After a long absence, Rilo Kiley—Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett, Jason Boesel, and Pierre “Duke” de Reeder—are back, with arms outstretched.

Over the years, a reunion “felt like a possibility, but it was never the right time,” explains Boesel. Eventually, “the emotional component and the interpersonal communication component all arrived into this place where it had a straight shot at reality.”

“Planning this reunion over these past months has been like reconnecting with family. We haven’t missed a beat,” says De Reeder. “The stakes are only to have a good time, to revel in this nostalgia.  Getting to revisit and celebrate the music from that special time of our lives while experiencing it alongside a lot of people that lived it with us back when, and new folks alike.”

“It couldn’t have happened any sooner,” says Lewis. “It feels like now is the time to share that joy and love with each other and with everyone else.”

“For some people, Rilo Kiley evokes a formative, emotional time in life, when you were maybe grasping for your place in the universe. We were too,” says Sennett. “Reconnecting with those people is paramount to anything else.”

“It’s going to be wonderful for us, like going back to the purest version of yourself, that early ’20s place where everything is possible,” says Lewis. “You’re in a van and Jason’s got the map, Pierre is behind the wheel, and I’m on the shitty acoustic guitar in the bench seat working out a new song with Blake. I don’t think it’s ever been as good as that, when it was just us against the world.”

—

Rilo Kiley was born from hunger, from the insatiable desire to write one’s own story. The band’s origins can be traced back to Los Angeles in the late 1990s, when Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett discovered a shared songwriting obsession and began performing together. After some starts and stops, a band was formed with  Pierre “Duke” de Reeder playing bass. They called themselves Rilo Kiley, borrowing a name that came to Sennett in a dream.

Following a promising EP, Rilo Kiley got to work on their debut, 2001’s Take Offs and Landings. Self-recorded at home, the scrappy album offered a mix of Pacific Northwest-inspired indie rock and emo-adjacent angst, with a number of hushed and heartfelt tracks led by Sennett. Though their sound would evolve with time, Take Offs introduced many of the qualities that would define Rilo Kiley: clever and raw observations about life and death; evocative melodies that infuse deeper shades of meaning; and seriously great storytelling.

If Take Offs was a self-assured launchpad, 2002’s The Execution of All Things was a triumphant arrival. For their second record, Rilo Kiley headed to Nebraska to record with Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis alongside new drummer Jason Boesel. Here, Lewis truly becomes a generational songwriter, spinning interior mysteries regarding romance, depression, trauma, hope, and isolation into cathartic revelations.

The title of their third album, 2004’s More Adventurous, aptly reflects the band’s increasingly  ambitious compositions. It was also a poetic reference to perseverance in the face of heartbreak, a reminder that the things that make you weep don’t have to make you weak. This sentiment guides Lewis as she addresses the failings of institutions large and small, from politics to marriage to religious morality.

By that time, Rilo Kiley was a beloved presence in certain corners of pop culture. The bandmates’ explored other musical outlets but reunited for 2007’s Under the Blacklight, a groovy, ’80s-tinged examination of humanity’s seedy underbelly. In 2013, they shared Rkives, a compilation of leftover treasures pulled from old cassette tapes and hard drives. In 2020, Rilo Kiley reissued their 1999 The Initial Friend EP.