Lead singer Amelia Meath, who was at the time involved with her trio, Mountain Man, created the vocals to the song called "Play It Right". She later met electronic music producer Nick Sanborn in Milwaukee at the Cactus Club, performing at the time solo as Made of Oak, and asked him to make a rendering of her single, Play It Right, in his own way. From 2012 to 2013, the band slowly formed. Meath had returned from a year-and-a-half tour with Feist and was looking for an affordable place to live, thus landing in Durham with Sanborn and began making their album, with all of their songs being recorded in Sanborn's apartment bedroom. The band named itself after a character in an early iOS game titled "Swords and Sworcery".
2014–2015: ''Sylvan Esso''
Sylvan Esso is the group's eponymous debut studio album, released via Partisan Records. The album reached No. 39 on the Billboard 200 and No. 7 on the Independent Albums chart, The single "Hey Mami" was named Paste Magazine's No. 1 song of 2014. They made their network television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on July 9, 2014, performing the single "Coffee". It received considerable airplay in the US, increasing the profile of the band nationally. In August 2015, the band released the single "H.S.K.T.", which included a remix by Hercules and Love Affair. In April 2015, Sylvan Esso played both weekends of Coachella. Other 2015 dates saw the band perform at The Firefly Music Festival 2015, in Dover, DE, The Eaux ClairesMusic & Arts Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on July 18 and on July 25 at the Wayhome Festival in Oro Medonte, Canada. Sylvan Esso played on Friday, July 31, 2015 at Lollapalooza in Chicago, Illinois. The group also performed both weekends of the 2015 Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas. In August 2015, the band also released "Jaime's Song", specially recorded for NPR's Radiolab, as a tribute to a story about bipolar disorder.
2016–present: ''What Now'', ''WITH'', and ''Free Love''
Meath and Sanborn married in June 2016. In September 2016 the band released the single "Radio" back to back with "Kick Jump Twist". A video for the latter appeared in January 2017. In late February the group released the single “Die Young” along with a music video and an announcement regarding their new album, titled What Now. In early March 2017, the duo performed at South by Southwest, for NPR Music's showcase. Later that March, the band performed on NPR's World Cafe to perform songs from their upcoming album. On April 28, 2017, the band released their second studio album What Now on Loma Vista Recordings. The album received mostly positive reviews. In May 2017, they performed at the Boston Calling Music Festival. The duo began their What Now US 2017 Tour on May 13, 2017. The tour ended in November 2017. On November 28, 2017 the album received a Grammy nomination in the category "Best Dance/Electronic Album." They performed at Eaux Claires in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on June 17, 2017, the Melt! Festival in Ferropolis, Germany and the Citadel Festival in London, United Kingdom in July 2017. They also performed at the Latitude Festival in Suffolk, England, in July 2017. In October 2018, they performed at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Premiered by NPR, Sylvan Esso released Echo Mountain Sessions in July, 2018. The band covered five songs from What Now with additional instrumentation by Matt Douglas, Ryan Gustafson, Molly Sarlé, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, Jenn Wasner, and Joe Westerlund. In November, 2019 Sylvan Esso performed a series of concerts as part of the WITH Tour in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, and Durham, NC. The couple was joined by Meg Duffy, Molly Sarlé, Daughter of Swords, Jen Wasner, Dev Gupta, Adam Schatz, Matt McCaughan, and Joe Westerlund. A live concert documentary of the Durham show was released on YouTube on April 23, 2020 with a live album titled WITH releasing the following day. On July 17, 2020 the band teased an upcoming project and on July 21, 2020 the band announced their third album titled Free Love would be released on September 25, 2020.
