Laddermen is the Texas Post-Punk project of Leopold Oakes, blending rusty reverb guitars with stripped-back acoustic elements to craft the soundtrack for anyone chasing ghosts on cracked asphalt. Moving effortlessly between bittersweet restlessness and rooted melancholia, Laddermen gains comparisons to the likes of Modest Mouse, The Strokes, and Interpol. The highly acclaimed debut album Special Kind Of Violence 2021 charted at number 2 on iTunes Switzerland and got praised as “One of the most beautiful albums of 2021” by Tagesanzeiger.

On the heels of his debut release, Laddermen played a run of live shows crowned with an appearance at Wave Fest Rotterdam (NL) alongside Post-Punk trailblazers Pink Turns Blue. Special Kind Of Violence defined Laddermen’s undeniable position in the scene as having “articulate urgency” by postpunk.com. The momentum lead to a herald of new singles and the release of his sophomore album, ‘Life Got Lame and Now You’re Bored’ 2024 which landed on Spotify Editorial playlists and reached new heights of refined Post-Punk. The album is the story of sailors falling out of love with their ships, broken ponies leaving their stables, and a nostalgia for moments not yet experienced.

With a new frontier closing in, Laddermen rides shotgun into a rugged, introspective terrain : a restless boy from Texas pioneering through the isolating metropolis and neon pollution of fading memories. The upcoming third album strips away the polish, trading it for razor wire honesty and is a gritty aching howl for the modern outlaw’s with uncertain tomorrows.