Effective period / Period of releases: 2014

Members: Eric McCann (2), Mike Nissen, Joseph August Luisi, Daniel Norman (2)

Daniel Norman, singer/songwriter of A House for Lions, was a music lover who never intended to become a musician. But while hitchhiking through Germany, a melody and a few words popped into his head and never left: “we’ll write a book worth reading!” – the first line of what would become the first song Daniel ever wrote and A House for Lions’ statement of purpose, “Let Back”.

In that moment, he realized it might be possible to get off of the fence and create a project of his own; at least, it would be fun to try. Daniel had played guitar since he was a kid, but had no experience playing in a band. So he’d have to get better, (“we’ll pass the test, no cheating!”) but he’d also need to seek out kindred spirits to flesh-out the sound of his bare bones experiments.

In early 2010 he found just that in an unlikely group of strangers. Adding guitarist and designer Mike Nissen, bass player Eric McCann and drummer Joe Luisi, A House for Lions has developed a sound that according to The Deli Magazine “manages to blend the sleeker side of angsty 90s rock with the laid-back instrumentation and heart-string pulling melodies you might expect from an alt-country band”.

Within six months, the band had recorded their first EP I Want Us To Be Remembered, with LA producer Raymond Richards (Local Natives) and were off and running. From there the band garnered rave reviews from the LA Times and Billboard.com, made impressive debuts at CMJ and SXSW and established themselves as one of Los Angeles’ most promising young bands.

A House For Lions recently completed work on their debut full-length album with Grammy Award-winning producer Tom Biller (Silversun Pickups, Elliot Smith, Fiona Apple) after completing an innovative DIY crowdfunding campaign to fund the making of the album. By successfully bypassing the traditional crowdfunding platforms (Kickstarter, et al) and building their campaign from scratch, they’ve impressed the indie music world at large and attracted flattering press including an interview on NPR, articles from Digital Music News, Hypebot and many others.

Not content to rest on any laurels, these brothers-in-arms remain dedicated to creating and sustaining a distinct vision in an uncertain musical landscape. “To all the new beginnings/to all the screws unspinning!”