Bandits on the Run Release New Shakespeare-Inspired Record

Theatrical indie-folk trio Bandits on the Run has just released a new EP, The Shakespeare Tapes. The new record was born out of a collaboration with director Peter Anderson, who tapped the group to create songs for a production of As You Like It at Carnegie Mellon University. 

In this unique production, which also featured songs inspired by the prose from Twelfth Night, actors were cast in roles best suited to their spirits, resulting in an ensemble that looked different from what one might expect from a traditional binaried lens. Inspired by the task of writing songs that broke a mold of being strictly for male or female voices, Bandits on the Run's Sydney Shepherd (she/her) became the voice of Orlando (the play's bad-boy protagonist), and Adrian Blake Enscoe (he/they) voiced Rosalind, the gender bending heroine of the story.

In a twist of fate, as they worked on queering up the material and developing the mold-breaking songs, Bandits on the Run found themselves in Nashville, TN, to record, right when national attention was being called to the state for its government's attempts to ban the art of drag. “It feels like the songs have an inherent spirit of rebellion in them. They're a mix of new and old, honoring our artistic ancestors who pushed the limits in their time, and reminding us to push the limits of our own,” says Enscoe. “The Shakespeare Tapes is in honor of love, chaos, dread, exaltation, confusion, identity, and romance beyond traditional gender roles.” 

Check out the new EP here:

All of Shakespeare's comedies end with weddings, and so The Shakespeare Tapes comes to a close with “Lover and his Lass / Springtime,” a free-loving embodiment of spring with all its blossoms and new possibilities, celebrating a joyous ending full of love.

Known for their distinct combination of cello, guitar, accordion and found-percussion with sophisticated three-part harmonies and rotating lead vocals, the trio of Shepherd, Enscoe, and Regina Strayhorn (she/her) sprang from a chance encounter while busking in NYC's bustling subways and burst onto the national stage in 2019 when their song, “Love in the Underground,” was featured on the NPR Tiny Desk Contest's Top Shelf. After recording their 2021 EP, Now Is The Time, with producer Ryan Hadlock (Brandi Carlile, The Lumineers), the Bandits took to the screen, devising a short musical film, Band At The End Of The World, commissioned by Prospect Musicals.

Since then, they have continued to explore the nexus of indie-folk and theatrical storytelling, composing music for the Netflix animated series, Storybots, scoring the movie, The Same Storm, and receiving an NEA grant for a new musical with Prospect Musicals, all the while touring the globe with appearances at the Cambridge Folk Festival, Floydfest, Summerfest Milwaukee, Americanafest, F1 Singapore Grand Prix, Mile of Music, and the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival. Enscoe recently received rave reviews for their performance as Little Brother in Swept Away on Broadway, featuring music written by The Avett Brothers. Bandits on the Run are currently working on the stage musical adaptation of the novel What's Eating Gilbert Grape alongside actor-musician Christopher Sears and Academy Award Nominee Peter Hedges, who wrote the original book and screenplay, in association with MCC Theater.

On The Shakespeare Tapes, Bandits on the Run's backgrounds as classically trained actors gives a depth and organic energy to Shakespearean text that can sometimes feel dense and inaccessible (we've all been in a middle school English class!) and their fresh fierce and frolicsome interpretations certainly make one wonder: what would a full-scale production of a Bandits Shakespeare show look like? With their recent foray into musical theatre writing and the ever-widening Venn Diagram of the Bandits' musical and theatrical lives expanding, perhaps time will tell…