No False Alarms
By Andy Argyrakis
To those already in the know, brother-sister duo Lawrence is one of today’s most relatable, unshakable, soulful pop tastemakers, who’ve spent the last decade steadily building a fan base one college basement party and online follower at a time. For folks just finding out about vocalist/pianist Clyde and co-singer Gracie Lawrence—along with their band that’s basically been together since the jump—chances are the connection will be equally immediate, if not already unconsciously familiar thanks to their smash single “Don’t Lose Sight.” Not only did the track get international traction thanks to a mammoth Microsoft commercial sync and countless viral Tik Tok/Instagram moments, but it landed in the top 20 of the Shazam charts in the US and took a prime slot on Top 40 radio to become the highest ranking entirely independent track of 2022.
Lawrence has since been seen on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, as well as mega-festivals Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Outside Lands, along the way to their Ravinia debut on June 16, appearing in between British jazz/R&B giant Jacob Collier and burgeoning folksy pop trio Tiny Habits. However, the troupe’s meteoric rise is far from an overnight success story, but rather a slowly marinating journey stocked with exponential artistic development every fascinating step of the way.
“Gracie and I grew up playing music together around our house, and then with our friend [and saxophone player] Jordan [Cohen], who was our neighbor growing up. We played music with him all the time,” explains Clyde of the group’s genesis in their native New York on a steady diet of Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and Randy Newman. “Then I met this amazing drummer named Sam [Askin] in middle school. Sure enough, Sam and I ended up both going to Brown University, where we brought together a handful of other guys and started up with Gracie and Jordan. They would come up to Providence [RI] and we would play concerts just about every weekend, either on the Brown campus or at a club or a neighboring college in New England. We just slowly but surely built a buzz, building a fan base of college kids. Eventually, we were having such a good time with it, and we had seen enough people at those colleges get excited about what we were doing, we decided to just dive right in to touring and making records after we graduated, even though we had only ever played shows in this small area of the country. We didn’t realize that, all that time, we were actually creating a nationwide fan base because all those kids would graduate and then disperse all around the country. When we came to Chicago on that very first tour, the numbers were still small, but we had over 100 people there that were excited to see us, even though we had never played in Chicago before.”
photo: Deanie Chen
“We didn’t realize we were creating a nationwide fan base—those college kids would disperse all around the country. On that very first tour, we had over 100 people who were excited to see us, even though we had never played in Chicago before.”
Come 2016, those road-tested tunes made their way onto Lawrence’s full-length debut, ever-so-appropriately titled Breakfast as the ultimate starting point, which benefitted from shout-outs by NPR’s All Things Considered and Steph Curry’s social media, plus some seriously heavy hitters behind the scenes. The project included production by Grammy-winner Eric Krasno (Lettuce, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Soulive), while featuring additional players from Lettuce, TTB, and Snarky Puppy, all equally renowned throughout the jam band scene.
“Working with [Eric] was just so incredible, with his wealth of knowledge about making records and being in a band,” recalls Gracie. “He had so much to contribute to a band that was really just starting out. From our perspective, we came in with most of the songs written and we were trying to find a way to bring this sort of funky, soulful, poppy sound that we had kind of test-run in college basements to the recorded context. And Kras, he was incredibly helpful in being sure the decisions we were making were appropriate for a record. Also, he’s just a great songwriter and musician himself, so the ways in which he contributed were multiple that I couldn’t even describe. We were just trying to figure out a way to establish this sound that could appeal to people from a lot of different generations, and make sure that Clyde and I are both represented on the record as vocalists, which is an unusual thing in and of itself, having two lead vocalists. [There were] a lot of things we were trying to balance and make sure we got in this first batch of songs.”
Just two years later, the band was back with the long-player Living Room, which shot up to number two on the iTunes R&B/soul chart, scored a slot on Spotify’s “New Music Friday” playlist, and yielded a late-night television debut on Last Call with Carson Daly. Whereas the initial batch of tunes had been built in front of audiences and ultimately sculpted in the studio, the sophomore set was crafted on the fly, this time co-produced with the Brooklyn-based Eli Crews.
“Breakfast was like, ‘Here’s an album that we’ve written. Let’s go in, record it, and stick to the ways that we’ve been performing it for years now.’ And like Gracie said, with tons of helpful changes and guidance from Kras,” observes Clyde. “Living Room was more like, ‘Let’s kind of write the songs, to some degree, as we’re recording them—building it up—so the process felt night-and-day different. The studio experimentation played a little bit larger of a role in the songs. Some of the songs had been played live, but for the most part, they were studio creations before they came out in concert.”
photo: Deanie Chen
Lawrence immediately made up for lost time performing those vibrant tunes on the road, and in the process crossed paths with Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-rapper-producer Jon Bellion, the multi-billion streaming superstar who didn’t only fall in love with everyone’s innovative sounds, but invited them as support act on his mammoth Glory Sound Prep Tour. By 2021, Lawrence became the inaugural act on Bellion’s Beautiful Mind Records, a partnership the siblings couldn’t be more effusive about, going from longtime fandom to now both a working relationship and a personal friendship with a man many call one of this generation’s finest pop geniuses. In fact, Bellion co-produced and co-wrote all the songs with the siblings on their latest album, Hotel TV—also alongside Cohen and fellow bandmate/guitarist Jonny Koh—which propelled them to a whopping 53-city show stretch of their own, including a local House of Blues sellout.
