LANY

“I write from personal experience,” Paul Jason Klein, lead vocalist of L.A.-based dreamy pop group LANY, tells Apple Music. “Some people are able to conceptualize or come up with storylines or things like that. But I just kinda write straight from the heart.” A quick listen to the band’s joyful 2015 single “ILYSB,” with its driving, tip-tapping drums and warm synths, reveals Klein’s predilection for that heavy heart-on-sleeve vibe. Formed in 2014 in Nashville, the band—filled out by fellow multi-instrumentalists Leslie Priest and Jake Goss—stitch together the dense synsthscapes of electronic pop with mesmerizing Top 40 melodies and frequent R&B flourishes, building a sound that pulls from ‘80s and ‘90s pop filtered through gauzy 21st-century production. Pronounced “lay-nee,” the name is an amalgamation of the Los Angeles and New York acronyms, reflecting their desire to take their songs coast-to-coast and everywhere in between. They’ve made good on it, heading out on the road with acts like Halsey and Ellie Goulding in the late 2010s, while growing their sound. They kicked off playing with slick romanticism on 2017’s LANY, moved to heartbroken synth-pop for 2018’s Malibu Nights, and served up their take on Americana with 2020’s mama’s boy and songs like the wistful “cowboy in LA.”