Dynamic Brooklyn trio Endearments turn the sting of being loved as an idea – not a person – into a cathartic and charged release on “Real Deal,” a shimmering indie rock reckoning that anchors their debut album ‘An Always Open Door’ in perspective, vulnerability, and the courage to step out of someone else’s story.

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Stream: “Real Deal” – Endearments

And you want it to be said that you’re in love, but you’re not happy…

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Love can turn cruel when it becomes a fantasy.

When one person is chasing the idea of romance more than the thing itself – more consumed with the aesthetic, the mythology, the grandeur of it all – and the other is left standing there, flesh and blood, trying to be seen. Endearments’ “Real Deal” is about that slow, sickening realization: That you’re not a partner in someone’s life, but a prop in their story. As lush and lilting as it is visceral and raw, the Brooklyn trio’s single aches with the quiet devastation of loving someone whose heart is always looking elsewhere, whose devotion is more about performance than presence.

It feels like such a disease
Wanting everything you give
‘Cause baby you do what you please
And there will never be enough
Enough of your time
Enough is enough
You go

To the beat of no one else
And you want it to be said
that you’re in love
But you’re not happy

Released January 7^th, “Real Deal” serves as the first glimpse into Endearments’ upcoming debut album An Always Open Door, out March 6 via Trash Casual, and it sets the emotional stakes high. Active throughout the past five years, the trio – Kevin Marksson (vocals, bass, synths), Anjali Nair (guitar), and Will Haywood Smith (drums) – have long trafficked in dreamy, synth-kissed indie pop, but here they lean harder into their rock impulses and they don’t look back. Breathy vocals drift over fiery guitar lines; the drums are dynamic and propulsive, white-knuckled and driving; melodies soar skyward even as the lyrics crumble inward. On the surface, the song feels anthemic and invigorating – a rush of shimmer and momentum. Dive deeper, and it’s a glass heart full of cracks, just waiting for the right moment to shatter.

“‘Real Deal’ is a song about feeling like you’re just a supporting player in someone else’s romantic idealization,” frontman Kevin Marksson tells Atwood Magazine.

“I hint at Apollo and Daphne in the lyrics and the idea that someone can be so focused on what love ‘should’ feel like that they forget there is a real person on the other end. The music video plays with that concept in a fun way by having our heroine wake up in a strange apartment after what seemed like a perfect evening, but maybe wasn’t as perfect as she thought.” That tension between myth and reality pulses through every measure – between laurel leaves etched in teapots and the bruising awareness of being less a partner, and more a piece of the scenery.

The song’s origin is painfully personal. “The lyrics of ‘Real Deal’ are about what it feels like to be in love with someone who has a mercurial heart,” Marksson shares. “Toward the end of my last relationship, there was about a year where I felt like I had unwittingly become an accessory to my partner’s search for this idealistic feeling of romance. I had this really heartbreaking moment where I thought to myself, ‘I’m just someone safe to come home to. This person is looking for something I can’t give them.’” That confession bleeds into the track’s most cutting refrain – “You want it to be said that you’re in love, but you’re not happy.” It’s the sound of someone finally naming the truth out loud.

There’s an intimate quality to the longing here – “It feels like such a disease / Wanting everything you give,” he sings in the opening lines – as if desire itself has turned corrosive. Yet Endearments refuse to wallow. Nair’s guitars gleam and churn, building toward choruses that feel almost defiant in their size; Haywood Smith’s drums pound with urgency, ratcheting up the tension until it spills over. The band’s love of ‘80s new wave and 2000s indie rock collides in real time, marrying dynamic verses with big, cathartic pop choruses. It’s that friction – between tenderness and sharpness, uplift and undoing – that makes the listening experience so intoxicating and so recognizably human.

You take me whenever you please
To keep a warm wife in your bed
The outline of laurel leaves
On the teapot on your shelf
Out of your sight
Enough is enough
You go

To the beat of no one else
And you want it to be said
that you’re in love
But you’re not happy
You’re not happy

“Real Deal” doesn’t just introduce the record – it cracks it open, exposing the fault lines that run through the rest of An Always Open Door and setting the emotional terms the album refuses to back away from.

In the weeks since the song’s top-of-year release, Endearments have used each new single to clarify the shape of An Always Open Door – not by softening the blow, but by widening the frame. The guitars get bigger, the emotions sharper, and the memories more specific. The band’s long-running tension – synth shimmer versus rock muscle – stops feeling like a balancing act and starts feeling like the point. If “Real Deal” is the bruise you can’t stop pressing, their song “Summersun” is the moment you realize how long you’ve been doing it. Released as the second single (and opening track) from An Always Open Door, “Summersun” shifts the spotlight in a crucial way: As Marksson says, “It really kicks things off and showcases how important Anjali’s guitarwork is for this album. She comes out of the gate with this massive riff that really sets the tone for the rest of the record.” It’s the sound of the band turning up the volume without losing any of that charismatic, captivating ache – the same emotional knot, pulled tighter and played louder.

