Early in 2020 Lehtisalo and Baker began trading sounds over the internet—fragmentary keyboard licks and textural guitar riffs, retro electro-beats and pulsing bass lines—slowly constructing them into songs that combined a sort of ’80s New Wave/AOR aesthetic with a heavy/noisy shoegaze/industrial sound. The end result was Crocodile Tears, five catchily anthemic songs channeling the perhaps unlikely pairing of Godflesh and Jan Hammer, electronic pop and pretty melodies mixed with textural guitars and heavy metal riffs.

Finnish multi-instrumentalist Jussi Lehtisalo is founder of the experimental rock band Circle, active since 1991. He also performs with Pharaoh Overlord, Steel Mammoth, and Aktor, to name some of his many projects, and has collaborated with Isis’ Aaron Turner as Split Cranium. He has been running Ektro Records since the mid-1990s and with Circle has released albums on such labels as Southern Lord, Riot Season, No Quarter, and Hydrahead Records.

Canadian multi-instrumentalist Aidan Baker performs solo and with various ensembles, most notably the ambient metal duo, Nadja. He has toured and performed around the world and released numerous albums on such labels as Alien8 Recordings, Important Records, Hydrahead Records, Karlrecords, and Southern Lord.