Spotlight: Lostboycrow Dives Back Into Performing With a Fresh New Sound

Q&AMusic

Aug 8

☆ BY Alex LaBrec ☆

CHRIS BLAIR — AKA LOSTBOYCROW — has undergone a musical evolution. When the world shut down, he took time away from the stage to reflect on who he is as an artist and what sound feels most genuine to himself. Like most great journeys, his brought him back to the core of who he was before the millions of streams and notoriety as Lostboycrow. Now, it’s just him, his guitar, and a set of really great friends that are bringing fans their favorite singles this summer.

When he delivered his first full-length album, Santa Fe, back in 2019, it translated an upbeat sound completely tied to the artist himself. He describes the phase he was in during the creation of that project as a pretty solo one. Though he grew up in Portland playing with different bands and renting studio space to record with other musicians, he shifted toward synthesizers and bedroom spaces for Santa Fe when he relocated to LA in 2014. “It was more exciting at that time because everything had been so band and guitar–driven for me that, at that point, it was fun and new and exciting to do something else,” he explained. “And it was — it was fun, and I love some of those songs a lot. Even the ones that I wouldn't necessarily show people nowadays. I'm attached to them and I can appreciate them.”

The 13-track album included experimental audio bites and blended instruments that proved Blair was capable of making groovy tracks completely on his own. But even after the success of this album, he felt himself gravitating back toward that classic musical structure that looked more like a bunch of his talented friends sitting around with live instruments and sharing music.

During COVID, when he was sitting on most of the songs he had already recorded for Valleyheart, Blair felt the same burnout a lot of us could sense overtaking our ability to keep doing the things that inspired us before the world shut down. Quarantined with some friends in the Canadian countryside, he started to feel a shift in how he wanted to create music.

“Most nights,” Blair said, “we would have a fire outside, and I would get the acoustic guitar and I would play mostly songs that weren't my own: a song from Walk Hard, the Eagles, or The Beatles. It just kind of made me fall in love with music, again, just at its purest form.” From that night, he caught the bug for live music and being part of a band again.

Blair has always expressed gratitude for his friends and feels lucky he has the opportunity to perform and create with them. So it comes as no surprise that it was their presence that brought him back to the core of who Blair is as an artist — someone who loves playing in a band, being playful with music, and needing nothing more than a guitar to celebrate who he is and transfer those emotions directly to his audience.

He describes the sound of his new singles as a return to the band and not taking himself too seriously. Just having fun with music again and fully embracing pop. “I like picking up a guitar and writing is so natural for me,” he said. “And [the new songs] just sound so much different. I mean, to me, it sounds like completely different artists. Even the way that I sing when I write that way. It was like coming home.”

For his latest releases, he partnered with idol-turned-friend Chris Chu. The pair met after Blair had already been a longtime fan of his band, Morning Vendors, in LA. They joined in a studio session and immediately hit it off. They decided to collaborate on new music because in Blair’s words, “there were guitars in the vicinity. And it just couldn't be helped.”

Blair explained that for these newest releases, he spent a lot of time coming up with his own lyrics or snippets of songs, and then trusted Chu enough to bring those pieces to life. He said that that’s what is so great about working with people you love and really trust. You don’t have to have something completely finished or thought-through to feel good enough to bring it to them. Just bring what you got and they’ll meet you where you’re at.

Blair’s collaboration with Chu and transition into more live instruments set a new tone for his music. “Angelina,” “Libra Moon,” and “Chewed Up” join this summer’s roster of feel-good music that feel unapologetically pop. Their upbeat melodies and inclusion of collaborations between multiple artists and instruments live up to what Blair set out to do since sitting by that campfire. “It sounds a little bit more like those bands that I love and listen to, but lyrically, it is a little bit more tongue-in-cheek,” he described. “It was just me and Chris Chu having fun and not really stressing too much about how it's perceived.”

Not having performed his music as Lostboycrow since 2018, Blair is excited to connect with fans and share new music again. On Aug. 6, he’s booked to open for BabyJake at the Echo in LA. “I think it’s a great way to kind of open the door back up to playing and hopefully touring,” he said. Fans will finally get the chance to hear a lot of the songs that have yet to be played to a large audience from Valleyheart, plus dance it out to his newest singles.

Even with his plans to be on the road, Blair promises to keep working on new music. After such a long time working on his sound in more private spaces, it’s good to see him hitting the music scene again full force, and with a whole new style that fans have yet to see from Lostboycrow.

Though change is great, after all the transformation he’s been through as an artist since his last album, I felt compelled to ask him what fans can expect to always remain the same. “Just wanting to be genuine, you know, to myself and to my process,” he told me, “and I think that's something that I'll always take with me, and I'm proud to say that I think I've carried with me through the changes. I think that's kind of the only criteria I have at this point.”

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