Creating a teenage wasteland with their dreamy synth-pop, California group LANY (an acronym for Los Angeles and New York) continue to rise to the top. Soaked in an artistic 80s aesthetic, the trio have become the masters of synth-driven heartbreak, capturing the soul of adolescence despite being on the end of the youth spectrum themselves. They’re effortlessly cool, have proven they can’t make a bad song, like, ever, and are on their way to becoming a pretty big name in music. Here’s everything you need to know about them.
Officially forming in 2014 after lead singer Paul Jason Klein met up with friends Jake Goss and Les Priest (the latter two already had their own musical project called WRLDS but discontinued it after LANY started up), LANY anonymously uploaded two tracks (‘Hot Lights’ and ‘Walk Away’) to SoundCloud with the aim of distinguishing their sound. Their self-released EP Acronyms followed quickly after and the hit ‘ILYSB’ picked up a lot of attention online, floating around social media platforms like Tumblr and associating itself with the youth that were using them.
In 2015, LANY signed a record deal and began playing gigs and festivals around America. They joined Halsey, Ellie Goulding and Troye Sivan (among others) on tour, released their second EP I Loved You, then their third (but technically a re-release of Acronyms) Make Out, and scored a spot at Lollapalooza. They were rising fast, and it wasn’t unclear as to why. They had a different sound that seemed to directly speak to the younger generation, perfectly articulating the emotions (more specifically heartbreak) teenagers go through and making a really good indie-pop hit out of it. And as social media grew, so did LANY.
family pic pic.twitter.com/16P2dWXJPj
— LANY (@thisisLANY) July 24, 2019
By the time 2017 rolled around, the trio had dropped yet another EP kinda, had its lead single ‘WHERE THE HELL ARE MY FRIENDS’ feature on Beats 1 with Zane Lowe, embarked on their own nationwide tour, and were gearing up to drop their first self-titled album. LANY included hit singles ‘Good Girls,’ ‘ILYSB’ and ‘Super Far’ and provided more of the synth goodness we all loved from the EPs. It played out like a romantic movie, giving the highs and lows of a love story and transporting us to a memory we thought we had completely forgotten. It was nostalgic, containing notes of puppy love and teenage lust, and it propelled the band into yet another headlining tour as well as festival gigs all over the world. (They played Auckland’s The Powerstation July 27th).
Their sophomore album Malibu Nights, released in 2018, was a bit more sombre. Coming in at only 9 tracks, it detailed the recent break-up Klein had just gone through with popstar Dua Lipa and held a perfect aesthetic of what we assume Malibu nights would feel like. Singles ‘Thick And Thin,’ ‘Thru These Tears’ and ‘I Don’t Want To Love You Anymore’ threw the band more into the mainstream and into yet another headlining tour. (They popped back into The Powerstation in 2019).
Now, the band are working on their third album Mama’s Boy which is due this year. They’ve taken the time to collab with other artists (Julia Michaels and Lauv) and are now back to building their latest aesthetic. The recent lead single from Mama’s Boy, ‘good guys,’ sees a folksier side to the group’s music and alludes to new visual themes of Americana we haven’t seen before. With LANY, the aesthetic is wrapped up in everything they do, so we can’t wait to see what cinematic love story will unfold this time around.
