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La Luz is a Seattle-based quartet of four female musicians. The group combines surf, garage and other rocking styles, suffusing its arrangements with heavenly vocal harmonies that recall the best of early \u201960s \u201cgirl groups.\u201d<\/p>\nLa Luz is a Seattle-based quartet of four female musicians. The group combines surf, garage and other rocking styles, suffusing its arrangements with heavenly vocal harmonies that recall the best of early \u201960s \u201cgirl groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
Songwriter and lead guitarist Shana Cleveland was born some two decades after much of the music that inspired her. As a child, she frequented Portland, Ore., record store Mississippi Records. The shop is renowned for its eclectic offerings and runs its own label. \u201cThey put out a lot of vinyl records, reissues, compilations and mixtapes,\u201d she says. One of those cassettes was a collection of Indonesian music from the late 1960s and early \u201970s. \u201cThe vocal harmonies were so ethereal and dramatic,\u201d Cleveland says. \u201cAnd those beautiful harmonies were combined with twanging guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s difficult to pinpoint definitively the kind of music that inspired those Southeast Asian sounds, Cleveland suggests that some of it may have been \u201ca response to American garage rock.\u201d This unusual combination of American garage rock with Indonesian sensibility sparked a deep fascination in Cleveland. \u201cI was really excited about it and wanted to get that feeling in my own music,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Early La Luz releases built upon Cleveland\u2019s original vision, which also drew inspiration from sounds closer to home, such as surf\/instrumental heroes The Ventures and Link Wray. Cleveland says in the early 2010s, she was endeavoring to teach herself a specific type of guitar playing, one exemplified by those \u201960s artists. \u201cThe guitar lines [on their records] were so clear and easy to distinguish,\u201d she explains, \u201cso I felt that was the easiest way to learn that style. A lot of our early sounds came out of those riffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band\u2019s 2013 debut album, It\u2019s Alive<\/em>, scored positive notices for its modern take on classic sounds. Two years later, the lo-fi 2015 album Weirdo Shrine<\/em>, produced by latter-day garage legend Ty Segall, received similar praise. Meanwhile, the band\u2019s 2018 Floating Features<\/em> continued La Luz\u2019s practice of working with hip producers \u2014 The Black Keys\u2019 Dan Auerbach this time \u2014 and found the group extending beyond its original trademark mix of gossamer vocals and garage-band instrumentation.<\/p>\n While the first two albums didn\u2019t sell in quantities commensurate with their critical success, Floating Features<\/em> soared up the charts \u2026 in the United Kingdom. Cleveland says that La Luz\u2019s success in the U.K. \u2014 significantly outpacing the band\u2019s chart action stateside \u2014 mystifies her. \u201cMy theory is that in the U.K., there\u2019s a big appreciation for the period of music that\u2019s so inspiring to me,\u201d she says. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s because The Beatles are from there. Who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n Cleveland\u2019s crate-digging bona fides shine through when she reveals another influence on La Luz\u2019s music: Love. The \u201960s L.A.-based group led by mercurial singer, songwriter and guitarist Arthur Lee made one of that era\u2019s great lost classics, 1967\u2019s Forever Changes<\/em>. But Cleveland cites another, lesser-known Love LP as her favorite: 1969\u2019s harder-edged Four Sail<\/em>. \u201cThat album was probably the biggest musical influence on me for News of the Universe<\/em>,\u201d Cleveland says. Released in May 2024, La Luz\u2019s latest full-length continues the group\u2019s creative progression, building on what the musicians have done before but always moving outward in multiple directions.<\/p>\n Yet at the same time, the group has been moving inward. Over the years, La Luz\u2019s lineup has undergone many changes: the band is currently on its second drummer (Audrey Johnson), third bassist (Lee Johnson) and its third keyboardist. Only leader Cleveland remains from the band\u2019s start. But Maryam Qudus \u2013 who first came to work with La Luz as producer for News of the Universe<\/i> \u2013 is now a group member, playing keyboards and contributing to vocal harmonies. Having the band\u2019s producer as a member makes La Luz a self-contained unit. When the group\u2019s previous keyboardist left, Cleveland asked her producer who should replace her. \u201cShe said, \u2018Me,\u2019\u201d Cleveland recalls. \u201cAnd we definitely want to record our next record with her producing, too.\u201d<\/p>\n La Luz\u2019s music is unique in that it exudes power and subtlety at the same time. That duality is on display on the new album\u2019s \u201cAlways in Love,\u201d in which Cleveland\u2019s lead guitar break is placed quietly low in the mix. That production choice \u2014 with the solo sounding like a blasting guitar break played in a room down the hall \u2014 all but beckons the listener to lean in to appreciate it. \u201cI felt like it was giving \u2018loud solo energy,\u2019\u201d Cleveland explains, \u201cso I didn\u2019t want to overdo it.\u201d<\/p>\n The ethereal, wordless vocalizations of The Beach Boys\u2019 20\/20<\/em> track \u201cOur Prayer\u201d were a direct influence upon \u201cReaching Up to the Sun,\u201d the album\u2019s sublime opening cut. As she has done with all of the music written for La Luz, Cleveland took that inspiration, filtered it through her own creative sensibility and came forth with something new and original in the process. \u201cFor us humans, there\u2019s something deeply satisfying about vocal harmonies,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I heard \u2018Our Prayer,\u2019 I thought, \u2018I want this<\/em>.\u2019\u201d And she got it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" La Luz is a Seattle-based quartet of four female musicians. 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