Following their seemingly endless tour schedule, Tennis quickly regrouped and began work on their second full-length. The album Young & Old was written and recorded in a relatively short three-month span. Produced by
Black Keys member Patrick Carney and featuring drums by new bandmember James Barone, the album was released by
Fat Possum in February of 2012. The band soon switched labels, signing with
Mumford & Sons member Ben Lovett's
Communion Music, before releasing the Small Sound EP on
Communion in late 2013. The trio returned with their third album, Ritual in Repeat, in the autumn of 2014. More accessible and diverse than previous efforts, the record featured songs produced by
Richard Swift,
the Black Keys' Patrick Carney, and
Spoon's Jim Eno.
Soon after the album's release, Barone left the band and Riley and Moore began working on another album. Finding themselves blocked creatively, they set sail on another journey by sea, traveling from San Diego south past the Baja coast to the Sea of Cortez, where they docked and worked on music for four months. Once back home, they decided to start their own record label,
Mutually Detrimental, and in late 2016 released two songs from their upcoming fourth album. The duo handled production chores themselves this time out and were joined on many tracks by their tour drummer, Steve Voss of the band Tetherball. Yours Conditionally was released in early 2017 as the band set out for a long North American tour. They found time to record more songs, too, and released the five-track We Can Die Happy EP in November.~ Tim Sendra