A sweeping wash of oscillating purple and blue rippled across Neumos’ brick walls, as fuzzed guitars, lilting pedalsteel and honeyed vocals drifted through the room—villagerrr’s signature melancholic yet danceable folk rock. “Come find me a way to preserve all the paper you made in your print shop in my hand, I’ll keep all the memories,” vocalist and lyricist Mark Scott sang, kicking off their set with the wistful piano riff of fan-favorite track “See.” 

Opening for Ratboys Tuesday, April 7, the Ohio-based group is preparing for the release of their album Carousel, coming out May 29. 

While the band’s previous album, Tear Your Heart Out, released in 2025, leaned into a softer folk-rock twang, Carousel carries a new fullness and weight while maintaining the band’s signature nostalgic, midwestern warmth. “Locket,” the album’s first single—released March 3 along with the album announcement—layers vocals that shift from euphonious to conversational (“hot spit!”) and build in intensity through oozing pedalsteel riffs and tight percussion. 

villagerrr is made up of Scott, bassist Cam Garshon, drummer Zayn Dweik, guitarist Alex Cox and pedalsteel player Henry Schullerman. The group has opened for acts like Feeble Little Horse, Greg Freeman, Horse Jumper of Love, Real Estate and Momma.  

Carousel’s lyrics explore the difficulties of making art that is genuine through commodification and the cyclical nature of the music industry, examining what it means to maintain a tight-knit community through an increasingly isolating and profit-focused point in time. The last song on their setlist, the unreleased final track on Carousel, “What Does It Mean?” captures the desire for connection and meaning through monotony.

“I think that it’s a fun challenge to try to tell a story in a short amount of time,” Scott said. I have some longer songs, but you can only say so much. I try not to hide things or complicate them in verbose ways.”

“I cried watching the TV, it felt like healing,” Scott sings on “Swimming,” Carousel’s second single released March 31, 2026, his voice blending with Garshon’s over Schullerman’s lush pedalsteel. 

villagerrr went through multiple phases—Scott previously performed under the name Mitch Mitchell, later forming another band called Breakfast, which featured both Garshon and Dweik.

Garshon, Scott’s partner, remembers meeting Scott after he saw her perform in 2021. 

“Our first actual interaction was at Zayn’s house in his living room after a show,” Garshon said.

“He just goes, ‘your onstage presence is goofy.’ Excuse me? He was like, ‘No, no, no, I mean that as a compliment.’ I was just like, this guy’s hot, but he’s weird… He’s got that weird rizz.” 

Recording Carousel was a collaborative process—the band worked with artists such as Teethe’s Boone Petrallo, and the album features artists such as Dan Poppa of People I Love and Carolina Chauffe of hemlock. The band didn’t record in-studio, instead opting to record in spaces such as Garshon’s parents’ house, Dweik’s basement and Garshon and Scott’s bedroom.

“It’s a long attic room, and we have this little couch in the middle. We call it dog bed because it’s a human-sized dog bed,” Garshon said. “He puts the little headphones on me and hands me a microphone, and he’s like, ‘Just sing this part.’ That’s it. It just happens in a room sitting on a human-sized dog bed.”

Carousel’s lyrics build upon Tear Your Heart Out’s emphasis on interpersonal relationships, with Scott’s imagistic yet grounded writing exploring how the members’ lives have changed through touring and creating together. 

“We definitely feel like sometimes it’s us versus the world, flying down the highway in our shit box,” Dweik said. “We have a lot of fun together. We make each other laugh a lot… We are all genuinely friends.”

“Don’t forget, don’t forget, we’re on a team,” Scott drones in “Locket’s” infectious hook. 

A correction was made on April 29, 2026: this article has been updated to accurately reflect the band lineup of villagerrr and who assisted in the recording of their album ‘Carousel.’