From waking up to going to sleep, you’re in a band. Not just going and performing shows in cities, but that’s the most intensive practice of being in Injury Reserve. Parker: This might sound like a coy, difficult answer, but the first thing we do is go on tour. So where does Injury Reserve go from here? Ritchie directly connects Fisher’s theories on hauntology, a term coined by French philosopher Jacques Derrida that Fisher uses to describe a tangible sense of nostalgia in music, to the algorithms-as-ghosts narrative of Phoenix’s “Top Picks for You.” “I’ve been trying to articulate that concept for years,” he admits. It really unpacks the political implications of music being weird and the necessity of that,” Corey explains. “His writing is very theoretical and political but also very connected to music. But according to both Ritchie and Corey, Malone changed their perspective further by introducing them to the work of writer Mark Fisher, particularly his book Ghosts of My Life.

The work of producer-musician Slauson Malone, who toured with the group in 2019, was also a substantial influence on Injury Reserve’s evolving wall of sound. Morgan Simpson (of UK rock band black midi) and Jack Latham (aka Jam City) have production credits on “Outside” and “Top Picks for You,” respectively. The overall sound of Phoenix pulled from influences both inside and outside their orbit. The album was their first for prominent indie label Loma Vista, and their growing success only pushed them to get weirder. Songs would mutate and break the fourth wall with tongue-in-cheek commentary on fashion (“Jawbreaker”) and the art of making a rap song (“Rap Song Tutorial”). The plan was inspired by Kanye West’s infamous Hawaii sessions for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and the album reveled in a similar maximalism as West’s.

The trio strayed further toward the fringes with their 2019 self-titled album, which came together during marathon recording sessions in Flagstaff, AZ, and outside of Prague in the Czech Republic. Their early work was heavily informed by groups like A Tribe Called Quest, OutKast, and the Cool Kids, but even at their most traditional, Corey’s beats would bend, pop, and melt like deep-fried memes turned into GIFs, while Ritchie and Groggs surfed their unpredictable waves. Their breakout projects, 2015’s Live From the Dentist Office and 2016’s Floss, were recorded after hours in Corey’s grandfather’s old dental office.

Paired with Ritchie’s quick-witted rhymes and Corey’s beats, Injury Reserve established themselves under strange constraints.

“At our age, no one ever expects it to be one of your peers.” To fans and peers alike, Groggs was both a ball of energy and a grounding force when necessary, his raps packed with humor and hard-earned pathos. “For most of our friend group, Groggs was our first major loss,” Ritchie explains over Zoom.

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