Lawrence is a US-based pop-soul group founded by Clyde and Gracie Lawrence, a sibling duo who grew up in New York City. They have been singing, performing, and writing songs together since early childhood. Today, Lawrence is an eight-piece band which has released four studio albums in addition to several live and acoustic albums.[1]
They released their fourth studio album, Family Business, on June 21, 2024. The album release was accompanied with the announcement of their biggest headline tour yet with shows in Europe in summer 2024 and North America in fall 2024.
Clyde and Gracie Lawrence are siblings (three and a half years apart in age); they have created music and performed together since their childhood.[2] Their father, Marc Lawrence, is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and director best known for movies like Miss Congeniality and Music and Lyrics.[3] Their younger brother, Linus was featured in the song "Come On, Brother" on their album Breakfast. He has appeared in Lawrence music videos.[4]
Clyde is a singer, pianist, and songwriter. He began writing music soon after he started playing the piano at age 4. In the band he plays guitar, organ, and keyboard. He graduated from the Dalton School in New York City in 2011 and completed an undergraduate degree at Brown University in 2015.[2]
When Marc Lawrence was working on the 2000 film Miss Congeniality and was not pleased with his options for the Miss United States pageant theme song, he turned to Clyde. At only age five, Clyde wrote his own version, and the film's other producers chose to add it to the film without knowing its writer.[3] The Miss United States pageant anthem which Clyde composed is prominently featured in the film, and his composition led him to become the youngest member of the Songwriters Guild of America.[4]
While attending high school at Dalton, Clyde continued to compose music for major motion pictures. He wrote parts of the original score for the 2007 film Music & Lyrics as well as "Dance With Me Tonight", a song that Hugh Grant performs. He wrote two tracks, one of which he performed himself, for the 2009 movie Did You Hear About the Morgans?. Clyde has written songs for additional films including The Rewrite (2015) and Landline (2017).[5] He also composed the songs featured in the Season 2 episode of Instinct entitled "Broken Record" which aired on July 7, 2019. Clyde, along with Cody Fitzgerald, composed the entire score for the 2019 film Noelle,.
Gracie is a singer and actress. Her acting credits include The Sex Lives of College Girls, playing the character of Kacey. She attended the Dalton School, graduating in 2015.[2] She attended Brown after taking a gap year to tour with the band.[6] Gracie was set to graduate from Brown in 2020 but left college since then to play with Lawrence full time.[7] Beyond music, she has acted on Broadway, television, and films for over a decade.[8] In 2009, she acted in the Broadway show Brighton Beach Memoirs and played Lucy Granger in the film Did You Hear About The Morgans?. She has also acted in the 2011 film The Sitter as well as in TV shows including The Good Wife,The Americans,Younger, and Billions.In 2018, she played Julie Gardner on the main cast of the series One Dollar.[8] She was featured in Town & Country magazine's "Modern Swans" September 2018 issue.[9]
While studying at Brown University, Clyde started a band originally called The Clyde Lawrence Band for which he sang lead vocals and played keyboard. The band featured a rotating crew of Brown students as members. Gracie, still in high school, also traveled to perform with the band.[10][11] The Clyde Lawrence Band played events on campus as well as at colleges and venues across the Northeast.[12][13] The Clyde Lawrence Band performed on Clyde's 2013 album, Homesick. When Gracie became co-lead singer after many years playing together, the band's name was changed to Lawrence.[14]
Seven of the eight members of Lawrence attended Brown.[15]
Music
Lawrence released its first full-length album Breakfast in 2016, which reached No. 6 on the iTunes R&B charts on its first day of release.[16] Produced by Grammy winner Eric Krasno, Breakfast includes musical appearances from members of Snarky Puppy and Lettuce.
