“Behind the Empty House” and its companion piece “Two Pines” span a transitional spectrum for Reader. In the afterglow of their first full-length Engrams, Reader reconvened to focus, once again, on the seminal axioms to which their creative process is owed: intention and evolution. Still present are the tangled conversations between glassy guitars over the methodic rumble of bass and drums. However here Reader lets their hair down, experimenting with a broader sonic palette and unorthodox composition styles. Clocking in at almost five minutes apiece, these songs take lesser-traveled roads to even lesser-explored destinations. Eerily foreshadowing this year’s forced reclusion, "Behind the Empty House" and "Two Pines" lyrically explore themes of isolation and introspection through a mercurial lens. “Behind the Empty House,” tells a labyrinthine narrative alluding to invisible enemies and macabre hallucinations, while "Two Pines" regales of a fragmented self, influenced heavily by James Wright’s heartbreaking poem “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota.”

Behind the Empty House was recorded at Soundhouse Studio in Seattle by the inimitable Ryan Leyva. The recording was mixed by the boundary-breaking Robert Cheek at ExEx audio and mastered by the blithesome Blake Bickel at Dynamic Sound Service Mastering. The haunting and lovely cover photograph was taken by the enigmatic Jake Gravbot.