breaking
BACKSTORY: Two heavenly voiced frontwomen who founded their band shortly
after college and made some indie-pop magic
FROM: Los Angeles via Boston and New York
YOU MIGHT KNOW THEM AS: Faux twins who have marked time singing with
Mavis Staples, Tweedy, and The Rentals in addition to releasing their own music
NOW: Dipping deeper into duality with their second proper LP, Good Grief
LUCIUS
By Laura Studarus
Photo by Piper Ferguson
Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig
have been friends since they
were eighteen. Like any long-term
explains Laessig. “So we have a few songs
BFFs, the Lucius frontwomen have a fair
and upbeat tracks juxtaposed with these
share of dirt on each other.
really heavy tracks. When we were in the
“Holly looks like a different person
studio, after doing a few of the Good Grief
now,” Wolfe declares when asked what
songs on the road, it was like, ‘Oh god, shut
they were like as students at Berklee
up already!’ We were thinking of a title that
College of Music. “I’ll show you!”
could encompass this yin and yang, as well
Like so many others around us this
as poke fun at ourselves a little bit…give
morning in the Atwater Village breakfast
ourselves a little comic relief. Good Grief
joint where we’ve met, Wolfe whips out
ended up being the perfect way to say that.”
her phone and begins scrolling. The
To break up the tension, Laessig and
Facebook photo she pulls up is from the
Wolfe took their writing sessions on the
pair’s first radio interview back in 2009.
road, sending their band demos from Long
While neither one of them has done much
Island, Vermont, and LA. While recording
in the way of aging, there is a wonderful
a series of “la la la’s” for eventual single
fresh-faced quality to the snap, almost as
“Born Again Teen” in a rented room, they
though the two vocalists couldn’t picture
even sacrificed their Airbnb rating.
what life would have in store for them in
“People
just a few short years.
Laessig recalls of the late night recording
started
complaining,”
Although they already had one solid—
session. “There were these old windows
from the ’20s that don’t really shut. There
in 2009’s Songs from the Bromley House, it
was no isolation at all.”
wasn’t until their 2013 release, Wildewoman,
But it wasn’t all torment. Both women
that Lucius (which also features Dan Molad,
recall a cast of characters from that time
Peter Lalish, and Andrew Burri) found
that would make Wes Anderson proud:
their footing with a lush indie-pop sound
a miscellany of dogs. Tortoises. And a
that highlights Laessig and Wolfe’s vocal
passionate human fan.
harmonies.
After an exhaustive tour behind
her dog,” Wolfe recalls. “We’d play our
Wildewoman, Lucius relocated to Los
songs and she’d cry. It was very touching.”
Angeles in 2014 to begin work on their
next release. As both Wolfe and Laessig
of Lucius seem to live by. If you feel
recall, it was a tough period. Flipping
something, say something…no matter
through the collection of thoughts, ideas,
what people may think.
and dreams they