Guards were formed in the summer of 2010, when Richie James Follin (of The Willowz, Cults, CRX, Follin) was on a break from touring. He wrote an EP’s worth of material and decided to put it on the internet under the moniker Guards. The next morning the EP was all over the internet thanks to a few tweets from the EP’s guest vocalists Caroline Polachek of Chairlift & Madeline Follin of Cults. NPR praised the band stating, "a sound deconstructed through the minds of musicians who look more to memories than they do to the future, and in the process find something that sounds like a new discovery.”. Dazed stated, "the songs are uncompromisingly raw harnessing pessimistic heartache to craft tracks about birth, death and any emotional malaise you might experience in between.”. The Guardian simply stated, "It's pretty fucking impressive”. The band released their first full length album “In Guards We Trust" in 2013. The Wall St. Journal touted the record as “one of the years best albums.”, and NPR stated, “At a time in music when pop, rock, country and hip-hop acts all strain to create anthems that will inspire sing- along devotion in large-size audiences, Guards—a band that's only been around for a few years and has released comparatively little music—is already well on its way to giving the anthem form more interest and gravitas than musicians with far more experience.”. Guards are Richie Follin & Loren Humphrey (of Florence + The Machine, Arctic Monkeys, Tame Impala).