Loyals released EP Love Me Bad on October 18 through Tooth & Nail. We wanted to find out more about the thought process for the EP so asked the band to tell us about some of their inspirations when creating their latest release.
DANE ALLEN:
Jorja Smith
I’ve been listening to her latest album, “Falling or Flying”, so much this year. Her vocals are incredible, and I love the way she controls her voice in an emotional way. Part of what I’ve always focused on when recording vocals for a project is conveying the emotion of the lyric through the vocals. Jorja does such a great job of doing that. Not to mention her band rips.
Kiana Ledé
Kiana’s another great RnB vocalist, but what sticks out most to me about her songs is the use of guitar. I don’t hear a lot of guitar in modern RnB music, and Kiana uses it so tastefully. A lot of the guitar on our new EP is used minimally without being the driving force while still supporting the song.
Kirk Franklin
This is more of a foundational reference for me. Growing up, my family spent a few years in Memphis where I discovered Kirk Franklin’s music, and that’s where I really took an interest in singing. There are so many different voices on his projects, and I was exposed to artists like Fred Hammond, Stevie Wonder, Rance Allen, and so many more through Kirk’s albums. Just trying to sing along with those songs at an early age was pretty pivotal for how my voice started shaping. I would actually love to somehow work with Kirk on something one day.
The 1975
This one is another longtime influence for me, particularly with their first album. That record shaped a lot of how I wanted Loyals’ guitar parts to sound like. They have a lot of guitar on that album that isn’t just simply carrying the chords, but giving color to what’s going on around the chord structure of a song. I’ve always loved their guitar tones as well.
U2
I love this band, and they still have the best live show that I’ve ever seen. Everything from the songwriting to vocal performance to guitar sounds is always so interesting in their music. A lot of what The Edge was doing on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and prior was formative for my guitar playing.
ANDREW GOMEZ:
The 1975
I know it’s all too common to reference this band, but they truly are, in my opinion, the most influential band of the past 10 or so years. What I admire the most about them is their commitment to evolution on each album while still retaining a core DNA in their sound. I truly love all of their albums. For us, our new EP (Love Me Bad) is an evolution from our previous work, but we kept our own DNA in it (Dane’s vocal approach, clean/simple rhythmic guitar parts, etc)
The Weeknd
This reference is mainly for our song, “No Tomorrow”, but we love The Weeknd’s approach to his vocal treatment. With Dane’s vocals leaning a bit into r&b at times on the EP, we naturally bought some of our inspiration from The Weeknd’s “After Hours” album into the way we tackled vocals in the studio.
Relient K
Possibly a more obscure reference to see on this list, but I’ve always admired Matt Thiessen’s songwriting ever since I was a kid. There was always this sorta “southern, kinda folksy/country” angle of their sound that appeared on some of their records, and I pulled a little inspiration from that while writing the musical parts for “She Hates Me”. The bridge of that song hits a zone that feels like it could live in a Relient K cut.
Harry Styles
There’s an organic undertone to a lot of the songs on our new EP; acoustic guitar layers, dry live drums, lots of vocal stacks, etc, for example. Contrasting that, the synthetic sounds feel very “earthy” to me in a way I can only describe by using examples from Harry Styles’ discography. Harry wasn’t on the mind while we wrote and recorded these songs, but looking back, it’s clear that we were inspired sonically by him.
Now, Now
To say I love Now, Now is an understatement; I stan that band pretty hard. Their approach to guitars, specifically acoustic guitars, is something I think about a lot while writing pop songs. Their synth and drum work as well are executed perfectly in the alt/pop genre. Their record, “Saved”, is one of my favorite albums in general.