After four albums with Delta Spirit and a one-off with Middle Brother, a supergroup featuring members of Deer Tick and Dawes, Matthew Logan Vasquez is back, only this time he’s going it alone.

Having released a solo EP last year, Vasquez’s debut LP Solicitor Returns dropped this year and it’s way rockier than you’d expect. With layered acoustic guitar rhythms hidden underneath boisterous electric lead riffs, Vasquez turns the amplifier up, stepping far outside his softer indie rock/Americana comfort zones.

The man did work, too. Vasquez not only plays nearly every instrument on the record, but he also self-directed and self-animated the video for “Everything I Do Is Out” – a fuzzy, electric rocker that demands to be played loud.

“This song was the catalyst for the whole solo project,” he says. “The song is about my disdain for certain parts of music industry and what it does to people. It’s also about maintaining the mentality that made me love rock ’n’ roll in the first place. My only intention with this music is to play it in bars with my friends. I want to care less about caring at all.”

Caring less sounds magical.