Lyrically, Marksson frames “Summersun” as a continuation rather than a departure: “Lyrically ‘Summersun’ is a continuation of the themes from ‘Real Deal’ – about the summer I realized just how much I was bending myself into shapes and pretending to be someone that I’m not to satisfy someone else’s desires.” He pinpoints the memory with the kind of specificity that makes these songs sting: “I vividly remember walking home drunk from a Le Savy Fav show and beating myself up over this feeling that I was playing a part in someone else’s narrative. It was like that moment from I Heart Huckabees where Jude Law keeps repeating ‘How am I not myself?’”

Summer sun
How could it go wrong this time?
How could you not read the signs?
You’re older and older every time
You turn out the light

It’s just the lie of the week
Every day’s another Halloween for you

Honest sum
For parts that don’t divide to one
Half a peach and all the pit
It’s over, it’s over, you’re sick of it
Why can’t you quit?

If “Summersun” captures the moment you recognize you’ve been shrinking yourself, Endearments’ latest single “Marianne” feels like what happens next – the dizzy, uncertain attempt to step back into something new. Where “Real Deal” names the hurt and “Summersun” replays the self-betrayal, “Marianne” pulses with that charged in-between space: Longing tangled with hesitation, desire tempered by distance. It’s vivid and churning, guitars flashing against atmospheric synths, warm and wistful in that distinctly Endearments way – bright on the surface, bruised just underneath.

For Marksson, “Marianne” captures all those intimate, uncertain, and vulnerable moments at the beginning of a new relationship. “It’s a song about longing for someone who is far away, physically and emotionally, and what it takes to break down those barriers,” he shares. Even as the band lean further into their rock instincts, the emotional center stays intimate – that special happy-sad electricity that makes their songs feel lived-in rather than performed.

So high the hotel room is spinning on its side
I’m dizzy and I wish that you were
To talk me down
Surprise text messages, I’m never satisfied
But that’s just how I get when I get near
To the ground

Marianne
Do you think of me
when you think of her?
Say what you can
Quiet company
Every single word
Is breaking me
And I’ll only let you down

Taken together, the singles don’t just preview An Always Open Door – they define its emotional temperature. This is a record that widens Endearments’ palette without abandoning its core: expressive guitars pushed further to the front, synth textures still shimmering underneath, drums that feel both kinetic and considered. The scale is bigger, the performances more forceful, but the storytelling remains raw and interior. If the early EPs felt immediate and close to the wound, this full-length carries distance – not detachment, but perspective. The emotions haven’t dulled; they’ve sharpened.

Produced by Abe Seiferth (Nation of Language, Guerilla Toss), the album leans fully into the band’s evolving indie rock instincts, trading some of their gauzy dream-pop restraint for something more muscular and declarative. And yet, nothing here feels reactionary. The romanticism is still present. The ache is still there. The “John Hughes-ian” glow that has always hovered around Endearments’ songwriting hasn’t disappeared – it’s simply been reframed in louder, more dynamic colors.

As Marksson reflects, “When I wrote the first two Endearments EPs, Father of Wands and It Can Be Like This, I was only recently outside of the events that inspired those songs: A failed marriage; a hopeful new relationship… When I sat down to write lyrics for our first full-length record, I had no intention of interrogating those memories and feelings again. Nevertheless, as the songs took shape, I felt myself looking back at the last six years with a renewed sense of curiosity.”

It’s about letting go of the people and things that hurt you so that you can find yourself and really embrace what makes you happy.

* * *

All of that perspective, all of that widened sound and sharpened self-examination, has to begin somewhere. On An Always Open Door, it begins with “Real Deal.”

For Endearments, “Real Deal” is more than a breakup song; it’s a reckoning. An Always Open Door as a whole revisits the emotional terrain of their earlier EPs, but with more distance, more wisdom, more contemplation. “This is a record about looking inward and reevaluating the past,” Marksson reflects. “I don’t think you’re ever totally done processing the big emotional moments in your life – you just get older and gain more wisdom and perspective… It’s about letting go of the people and things that hurt you so that you can find yourself and really embrace what makes you happy.” If “Real Deal” is the album’s emotional thesis, it’s one built on clarity: Recognizing when love has turned into theater, and choosing to walk out of the scene and step off the stage entirely.

More than anything, Marksson hopes the music cuts deep. “I love when a pop song makes me cry,” he says, “and hope there are listeners who get to experience that feeling with our music.” “Real Deal” absolutely delivers on that promise. It surges and sparkles; it bruises and burns. It’s dreamy and devastating in equal measure – a song that sounds like falling in love with the idea of someone, and waking up to discover you were never really seen – and finding yourself alone. In naming that ache so honestly, Endearments transform heartbreak into a radiant, hauntingly beautiful anthem.

With An Always Open Door arriving March 6 via Trash Casual, the timing of that emotional strike couldn’t be sharper – a full-length statement that turns private, personal realizations into something painfully universal, achingly raw, and bold enough to share.

