Dirty Projectors

Dirty Projectors is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002. The band is the project of singer-songwriter David Longstreth, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The band currently has two line-up configurations; one of which features Longstreth alongside vocalists and multi-instrumentalists Olga Bell, Felicia Douglass and Maia Friedman; and the other being a trio featuring Longstreth, Karl McComas-Reichl (bass) and Christopher Bear (drums). Since its formation, Dirty Projectors has released ten full-length studio albums, with the project featuring major contributions from co-lead vocalist and guitarist Amber Coffman from 2006 to 2013. Following the release of Rise Above (2007), an album of Black Flag songs as re-imagined from memory, Dirty Projectors released their break-through album, Bitte Orca in 2009. Featuring lead vocals from Longstreth, Coffman, and Angel Deradoorian, the album received widespread critical acclaim and increased the band's exposure significantly. Its follow-up, Swing Lo Magellan (2012), was released to further acclaim. Following the departure of Coffman in 2013, Longstreth focused Dirty Projectors into a mostly studio-based project, releasing the albums, Dirty Projectors and Lamp Lit Prose, in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Dirty Projectors became a full band once again in 2018 with the addition of co-lead vocalists Felicia Douglass, Maia Friedman and Kristin Slipp to tour in support of Lamp Lit Prose. Inspired by the chemistry and dynamic of the band's current line-up, the group recorded and released five EPs across 2020. In 2024, former member Olga Bell returned to the band's line-up ahead of performances of an orchestral song cycle, named Song of the Earth, which was released as a studio album in April 2025 on Nonesuch Records. In late 2025, Longstreth repurposed Dirty Projectors into a trio, featuring bassist Karl McComas-Reichl and Grizzly Bear drummer Christopher Bear.