quoting ‘Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself?’ out of context, without consideration for the complexity of the story.”

In regards to fan interaction, Dreyer has in the past been contacted by fans who share that certain songs resonate with them. “A lot of people who've experienced trauma connect to our music, or who are otherwise looking to make sense of life, connect to our music. I think that's because they see their own exploration reflected in ours. I think early on, maybe I misunderstood and it felt like people were talking to me as if I were a person who had experienced trauma and come out on the other side better for it, or who at least was able to figure things out in a way that made life manageable.” Reflecting on being given this role he shares, “I don't think that I have, and I don't think anyone ever really does. You're just constantly in the process of making sense of the universe, and don't want people to mistake me for an authority figure”. Dreyer concludes: “I think the majority of people don't. They want to see that the way they're feeling is reflected in the art they consume. I think that's really powerful.”

This year alone has seen La Dispute embark once again on worldwide tours, easing in fans nicely with generous offerings from their new album. A particular highlight for the band was playing at the Forest Stage at 2000 Trees in Cheltenham over the summer, hiding away from the oppressive 35 degree heat present that day. “We had always heard good things about Trees, and got to play two sets reflecting both the heavier and softer side of our band. The Forest [Stage] was cool because you’re in such a different physical environment which is something we love and often don’t get to embrace at home.”

Closing out their summer run was a support slot for UK post-hardcore trance outfit Enter Shikari in Cologne in an outdoor concrete venue space. Dreyer was told by their booking agent in Germany that they would fit well on the bill due to their connected ethics of issues, especially both artists' vocal support of Palestine starting years before the movement gained further traction. “I had never had the chance to listen to them before but they were super nice dudes and very engaging as performers! It’s a very different experience performance wise when you realise the crowd didn’t necessarily pay to see you, so in a way it felt like there was a lot less pressure. There’s this attitude that comes with it, I guess, where you can be like ‘these people don’t know who we are – let's do that thing that we do together. I can be a weirdo, and I love to be a weirdo on stage’ he chuckles.