Guards were formed in the summer of 2010, when Richie James Follin (The Willowz, Cults, CRX, Follin, The Hives) was on a break from touring. He wrote an EP’s worth of material and recorded it in a basement in Piermont, NY with drummer Loren Humphrey (Cameron Winter, Geese, Lana Del Rey, Arctic Monkeys, Tame Impala). They then decided to put it on the internet under the moniker Guards. The next morning the EP was all over the internet thanks to a few tweets from the EP’s guest vocalists Caroline Polachek of Chairlift & Madeline Follin of Cults. NPR praised the band stating, "a sound deconstructed through the minds of musicians who look more to memories than they do to the future, and in the process find something that sounds like a new discovery.”. Dazed stated, "the songs are uncompromisingly raw harnessing pessimistic heartache to craft tracks about birth, death and any emotional malaise you might experience in between.”. The Guardian simply stated, "It's pretty fucking impressive”. The Wall St. Journal touted their record as “one of the years best albums.”. Guards have toured internationally, performing at major festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Primavera Sound, and have toured alongside Queens of the Stone Age, MGMT, and Portugal. The Man. Their song “Silver Lining” serves as the official Big Ten Conference theme song.