To go deeper into the romantic idealizations and hard-won perspectives that shape Endearments’ music – and how An Always Open Door came to carry both ache and charm in equal measure – we sat down with Kevin Marksson to talk about revisiting old rooms with new eyes, pushing their sound further into the red, and what it means to finally name the truth out loud. Read our conversation below, and spend some time with this band wherever you stream music!

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:: stream/purchase An Always Open Door here ::

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Stream: “Real Deal” – Endearments

A CONVERSATION WITH ENDEARMENTS

Endearments (Kevin Marksson): We’re a band from Brooklyn, NY. We typically use “dream pop” to describe our sound, but our upcoming full-length record, An Always Open Door, is much more indie rock focused (though it still draws heavily from the kinds of ‘80s and ‘90s influences we’ve always embraced). People keep telling us that our music makes them feel like they’re in a John Hughes movie, and I find that very flattering. The members of the band are Kevin Marksson (vocals, bass, synths), Anjali Nair (guitar), and Will Haywood Smith (drums). Kevin is the principal songwriter, and the person answering all these questions.

Endearments: Maybe ten years ago, when I first got into writing music with synthesizers, I stopped regularly listening to guitar rock, even though it had been so foundational for me. I think for a while it felt like I needed to give guitars a rest and dig into the early post-punk and new wave music that I had missed out on, bands like New Order and The Cure.

Those 1980s bands have been lodestars for Endearments musically since the beginning, but in the last couple of years I’ve started revisiting the guitar-focused music I really loved in college – albums like The Weight Is a Gift by Nada Surf and Futures by Jimmy Eat World. I realize now how much those bands influenced what I love most about my own songwriting: Dynamic verses; big pop choruses; lyrics that are emotional and specific. I think we’ve really embraced that on the new record and found a way to marry those 2006-era indie rock influences with our love of 1980s new wave.

Endearments: The lyrics of “Real Deal” are about what it feels like to be in love with someone who has a mercurial heart. Someone who is never going to be happy, even though you love each other. Toward the end of my last relationship there was about a year where I felt like I had unwittingly become an accessory to my partner’s search for this idealistic feeling of romance. I had this really heartbreaking moment where I thought to myself, “I’m just someone safe to come home to. This person is looking for something I can’t give them.” I’ve already written so much about the breakdown of that relationship on the first Endearments EP, Father of Wands, but I don’t think I ever really put that particular feeling into words until this song.

Endearments: I think “Summersun” is a special song because, as the first track, it really kicks things off and showcases how important Anjali’s guitarwork is for this album. She comes out of the gate with this massive riff that really sets the tone for the rest of the record. Lyrically “Summersun” is a continuation of the themes from “Real Deal” – about the summer I realized just how much I was bending myself into shapes and pretending to be someone that I’m not to satisfy someone else’s desires. I vividly remember walking home drunk from a Le Savy Fav show and beating myself up over this feeling that I was playing a part in someone else’s narrative. It was like that moment from I Heart Huckabees where Jude Law keeps repeating “How am I not myself?”

Endearments: This is a record about looking inward and reevaluating the past. I don’t think you’re ever totally done processing the big emotional moments in your life – you just get older and gain more wisdom and perspective. I also don’t think I realized how deeply I had revisited the themes from our first two EPs, Father of Wands and It Can Be Like This, until we had finished recording all the new songs and it was time to sequence them. I know it’s clichéd, but it’s about letting go of the people and things that hurt you so that you can find yourself and really embrace what makes you happy.

Endearments: The first full-length is always a statement, and I love that we have a chance to share a complete picture of how we’ve developed musically as Endearments over the last four years. Even though Will and Anjali have been playing with me since the beginning, this album feels more like a collective work than anything we’ve done so far. Anjali’s guitars taking center stage feels like an important shift, and Will has some really special moments as well (the drumming on “Saline” is a big highlight). If you had told me a few years ago that leaning into the rockier elements of our sound would be what unlocked so much for us creatively, I might not have believed you, but here we are! I’ve even been hesitant to keep using the term “dream pop” to describe our sound, though I know those elements are still there.

Endearments: If I had to recommend two songs from our discography that led the way to the music we are making right now it would be “Ocean,” from our first EP, and “Hazy Eyes,” from our second EP. I think “Ocean” is a real hidden gem in our catalog – post-punk influenced synth-pop with a ferocious guitar riff and dark driving drums that come apart at the seams in the bridge. It’s the oldest song in our live set, but we keep playing it because it absolutely rips. As a counter-point, “Hazy Eyes” might be the most perfect pop tune I’ve ever written. The melody is catchy as hell, and the way Anjali’s guitar lines in the chorus move between melody and counter-melody under the vocals gives me chills.

Endearments: I’m very happy we finally get to share this album with the world! More than anything I hope that we cut to the core for someone out there. I love when a pop song makes me cry, and hope there are listeners who get to experience that feeling with our music.

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:: stream/purchase An Always Open Door here ::

:: connect with Endearments here ::

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Stream: “Real Deal” – Endearments

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