Featuring a pair of Berklee College of Music voice majors in
Jess Wolfe and
Holly Laessig, who wear matching hairstyles and outfits to visually complement their serpentine harmonies,
Lucius debuted their blend of torchy folk-rock and urban indie pop on a self-titled EP in 2012. The band's first record to crack the top half of the Billboard 200 was their second full-length, 2016's
Good Grief, which looked to slicker, '80s-styled pop without abandoning acoustic balladry. They continued to experiment with a range of influences on albums such as the
Brandi Carlile-co-produced
Second Nature (2022).
Formed in Brooklyn, New York in the late 2000s,
Lucius also relies on the talents of drummer
Dan Molad (
CHIMNEY,
Via Audio) and guitarist
Pete Lalish (Uni Ika Ai), both formerly of
Elizabeth & the Catapult. Multi-instrumentalist Andrew Burri rounded out the original lineup, which appeared on the group's eponymous debut EP in 2012. It was followed a year later by their New York Times- and NPR-approved full-length debut
Wildewoman, issued regionally by Mom + Pop, Dine Alone, and
Play It Again Sam.
Lucius toured extensively in support of the
Molad-produced album, making multiple trips across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, including a European tour with
Jack White.
Wolfe and
Laessig also appeared as guest vocalists on critically acclaimed albums including
San Fermin's debut and
Tweedy's
Sukierae, and were part of
the Rentals' lineup for 2014's
Lost in Alphaville.
Around the time they relocated to Los Angeles, the five-piece returned to the studio in 2015, this time with producer
Shawn Everett (
Weezer,
Julian Casablancas). The resulting
Good Grief was released in March 2016 by the same labels. It reached number 92 on the Billboard 200 as well as charting in the Top 15 of the alternative, rock, and independent albums charts. Amid a relentless touring schedule with
Lucius, the two lead singers made time to accept an invitation to back
Roger Waters at California's Desert Trip in October 2016. The two-weekend festival of legends that also included
Bob Dylan and
the Rolling Stones, among others, had them singing for a crowd of 75,000. That November, the band released the 10" "Pulling Teeth," and Burri gave notice that he was leaving the group to pursue other projects. In March 2017, the band delivered the single "Million Dollar Secret," which appeared on an episode of the final season of HBO's Girls. That June,
Laessig and
Wolfe appeared on
Roger Waters' album
Is This the Life We Really Want? and joined him on tour as his backing singers for the next year-and-a-half. In the meantime, in March 2018,
Lucius released
Nudes, a set of newly recorded acoustic versions of their back catalog alongside three covers, one of which was a live-in-studio recording of "Goodnight, Irene" featuring
Waters. Guitarist
Nels Cline also made an appearance on the album. The
Richard Swift tribute 7" "Christmas Time Is Here"/"Keep Me Hanging On" followed on the Fug Yep Soundation later in the year.
In addition to touring with
Waters in the late 2010s, the singers contributed vocals to recordings by the likes of
Sheryl Crow ("Don't) and
Harry Styles ("Treat People with Kindness"). They appeared on two songs from
Ozzy Osbourne's 2020 LP
Ordinary Man, and in 2021,
Lucius were featured on the title track to
the War on Drugs' album
I Don't Live Here Anymore, as well as on a song from
Brandi Carlile's
In These Silent Days. The band returned with original material of their own in the form of the April 2022 full-length
Second Nature, which split the track list between sleek electro-funk and lyrical ballads. Produced by
Carlile and
Dave Cobb in Nashville, it featured both
Carlile and
Crow on the song "Dance Around It." ~ James Christopher Monger & Marcy Donelson