Destroyer

Biography

Destroyer is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 1995 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The band is fronted by founding member and lead vocalist Dan Bejar, with a collective of regular band members and collaborators joining him in the studio and during live performances. Alongside Bejar, Destroyer currently includes longtime producers John Collins (bass) and David Carswell (guitar), Nicolas Bragg (lead guitar), Ted Bois (keyboards), JP Carter (trumpet) and Joshua Wells (drums).
The band's discography draws on a variety of musical influences, resulting in albums that can sound markedly distinct from one another; in Bejar's words, "That's kind of my goal: to start from scratch every time." Destroyer has released fourteen studio albums to date, with their most recent, Dan's Boogie, released in March 2025.

1996–2001: We'll Build Them a Golden Bridge, City of Daughters, Thief, Streethawk: A Seduction

We'll Build Them a Golden Bridge, Destroyer's 1996 debut, is made up of sixteen lo-fi home-recordings. One reviewer suggested that the album combines Bejar's "gift for melodies" with "a concerted effort to make the recording downright inconsumable; the guitars are always out of tune, and the vocals of Fisher-Price quality. 'Static means punk / tuning is junk,' Bejar moans on one track." Ideas for Songs, released on cassette in 1997, features songs akin to those on his first album. The cassette stemmed from a request to contribute songs for a compilation album.
As Bejar gained popularity in Vancouver's music scene, he was joined by producer John Collins for 1998's City of Daughters, which was recorded at a proper studio. Pitchfork noted that the songs still sounded "homespun", also noting "[t]he wordiness that would become something of a trademark is in full effect", but that "unlike much of what came later, not every line is worthy of examination."
Thief (2000) embodied "Bejar's first stab at matching his grandiose, idiosyncratic vision to a showier sound"; it was the first to feature a backing band on every track. The record's "anthemic yet understated" piano-driven ballads have characteristically enigmatic lyrics, though some reviewers interpreted them as critiques of the music industry.
Streethawk: A Seduction (2001) realized the sonic refinement started with City of Daughters. Bejar put it this way: "I don't think it gives credence to any kind of conceptualization of the records, but I hope that City of Daughters, Thief, and Streethawk will pop into some kind of a progression that ends with Streethawk." A critical success, the album retrospectively received a rating of 9.1/10 from Pitchfork.

2002–2007: This Night, Your Blues, Destroyer's Rubies

The 2002 rock album This Night×This Night7 October 2002 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 15 tracks1This Night5:582Holly Going Lightly5:083Here Comes the Night6:364The Chosen Few3:595Makin' Angels4:146Hey, Snow White7:557Modern Painters3:008Crystal Country3:459Trembling Peacock4:1610I Have Seen a Light5:0611Students Carve Hearts Out of Coal3:4612Goddess of Drought3:3113Self Portrait With Thing (Tonight Is Not Your Night)6:2614The Relevant Ballads0:3715The Night Moves3:49 was a dramatic change in style. The looser, less rehearsed style was criticized as "messy [and] haphazard without purpose", though other critics praised the "beautiful mess of sounds" as "challenging... [and] a powerful, cohesive whole." In a 2006 interview (after the release of Your Blues and Destroyer's Rubies), Bejar said the album "came together pretty quickly – we probably could have used more than four or five days to mix the whole thing, but that's all hindsight. It's still my favorite Destroyer record."
Your Blues (2004) saw Destroyer take another unexpected turn, using MIDI instrumentation for almost all the backing music. Bejar coined the term "European blues" to describe its unique, theatrical sound. One reviewer pointed out that "Bejar's unusual voice sounds more confident, and higher up" in the synth-rich arrangements. In another twist, the EP Notorious Lightning & Other Works reworked six tracks from the record with a live band, the very thing the LP had forsaken (the band was Frog Eyes, who toured with Destroyer in support of Your Blues).
Bejar returned with a live band for 2006's Destroyer's Rubies, delivering his most confident record up to that point. The backing band took new-found prominence and, according to Bejar, "[t]he production seems... warm and lush and pretty focused on just making the band sound good and having everything sit well together." Now magazine observed, "[w]hile the sheer density of Bejar's writing can be overwhelming, Destroyer's Rubies is, on a musical level, the most 'accessible' disc he's released."