Their sophomore album, Living Room, was released in September 2018, followed by their late-night television debut on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly.[1] The album, which combines elements of Lawrence's old and new influences while featuring themes of childhood and family issues,[1] was co-produced by bandmates Jordan Cohen (tenor/baritone saxophone) and Jonny Koh (guitar), Brooklyn-based producer Eli Crews, as well as Clyde and Gracie themselves.[17]
In July 2021, Lawrence released their album Hotel TV on Beautiful Mind Records, the label of Jon Bellion, who co-produced and co-wrote the songs on the album along with Clyde, Gracie and their bandmates Jordan Cohen and Jonny Koh. The album's lead single, "Don't Lose Sight," was featured in a Microsoft commercial. The band performed "Don't Lose Sight" on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, did a performance of it for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and closed both of their sets at Coachella with it.
Clyde Lawrence, Jordan Cohen, and Jonny Koh formed production trio The Diner,[18] which is also signed to Jon Bellion. They have worked on projects with Jonas Brothers, Tori Kelly, Jon Batiste and others. The Diner co-writes & produces all of Lawrence’s music.
In late 2023, Lawrence was featured on Jacob Collier's single "Wherever I Go,"[19] and also released two singles of their own–"i'm confident that i'm insecure," and "23," both lead up singles to their 2024 album, Family Business, which came out on June 21, 2024. On May 31, 2024 they also released the title track to the album, "Family Business." They also featured on the song "Crushin" on Meghan Trainor's album Timeless, which came out on June 7, 2024.
Jon Bellion collaboration and record deal
In February 2019, Lawrence announced that the band would be an opener for Jon Bellion on his summer 2019 national tour, the Glory Sound Prep Tour.[20] In June, Lawrence released its first of many Bellion-produced singles, "Casualty". In July, Bellion and Lawrence announced that Bellion had launched his own record label, Beautiful Mind Records and had signed Lawrence as its first artist.[21] Bellion has said that his intention with the new label is to "take care of artists for the rest of their careers" and to create a family of musical creators who he supports and with whom he collaborates.[22]
In November 2022, Lawrence threw their own 3-night festival at Brooklyn Steel entitled Staycation.[23] Each night had its own theme (including wedding night, Y2K night, and New York night), and featured two opening acts followed by a two-hour set from Lawrence. Each night also had its own unique set design, setlist, and costumes that corresponded with the theme. In total, the three-nights featured seven different artists and three nearly non-repeating Lawrence sets. Lawrence performed over 70 different songs across the three sold out nights. In 2023, the band joined the Jonas Brothers on their 2023 North America tour and played festivals like Daze Between New Orleans and The Peach Music Festival, as well as support acts like Collier, AJR, and Michael Franti & Spearhead.[citation needed] In July 2023, the band announced it would be opening for the Jonas Brothers for their 2023-2024 tour.[24]
In January 2024, Lawrence announced a headline tour beginning in Europe Summer '24 and U.S. Fall of '24 to support their album Family Business.
In January 2023, Clyde Lawrence and Jordan Cohen were invited to testify at a U.S. SenateJudiciary hearing in Washington D.C., on the topic of live event ticketing.[26]
Band members
Gracie Lawrence – lead vocals, tambourine
Clyde Lawrence – lead vocals, keyboards
Sam Askin – drums
Sumner Becker – alto saxophone
Jordan Cohen – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, background vocals
Michael Karsh – bass, background vocals
Jonny Koh – guitar, background vocals
Marc Langer – trumpet, rapping
Discography
Studio albums
Breakfast (2016)
Living Room (2018)
Hotel TV (2021)
Family Business (2024)
Live albums
Breakfast: Unscrambled (Acoustic Sessions) (2018)
The Live Album (Part 1) (2020)
The Live Album (Part 2) (2021)
Acoustic-ish: An album...ish (2024)
Extended plays
Homesick (2013) (as The Clyde Lawrence Band)
Live EPs
Lawrence on Audiotree Live (2016)
Jam in the Van - Lawrence (Live Session, Los Angeles, CA, 2021) (2021)
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