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Dirty Projectors is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002. The band is the project of singer-songwriter David Longstreth, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The band currently has two line-up configurations; one of which features Longstreth alongside vocalists and multi-instrumentalists Olga Bell, Felicia Douglass and Maia Friedman; and the other being a trio featuring Longstreth, Karl McComas-Reichl (bass) and Christopher Bear (drums).

Since its formation, Dirty Projectors has released ten full-length studio albums, with the project featuring major contributions from co-lead vocalist and guitarist Amber Coffman from 2006 to 2013. Following the release of Rise Above (2007), an album of Black Flag songs as re-imagined from memory, Dirty Projectors released their break-through album, Bitte Orca in 2009. Featuring lead vocals from Longstreth, Coffman, and Angel Deradoorian, the album received widespread critical acclaim and increased the band's exposure significantly. Its follow-up, Swing Lo Magellan (2012), was released to further acclaim.

Following the departure of Coffman in 2013, Longstreth focused Dirty Projectors into a mostly studio-based project, releasing the albums, Dirty Projectors and Lamp Lit Prose, in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Dirty Projectors became a full band once again in 2018 with the addition of co-lead vocalists Felicia Douglass, Maia Friedman and Kristin Slipp to tour in support of Lamp Lit Prose. Inspired by the chemistry and dynamic of the band's current line-up, the group recorded and released five EPs across 2020.

In 2024, former member Olga Bell returned to the band's line-up ahead of performances of an orchestral song cycle, named Song of the Earth, which was released as a studio album in April 2025 on Nonesuch Records. In late 2025, Longstreth repurposed Dirty Projectors into a trio, featuring bassist Karl McComas-Reichl and Grizzly Bear drummer Christopher Bear.

History

2002–2007: Early years and Rise Above

While studying at Yale, Longstreth spent part of the years 2001 and 2002 working on a number of musical ideas, together with his brother Jake. This resulted in the album, The Graceful Fallen Mango, that was released in 2002 under his own name and introduced his distinctive use of song arrangements and his combination of lo-fi and hi-fi production.

Morning Better Last!, released in September 2003, brought together three tapes recorded by Longstreth in the period 2001 to 2002. A year later they were compiled and released by States Rights Records on CD-R and as a digital download from iTunes.

With the help of Adam Forkner of Yume Bitsu, Longstreth recorded and released The Glad Fact on the Western Vinyl label under the name "The Dirty Projectors" in 2003. Two years later, the band released The Getty Address, a concept album about the musician Don Henley that features extensive orchestral and choral accompaniment. The stripped-down New Attitude EP followed in 2006 and featured inklings of the band's later vocal interplay and guitar work.

In 2007, the band released Rise Above, an album of Black Flag songs as re-imagined from memory. The album introduced the band's distinctive contrast between Longstreth's vocals and the hocketed harmonies of Amber Coffman and Susanna Waiche, who was later replaced by Angel Deradoorian.

2008–2011: Domino Records, Bitte Orca, and Mount Wittenberg Orca

In April 2008, Dirty Projectors signed with Domino Records, and the label announced the release of their fifth full-length album, Bitte Orca, for June 9, 2009. Bitte Orca introduced additional backing vocalist/auxiliary percussionist Haley Dekle as a new member and bassist Nat Baldwin returning to the band (he previously was a member of Dirty Projectors from 2005 to 2006). That year, the band also collaborated with David Byrne on the song "Knotty Pine" for the compilation album Dark Was the Night produced by the Red Hot Organization. Byrne joined the Dirty Projectors onstage to perform this song, along with "Ambulance Man," another collaborative track not included on the compilation, at the "Dark Was the Night Live" concert at New York City's Radio City Music Hall on May 3, 2009.

“Stillness Is the Move" was the first single released from Bitte Orca, a West African and alternative R&B-influenced hybrid, sung by Coffman and inspired by the Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire. Bitte Orca was met with positive reviews, including Rolling Stone magazine rating the album as number 6 on their best 25 albums of 2009.

Dirty Projectors were to release a new EP in September 2009 titled Temecula Sunrise. While the EP was never released, two of its tracks, "Ascending Melody" and "Emblem of the World", were instead offered for free download on the Dirty Projectors website in early 2010.