MEMBERS: Austin Garrick and Bronwyn Griffin
FOUNDED: in 2009, over a decade after they became middle school sweethearts
FROM: Toronto, Canada
YOU MIGHT KNOW THEM FROM: your favorite song off the Drive soundtrack, “A Real Hero,” on which they collaborated with College
NOW: a stunning debut album, Innerworld, fit for listening at sunrise while driving down the highway, out September 30 on Secretly Canadian
In an age of quick access to everything, instant gratification has become such a natural part of our digital era. News is spread in seconds. Moments are captured and posted instantaneously. People can communicate constantly in a variety of ways. With so much to see, read, like, and share, it’s hard to spend time on a single thing; there’s always something else begging for attention. Yet Austin Garrick and Bronwyn Griffin, the duo behind Electric Youth, stray from a fast-paced lifestyle and craft their music with patience. It may have taken them four years to release their debut album, but Innerworld is an exquisite showcase of what slowing down sounds like.
“We’ve tried to make a record for people who really follow their heart,” says Garrick. “We tried to make something really genuine.”
The world got their first taste of Electric Youth in 2011 through Nicolas Winding Refn’s avant-garde film Drive. “A Real Hero,” their collaboration with French producer/electronic musician College, became an instant anthem, soundtracking two iconic scenes: Ryan Gosling behind-the-wheel through the empty LA River during sunset and then speeding on a highway at night for the film’s finale. Much like that significant track, Innerworld is fit for any setting. “That was something that meant a lot to us, trying to make something that was universal,” Garrick says. From the outcast feeling of “Runaway” to the uncertainty of the band’s personal favorite “Tomorrow,” the songs linger in their timelessness and relatable moments come to mind within the lyrics of each track. “Austin and I have grown up together,” says Griffin. “I think we’ve unknowingly pulled from a lot of life experiences that we both experience from a day-to-day basis.”
After meeting in a town near Toronto, the duo became middle-school sweethearts, and have since spent the majority of their lives together. Griffin spent much of her childhood singing in church and then taking vocal lessons, while Garrick picked up various instruments while growing up and produced music after high school. Yet, despite having a shared love for music and each other, it wasn’t until 2009 that they decided to form Electric Youth. “I was producing records for other artists,” Garrick says. “I felt there was a certain level of compromise that came with that, where I wasn’t able to make the sort of music that I wanted to make.” About the subsequent decision, he says, “There’s obviously no one I would’ve rather done it with than with Bronwyn.”
The love between the two is present in small moments. It’s in the way they share their tastes in film and music. It’s in the way they complete each other’s sentences. It’s in the way they speak fondly about one another. It seeps into their music, giving it fluidity and intimacy brought by two people that know each other well. “We’ve tried to make a record for people who really follow their heart,” says Garrick. “We tried to make something really genuine.”
With Innerworld, Garrick and Griffin have crafted and honed something intimate, taking themes and ideas from films and personal experience to explore all aspects of growing up. Time has allowed their music to fully develop into something timeless. FL
