While the winter snow buried his hometown of Milwaukee, Brett Newski hibernated to South Africa, touring, couch surfing and writing songs for the “Hi-Fi D.I.Y. EP.” His car broke down on day one of the tour, food poisoning set in on day five and his train car fell under attack by robbers on a trip from Johannesburg to Durban, inspiring the song “No Anchor,” a song about diving face-first into the world alone with no safety net.

In preparation for the Hi-Fi D.I.Y. World Tour, Brett returned home to record new material. Fellow Milwaukean and Violent Femmes cofounder, Victor DeLorenzo, produced Hi-Fi D.I.Y. at Howl Street Recordings in Milwaukee. The two geared up for the Hi-Fi sessions by holding coffee drinking contests on Victor’s front porch, demoing tunes on an old snare drum and ragtime guitar. The five songs are a blend of Newski’s anxiety-rich indie rock, along with tongue-in-cheek power acoustic tunes like “DIY,” about playing “the worst show of your life to four people on a shitty Monday night in St. Louis.” The final leg of the “Hi-Fi D.I.Y”. world tour took place in Feb of 2016 in Australia