2008–2013: Trouble in Dreams, Kaputt

For Trouble in Dreams (2008), "there was a scary lack of ideas coming into the record", Bejar admitted. Destroyer's piano player Ted Bois took it upon himself, as an alternative to keyboard and piano accompaniment, to create all string and synth arrangements for the songs. At the time, Bejar said it was the "hardest record" to make.
After the 2009 EP Bay of Pigs×Bay of Pigs18 August 2009 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksABay of Pigs13:39BRavers7:50 came 2011's full-length album, Kaputt×Kaputt25 January 2011 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Chinatown3:492Blue Eyes4:073Savage Night at the Opera4:234Suicide Demo for Kara Walker8:255Poor in Love3:266Kaputt6:177Downtown3:518Song for America4:289Bay of Pigs (detail)11:1710The Laziest River19:57 (featuring a slightly modified "Bay of Pigs" track). Bejar cited influences such as Miles Davis and Roxy Music for his new jazz-infused, lounge music-inspired, sophisti-pop direction. In multiple interviews, Bejar variously stressed that he "sang in a completely different manner, almost unconscious of even singing, more like speaking into a vacuum, and was really happy with the results." The record entailed a number of firsts for Destroyer: first national television performance (on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon); first official music video; first female backing vocals; and the first time Bejar performed without an instrument on tour – his concentration placed solely on his singing. Kaputt was short listed for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize and was Pitchfork's second best album of 2011.
Smaller in scale, Destroyer's fourth EP Five Spanish Songs×Five Spanish Songs25 November 2013 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 5 tracks1Maria de las Nieves4:492Del montón2:323El rito3:364Babieca5:345Bye Bye3:00 is sung entirely in Spanish, Bejar covered songs by Sr. Chinarro (es). Bejar's own tongue-in-cheek press release announcing the new songs began: "It was 2013. The English language seemed spent, despicable, not easily singable."

2014–2019: Poison Season, ken

Bejar released Poison Season on August 28, 2015. Bejar notes that the album's sound grew from "just really getting into what we were sounding like playing live [following Kaputt]." Bejar added that he would not have been able to make such an ambitious album if Kaputt×Kaputt25 January 2011 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Chinatown3:492Blue Eyes4:073Savage Night at the Opera4:234Suicide Demo for Kara Walker8:255Poor in Love3:266Kaputt6:177Downtown3:518Song for America4:289Bay of Pigs (detail)11:1710The Laziest River19:57 had not been successful. Recorded with a live band and a pronounced string section, the album's "grand cinematic set of songs" feature Bejar singing with a broader range than before: "This is the first record that I've ever done that comes close to my idea of myself as a singer", Bejar said.
In 2017, Bejar released ken, an album produced by Destroyer drummer Joshua Wells (who was also a member of Black Mountain).

2020–present: Have We Met, Labyrinthitis, and Dan's Boogie

Destroyer's twelfth studio album, Have We Met×Have We Met31 January 2020 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Crimson Tide6:102Kinda Dark3:253It Just Doesn't Happen5:014The Television Music Supervisor4:105The Raven3:356Cue Synthesizer3:557University Hill3:408Have We Met2:559The Man in Black's Blues3:4010Foolssong5:45, was released on January 31, 2020.
On March 25, 2022, the band's thirteenth studio album, Labyrinthitis×Labyrinthitis25 March 2022 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1It’s in Your Heart Now6:562Suffer3:303June6:334All My Pretty Dresses4:405Tintoretto, It’s for You3:066Labyrinthitis3:197Eat the Wine, Drink the Bread3:378It Takes a Thief2:419The States6:5610The Last Song2:34, was released. It was short-listed for the 2023 Polaris Music Prize.
On March 28, 2025, the band released their fourteenth album, Dan's Boogie. It was critically acclaimed, with Pitchfork (magazine) giving the album an 8/10 and the album being longlisted for the 2025 Polaris Music Prize.

Band name

In 2002, Bejar said about the band name, "I kind of wanted to go for a rock 'n' roll name. In our own special way we're tearing shit apart, you just have to listen very carefully. Musically I knew it was never going to be a metal band, but I thought lyrically there were fangs to the music." Bejar added in 2008, "I was actually so out of it I didn't know that there was a Kiss record called Destroyer because I didn't know anything about Kiss. I still don't know anything about them. I just thought it was a cool rock-and-roll name, and I was kind of blown away that it hadn't been taken already. I was like, 'I have to use this because it's so weird that no one's used it before.'"

