Lost Leaders

Before Lost Leaders there was Peter Cole. I used to have a steady Monday night jazz gig on Mercer street in Soho. Organ trio. It was the kind of place where Wall Street types came for a dose of "good for you" music before throwing 35 cents in the tip jar and running home to check their daily winnings. The place was owned by a depressive Israeli guy who looked like he was gonna hang himself at any moment; Hopefully he never did. Occasionally I'd use a bass player when the organ player couldn't make it and so Byron & I have been making music for a long time. But Jazz wasn't for me. I had much to prove & little to say which is boring as hell to anyone listening. So we started writing our own music. We played together as much as we could. Sounded great. Even had a pop/rock group so badly named I shan't repeat it here. But our other musical endeavors kept our collaboration against the boards. Byron started Ollabelle with some great musicians in the East Village. T-Bone Burnett signed them to Columbia Records and they were off on the road with Ryan Adams and Diana Krall and god knows who else. Great ride. As soon as they had some breaks in their schedule my band signed on with a BMG distributed label. To give this powerhouse label some context our label mates included Midnight Oil and Vanilla Ice. It was owned by a guy who made his money liquidating companies (in acid). We used to meet him in his $1600/per night suite at The Plaza so he could tell us how tight the budget was to promote our record. He was eventually sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for money laundering. We did some very strange tours. One opening for Dave Davies from The Kinks (a real hero but a truly weird guy. Aliens. That's all I'm gonna say) and one sponsored by a rum company from Barbados. (Alcohol sponsored tour - say no more.) We got lot's of T.V. licensing though. Had 4 songs on Dawson's Creek and more on MTV's Road Rules, Real World, The Young and The Restless, E! Wild On Hollywood etc etc etc. There are new shows I've never even heard of using some of those songs. Eventually Byron and I got to make a record called "Lowdowners in Stereo" in a studio located directly below Sonic Youth's rehearsal room. If you solo the drum overhead mics on some of the songs you can hear them howling. Someday that record will be worth something. The singer from my band split and moved to California and bought the amazing Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace. Lucinda Williams played her opening night show.

By this point Byron was playing bass with Levon Helm and was around for those truly inspiring last years. He even wrote a song on the Dirt Farmer record. It won a Grammy. He also wrote a song and played on the follow up record Electric Dirt and it won a Grammy (sense a pattern?). By this point we also had new songs that justified pushing other things aside for our collaboration. These were songs worth working for. We made a new record. A new band. A new point of view. A new layer of skin. Larry Campbell even gave it his blessing ("Byron, you & Peter got some Everly Brothers shit going on..."). We recorded it at Levon's which is a church of sorts. You get the same feeling you get in any cathedral. We played The Midnight Ramble with Levon the summer before he died. That record came out in 2014 titled simply “Lost Leaders”. Radio liked it. It spread around the airwaves from coast to coast and garnered great reviews from No Depression, RELIX, Huffington Post and Elmore Magazine.

The follow up Heavy Lifting E.P. (2017) saw us on the road shadowing The Lumineers who Byron was now playing with. We traveled along with them while they were paying arena’s opening for U2 filling in their off nights with shows, a Daytrotter session and video sessions for RELIX & Paste Magazines. Much about that E.P. mirrored the creation of the previous release. We have a thing for barns that are like churches. That set of songs was recorded in a barn built out of an actual church, taken apart and reassembled, cathedral ceiling, stained glass and all. Our new record Promises Promises (2019) was recorded at Sun Mountain Studio which as the name suggests is on the top of a mountain in the Catskill Mountains of New York. When Byron came off the road with The Lumineers this is where we headed to reinvent our selves. We contacted David Baron who had worked with Vance Joy, Jade Bird, Meghan Trainor and Bat For Lashes and asked if he’d like to produce our next record. Thus we found ourselves in rented a house nearby and commuting to the mountain top each morning to begin the new record. We pushed through our ties to Americana and came out in a slightly retro pop/rock universe of cynical commentary on the current craziness enveloping our country. Promises, Promises takes the permanent background noise of anxiety and pushes it through a large collection of vintage synthesizers, guitar pedals and tea soaked vocal cords. It emerges as a singable, anthem driven record of nine songs that waste no time getting where they’re going. This is the best record we’ve ever made. We promise.

Emily Angell

Singer/songwriter, producer, guitar and harmonica player from the Southern Tier of Upstate New York — is a description that only begins to scratch the surface of motivation-driven, harmony-obsessed Emily Angell. While some have compared her to Jewel and Alanis Morissette, she’s equally known for moments of belting out Christina-esque high notes and busting out the harmonica after disclosing her love of donuts and hatred of wearing pants to an audience.

Emily's latest album: Built For This combines empowerment pop with touching melodies that are easily singable. Her live show, courtesy of bandmates Liam Murphy (guitar), Matt Bauer (drums), Steve Riccio (bass), and Brittany Rose (vocals) is a natural extension of the album, complete with rich harmonies and an intense stage chemistry that perfectly accompanies sizzling guitar riffs, electro-rock drum beats, and blasting bass riffs.

Emily’s debut self-released EP The Upset (2011) received praise for its simple, acoustic approach, landing her generous reviews from Women of Substance Radio and AllMusic.com. Her sophomore EP Let Go (2015) incorporated Folk and Rock influences and secured her spots opening for Alt Nation mainstays American Authors and Dreamers. ComeHereFloyd says “Boss” (Built for This, 2018) "races into the subconscious of your mind and hooks in like – whoa."