Black Cards was an American experimental electropop band that formed in 2010, primarily known as the musical side project of Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz during his main band's hiatus. Conceived as a four-piece electropop act, the group garnered initial attention with their stylish, synth-driven sound and the release of their debut video for "Club Called Heaven" in 2010. The band's lineup featured Wentz on bass guitar and lyric duty, vocalist Bebe Rexha, guitarist Nate Patterson, and drummer Spencer Peterson. Wentz and Rexha connected after Wentz and producer Sam Hollander overheard Rexha recording demos in their studio, leading to the formation of the group in July of that year.
The band quickly began building momentum by releasing songs directly to YouTube and iTunes, with plans to write and record a full-length album for a Summer 2011 release. However, the project faced significant delays and growing uncertainty about its direction. By January 2012, the initial vision for Black Cards had stalled, leading to Rexha's departure to pursue a solo career and Wentz reevaluating the band's future. The group soon announced a reboot, releasing a remix mixtape titled Up the Anti – Volume 1 on January 26, 2012. This shift in strategy signaled a move towards remixing tracks by other artists while promising to eventually release both scrapped original material and new songs.
Following the mixtape, Black Cards continued as a duo primarily consisting of Wentz and a rotating cast of collaborators. They performed at various shows and festivals across the United States and released a second remix collection. In July 2012, they issued the Use Your Disillusion EP, a project created in collaboration with the production duo Twice as Nice. This period of activity was ultimately short-lived. By the end of 2012, Fall Out Boy had secretly reunited to record new music, leading to the announcement of their hiatus ending in February 2013. This resurgence effectively rendered Black Cards inactive, as Wentz returned his focus to his flagship band.
Though Black Cards never released a proper studio album, their brief existence served as a creative bridge for its members. Bebe Rexha forged a highly successful solo career in the years that followed. In a nod to their shared past, Rexha teased a solo track featuring Pete Wentz titled "Heaven Sent" in June 2019, over seven years after the band's dissolution, offering a final echo of the electropop project that briefly captured their artistic energies.
