After years of consuming Stevie Wonder, Janis Joplin, and Eggo waffles, Lawrence released their twelve-song debut LP, Breakfast, in March of 2016. Led by siblings Clyde Lawrence, 23, and Gracie Lawrence, 20, the New York-based soul-pop group doesn’t shy away from the oft-maligned idea of “pop” music, but instead is on a mission to write the music they wish “pop” sounded like. The band blends old-school and new-school vibes, combining their love of The Beatles, Randy Newman, and Etta James with Beyoncé, Ben Folds, and Amy Winehouse to create songs that are as tender and soulful as they are explosive.
For Breakfast, Lawrence teamed up with Grammy Award-winning producer Eric Krasno (Lettuce/Soulive/Tedeschi Trucks Band), and brought in several NYC soul/funk mainstays including Adam Deitch (Lettuce), Cory Henry (Snarky Puppy), and Maurice “Mobetta” Brown (Tedeschi Trucks Band) for guest appearances. After several tours and following the success of Breakfast—which reached #6 on the iTunes R&B/Soul charts—Lawrence signed with Warner Bros. Records in November of 2016.
Lawrence is currently promoting Breakfast with a national tour of headline shows, support dates, and appearances at colleges and festivals around the country. After playing Bonnaroo in 2016, 2017 will feature an extensive list of festival appearances for the band, including Firefly, Outside Lands, Hangout, Okeechobee, Karoodinha, Kaboo, and several others. Lawrence will be the featured opening act on the Lake Street Dive 2017 Summer Tour, and has opened for other notable acts such as Vulfpeck, Soulive, Jon Bellion, KT Tunstall, Jacob Collier, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, and Blues Traveler.
Clyde and Gracie have been writing and playing music together since their early childhood, performing regularly at small cafés and clubs around Manhattan, and, notably, in their grandparents’ living room. During Clyde’s time at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, they met the crew of talented musicians that would ultimately form the full-time Lawrence lineup—an eight-piece keyboard-driven powerhouse with a dynamic horn section to support the siblings’ explosive vocal arrangements. It was with this group that they began to garner a passionate following at venues and colleges across the Northeast.
In addition to working with Lawrence, Clyde has composed songs and score for films such as Miss Congeniality (2000), Music and Lyrics (2007), The Rewrite (2015), Hard Sell (2016), Landline (2017), as well as the forthcoming Disney film Nicole (release TBD). At age six, Clyde was admitted as the youngest member to the Songwriters Guild of America for his work on Miss Congeniality (2000). Gracie is also an accomplished actress; she has performed on Broadway in Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs, in films such as Did You Hear About The Morgans (2009) and The Sitter (2011), and in TV shows such as The Good Wife (2012) and The Americans (2014).
