The Lovers (Californian band)

Background

Originally from different corners of the earth, Grainger (Sydney, Australia) and Pullman (Ithaca, New York) met at Crane's Hollywood Tavern, Los Angeles in June, 2011. The night they met both Grainger and Pullman were performing individually and watched each other play. There was a mutual respect for the same genres of music and a friendship was formed based around this mutual affinity for blues, roots music, country, folk and the larger American musical idiom.

Mitch Grainger first started playing blues music at age 14 in Balmain, Sydney. His first instrument was the harmonica which he played for 6 months before also picking up the guitar. After hearing Little Walter's greatest hits on cassette he was instantly hooked on the blues and his quest to find the best American Roots music at second hand record stores began, followed by his first gigs in a popular Balmain teenage band fronted by Alex Lloyd, called The Beefs. Since then Mitch Grainger has toured the entire Australian continent, states and territories, Japan, Scandinavia the United States and worked with some of Australia's best musicians and musical groups including Malcolm Young (AC/DC), Harry Vanda, Jack Thompson, The Bondi Cigars, Papa Lips and Rick Price both in the studio and on stage.

Rosa Pullman was raised to the sounds of folk music, harmony singing and traditional Americana music by her parents in upstate NY. She was playing piano and writing her first songs by age 5. At age 19 she moved to Boston and started experimenting with electronica, layered harmonies and beats. While in Boston she met many musicians including Amanda Palmer and Michael McDonald, the later with whom she collaborated with in the band Jupiter 88. After the tragic death of Michael, Rosa decided to visit India, a decision that culminated in her living there for 5 years, studying tabla and continuing to record her vocal based electronica music. On returning to America in 2009 Rosa moved to California and started writing songs that were again inspired by folk, country, blues and roots music.

After meeting in Los Angeles the duo began performing as an acoustic act, first recording an EP (Dusty Road) in the desert town of Twentynine Palms, California under Rosa Pullman's name. Soon after the independent release of Dusty Road the duo decided to officially form a band together. The original incarnation of the band was named "The In From Out of Towners" and began playing a weekly residency at one of the most popular live music venues in Hollywood, The Piano Bar. In late 2012 "The In From out of Towners" began recording their self-titled debut album and in the process changed their name to "The Lovers" after reading about The Lovers (Tarot Card) which is the sixth trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks.

Debut Album

The Lovers debut album was self-titled. It was produced by Mitch Grainger, co-produced by James Salter and recorded by Doug Messenger at Doug Messenger's Hard Drive Studios over a period of 6 weeks in November and December 2012. The entire record was tracked live, with only vocals and some solos being overdubbed. The album was recorded on Scotch 250 analog tape using a vintage Stephens 24 track tape machine, which was previously owned by The Producers Workshop and used to record and mix albums by Pink Floyd (The Wall), Steely Dan (Aja) and Fleetwood Mac (Rumours). The result was a classic sound very similar to these aforementioned albums from the 70's.

The Album was independently released on Vinyl and CD in October 2013 on Grainger's production label (Grainger Entertainment) and contains eleven original compositions and two covers; Merle Travis's "Sixteen Tons" and Willie Dixon's "Bring it on Home" (Bonus track on the CD version).

Debut Album Track Listing

Personnel

Uses in Popular Culture

Discography