Lawrence Invites Soul-Pop Lovers On A Rollercoaster Ride With New Album
New York-based soul-pop group Lawrence just released “Try” from their new album Living Room. Clyde and Gracie Lawrence have been making music since they were children and want their work to mimic the ups and downs of their lives. Living Room tells the stories of two kids growing up and coping with life’s rollercoaster ride while blending old-school and new-school vibes that create a fresh sound that you definitely don’t want to miss.
The talented siblings sat down with MiLLENNiAL to discuss their music and what is next for them.
Tell us about your new song “Try”, and the meaning it has for both of you.
Clyde: “Try” is a song about how difficult and effortful it is to try and salvage a relationship that is going south. An issue I have with a lot of breakup songs is that they are so black-and-white emotionally — they come from a place of extreme anger (“I hate you”), extreme devastation (“I can’t live without you”), or total closure (“I’m so over you”). With “Try,” we’re hoping to speak from a place that feels more honest to what breaking up feels like, a vulnerable grey area that, depending on the moment, can be desperation, frustration, melancholy, or even relief. Musically, we tried to mimic this emotional roller-coaster by making this song the most dynamic track we’ve produced yet — one moment everything’s sort of chill and then out of nowhere there’s an explosion.
Explain the message you are trying to communicate to your fans with Living Room.
Gracie: Living Room is about growing up and trying to make sense of the highs and lows of this chapter of our lives. I would hope that people walk away feeling like the songs are relatable to their own lives, even though they are so personal to us as songwriters. I also hope people recognize that these songs aren’t meant to be totally happy or sad, they’re a bit of both, just like how you can feel happy and sad at the same time in life. Lastly, we hope people hear and feel that although we are a band that takes music seriously, we don’t take ourselves overly seriously, and we try to make the fun of that come through in the storytelling of our songs.
Describe your working dynamic as artists and siblings? What is it like to work with family?
Gracie: I’d say that the question we are asked the most by fans that come up to us after the shows is: “How do you possibly get along well enough to tour together and work together constantly?” And I think it’s always seemed like an odd question to us, because it never really occurred to us that it could be an issue! We didn’t grow up bickering at each other. Instead, we grew up playing music together, writing together, appreciating movies and stories and tv shows together. So, we’ve considered ourselves legitimate creative partners from a super young age, and because of that we’ve grown to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses really well, and how to highlight and bring out the best in each other.
Tell us about Lawrence and how the band came together.
Gracie: Clyde and I treated our living room as a writing and performance space growing up. After honing our “act” in the safety of our own home, we started performing at our school, and then beyond that to cafes and small venues around our hometown, New York City.
Clyde: We sort of gathered the rest of the guys as we went along. So really we started out as a college band, playing tons of parties and clubs near our school and other schools in the region.
Gracie: And then finally, after Clyde and the rest of the guys in the band graduated college and I graduated high school, we made our first album and went on tour.
Describe your sound to those who haven’t heard your music.
Clyde: Loud, funky, and high-energy, but also hopefully soulful, warm, and honest. If you listen to our album or come to our show, we want you to feel like you’re somewhere between our living room and a college basement party.
Tell us about your passions as individuals. When you are not making music what are you doing?
Clyde: I just like to spend as much time as I can with my family and friends, and I am also an avid TV junkie (particularly sitcoms) and die-hard New York Mets fan.
Gracie: I’m also an actress, so whenever I’m not on tour or making music, I’m acting! Currently, I’m a series regular on a new, upcoming TV show for CBS All-Access, called “$1” that is shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
What is next for Lawrence?
Clyde: You tell me! We’re just going to keep writing music, recording albums, and touring until someone tells us to stop. It’s a dream come true to be able to have our “job” be to make the music that we want to make.
Gracie: It’s unbelievable that the songs we wrote in our living room in our pajamas somehow resonated with people, and allowed us to travel and tour and do what we love. We’re so lucky and psyched to do it all over again with our new aptly titled album, “Living Room.”