Newly christened solo artists can try their best to avoid being outshone by the light of their former band, but Sean Carey never stood a chance. The Wisconsinite’s debut 2012 album Range of Light shimmers with stunning fragility, but not without comparisons to his long-time band Bon Iver. As the band’s drummer and supporting vocalist, Carey provided underrated support for a group that would go on to gain one of the most substantial cult followings of any post-millennium indie band to date. His creative recess was not an individualized act of defiance, but rather the product of his down time between tours back home in Wisconsin. As long as the band stays intact, beautiful music will always be welcome.

S. Carey’s inspiration for Range of Light is written all over the face of “Fire-Scene.” Carey explained the album’s motivational stimulus to Consequence of Sound by saying “When I was a kid, my parents got divorced, and my dad lived in Arizona. Every summer we would go visit him and explore — basically road-trip around and camp and fish and hike, and do all that stuff…Some of the songs are about those memories.” Despite the song’s gentle tone, Carey’s heart is evidently stained with a dark recollection of being betrayed by his parents divorce. He repeats the somber refrain “On and on, all I want it honesty” to lull himself out life’s grim untruths that haunt his adolescent years. The music video reflects that distraught childhood perception as well, showing nature’s beauty clashing with the slightest bit of human interaction to form a mess of desolation seemingly frozen in time.