Collaborators

The ever-evolving band lineup can give the impression that Destroyer is a solo project. However, Bejar has insisted "[t]he music is always collaborative and I think that gets lost in the weird cult of personality shit that seems to get whipped up around me." Although Bejar had claimed that the lineup from certain recording sessions would be permanent, later recording sessions and tours added and dropped musicians. Several band members have the commonality of being from the production team of JC/DC (John Collins and David Carswell).
Some songs recorded for Your Blues originated from Bejar's musical contribution to Sheila Heti's play All Our Happy Days Are Stupid.
On the EP Archer on the Beach×Archer on the Beach2 November 2010 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAArcher on the Beach7:21BGrief Point8:40 (2010), Bejar worked with ambient-music composer Tim Hecker for the title track. Bejar wrote in the press release: "The reason why this has to be seen as a collaboration, rather than strictly a Destroyer release, is that, for the first time, I'm not responsible for any of the music ... aside from the vocals, the general chord progression." On the B-side, the spoken word song "Grief Point", Loscil provided the music. Loscil also composed an extra track, "Loscil's Rubies", on the vinyl version of Destroyer's Rubies.
American visual artist Kara Walker contributed to the lyrics for Kaputt's "Suicide Demo (For Kara Walker)". Organized by Merge, Walker sent cue cards with bits of text to Bejar in 2009.
Bejar's wife, Vancouver artist and Hello, Blue Roses partner Sydney Hermant, has provided the cover art for multiple Destroyer albums, including We'll Build Them a Golden Bridge×We'll Build Them a Golden Bridge16 July 1996 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 16 tracks1Revolution1:162J. Tailor2:443Smith1:124I, as McCarthy2:015Mending Song1:086Leave Little Fiddler4:067The Pornographers0:578War on Jazz3:009Islands in the Stream1:3110Saddestroyer3:1511Streets of Fire1:5012Rose Fleched This3:2813Breakin' the Law2:3914Whistlin' Dixie3:0915Riots1:3416Knowing When to Leave2:13, This Night×This Night7 October 2002 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 15 tracks1This Night5:582Holly Going Lightly5:083Here Comes the Night6:364The Chosen Few3:595Makin' Angels4:146Hey, Snow White7:557Modern Painters3:008Crystal Country3:459Trembling Peacock4:1610I Have Seen a Light5:0611Students Carve Hearts Out of Coal3:4612Goddess of Drought3:3113Self Portrait With Thing (Tonight Is Not Your Night)6:2614The Relevant Ballads0:3715The Night Moves3:49, Your Blues×Your Blues8 March 2004 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 15 tracks1Notorious Lightning5:572It's Gonna Take an Aeroplane3:413An Actor's Revenge2:584The Music Lovers4:235From Oakland to Warsaw3:136Your Blues2:597New Ways of Living4:248Don't Become the Thing You Hated2:139Mad Foxes4:4810The Fox and the Hound3:2611What Road3:5912Certain Things You Ought to Know4:5613Chosen Few (acoustic version)4:2914Goddess of Drought (acoustic version)3:3915Students Carve Hearts Out (acoustic version)3:01, Trouble in Dreams and Labyrinthitis.

Members

Current members

Dan Bejar – lead vocals, guitar, synthesisers (1995–present)
John Collins – bass guitar, synthesisers, programming, production (1998–2001, 2003–present)
Nicolas Bragg – lead guitar (2002, 2005–present)
Ted Bois – keyboards (2005–present)
David Carswell – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, production (2009–present)
JP Carter – trumpet (2010–present)
Joshua Wells – drums, percussion, backing vocals, keyboards (2012–present)
Former members

Scott Morgan – drums, saxophone, clarinet, classical guitar (1998–2002, 2005–2007)
Jason Zumpano – keyboards (1999–2002)
Stephen Wood – guitar 1999–2002
Chris Frey – bass guitar (2002)
Fisher Rose – drums, vibraphone, trumpet (2002, 2005–2008)
Tim Loewen – bass guitar (2005–2008)
Pete Bourne – drums (2008–2011)
Joseph Shabason – saxophone, flutes (2010–2017)
Former touring members

Colin Cowan – bass guitar (2017–2023)
Carey Mercer – backing vocals, guitar, organ (2004)
Melanie Campbell – drums (2004)
Michael Rak – bass guitar (2004)
Grayson Walker – keyboards (2004)