Tracking his vocals Ward would send it off to Rule and Kenney, who would return their parts, over a three-week period. “I didn’t see one human being while I made this record” says Ward. By the next day, the song would be finished in his head.

Working remotely with collaborators, Incubus bassist Ben Kenney and Thursday drummer Tucker Rule, Ward started Daggers writing rifts at night in his makeshift studio, then sleeping on it. “When my world has upheaval, it becomes about doing the work in front of me.” “I’ve always used music as an outlet for anxiety and frustration,” shares Ward. Piecing together a narrative fused in anxiety, fear, frustration, and regrets, on Daggers, Ward tucks away from reality to reconfigure his present state. “It was certainly a challenge but what came out of it was the way I deal with things, to make music.” “I just started kind of picking up the guitar at night, which is when I write, and I was just filled with anxiety and stress between the restaurant and music,” shares Ward. Initially, Ward had no plans to release another solo album, and was set to tour with Sparta, following the band’s 2020 release Trust the River, before August rolled around, and postponed dates turned into cancellations. In between keeping his El Paso restaurant, Eloise, up and running and volunteering for a food bank during the pandemic in 2020, at night Ward escaped into music, breaking out of a desolate and depressive state, and into a more hopeful Daggers (Dine Alone Records).

Incubus band anxiety