“I think that this album, to us, didn’t feel like a sea change,” suggests Clyde. “I think it was just a continuation of getting more and more comfortable in the studio, thinking about how songs best present themselves in a recorded environment. On some songs, Jon helped in a massive way, and then on some songs, more minor ways that still make a difference. There’s a number of songs that have done really well, but certainly the biggest one to talk about is ‘Don’t Lose Sight.’ I think that song is really the culmination of all of the things that we were talking about over our first couple albums—trying to make sure a song has really great energy, translates onto a studio record, represents both Gracie and I, what we bring to the sound, and trying to have a song that feels honest and conversational, but still has a big message people can relate to.”
photo: Deanie Chen
Adds Gracie: “I hope our music makes people feel understood, or that what we’re saying feels really human and relatable. I think Clyde and I both have a little bit of a knee-jerk negative reaction to songs that are dramatically any emotion. I think that ‘Don’t Lose Sight,’ to a lot of people on maybe a first listen, sounds like a song that’s just about positivity, but what I really love about that song—and maybe why people feel like they can relate to it—is that all the verses are really critical of self, are this desire to give up, and then this chorus is this anthem that says don’t lose sight, so I think this balance makes it relatable. If the song didn’t have any of that negativity or doubt, would the chorus feel as moving and like enough of an arrival? I don’t know. The good comes with the bad and vice versa.”
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Though Clyde and Gracie are specifically on their way to Ravinia to co-lead Lawrence, both have an overflowing résumé of individual projects that date back even further than the band. In fact, they grew up immersed in all aspects of the entertainment industry thanks to their filmmaker father, Marc Lawrence (Miss Congeniality, Two Weeks Notice, Music and Lyrics), and are quick to credit their entire family for unconditional support of each other’s pursuits.
Gracie, what was your journey like in front of the camera and acting on stage?
I’ve been acting since I was 9 or 10. For me, music and acting are kind of inextricably linked. I started as a kid doing theater. I was on Broadway [Brighton Beach Memoirs] when I was 12, I think, and then I’ve done some movies [The Sitter, Did You Hear About The Morgans?] and TV show appearances [Billions, One Dollar, Younger, The Americans, The Good Wife] since then. It’s a big part of my life, and it’s something I think about a lot when I’m singing and performing.
Clyde, how did you get involved in so many movies?
From a young age I was writing lots of music, but through our father I was exposed to the film world from a young age, and I was immediately fascinated by the process of putting music to film. I had some amazing opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise, to audition some music I was writing. One of the most notable was when I was 5 years old, I wrote what wound up being the theme song for the movie Miss Congeniality. I still love to work with my dad on projects that he’s working on and then plenty of other projects as well [Disney’s Noelle, Steven Spielberg’s Animaniacs, Landline, The Rewrite, Music and Lyrics]. It’s really fun to put on that different hat from making music for Lawrence, where everything’s in service to the song. When you’re writing music for a film or a TV show, you’re trying to create something that’s supporting a larger artistic vision that’s different than the music. It’s a very fun exercise that keeps my musical brain on a different foot.
How has being siblings in a band and your overall family dynamic contributed to your creativity?
Gracie: I think the whole group feels like family at this point for sure. We’ve grown up with other members of this band as well. Between me and Clyde, music has always been the thing that we’ve strongly bonded over. I think it’s strengthened our relationship so much in that writing together, collaborating, playing music together is the exact language that we speak with each other kind of seamlessly. We don’t even have to say anything. We’re so connected on that point. Our whole family artistically really kind of contributes their feedback and their thoughts, not in a harsh or judgmental way. Storytelling is sort of the fabric of our lives and the thing we grew up idolizing, admiring and putting so much emphasis on, so to do that in a variety of different forms has been hugely important in both of our lives and our family.
So where exactly has this whirlwind of wisdom and wonder taken Lawrence at this point of its gradual but exponential ascent? “To Ravinia” answers Gracie with a laugh before Clyde interjects. “All roads lead… I’ve been told by many people that Ravinia is one of the nicest venues in the country. When we announced the show, some of the members of our band, who I believe have been there, and other friends from the Chicago area just reached out when they found out we were playing there. I was inundated with texts from people who were singing the praises of what sounds like an incredible venue. I’ve never been there before, but I can’t wait!” ■
Andy Argyrakis is a Chicago-based writer and photographer with credits across countless newspapers, magazines, and websites, as well as the founder of ChicagoConcertReviews.com. He is the house photographer for the Auditorium Theatre and also regularly engaged by other area venues, concert promotion companies, and directly with artists.