Young the Giant

Formed in Orange County, Young the Giant played modern, melodic pop steeped in California sunshine. The core members initially came together as high-schoolers in Irvine, and got their original name the Jakes by combining the first letter of each member's name (Jacob Tilley, Addam Farmer, Kevin Massoudi, Ehson Hashemian, and Sameer Gadhia). The Jakes recorded one indie EP in 2008 and made their first South by Southwest appearance the following year. But a round of personnel changes made the Jakes name obsolete, so they changed it to Young the Giant after signing with the Roadrunner label. By now they had the permanent lineup of Jakes founders Gadhia (lead vocals) and Tilley (guitar), with guitarist Eric Cannata, bassist Payam Doostzadeh and drummer François Comtois who'd moved over from the bass slot. Recording their self-titled 2010 debut, they chose to cut everything live in the studio and let producer Joe Chiccarelli edit together the best takes. The album was an immediate hit, with the anthemic single "My Body" as the breakout track. Between TV appearances (including American Idol) and radio play, its rousing chorus was impossible to escape. Further singles "Apartment and "Cough Syrup" did nearly as well. The band returned in triumph to South by Southwest and then visited England, where Morrissey said he was a fan. They continued their successful run through 2011, playing MTV Unplugged and returning to Austin for a plum slot at the Austin City Limits Festival. Another anthemic single, "It's About Time," introduced the second album, 2013's Mind Over Matter. Though it sported a new producer in Justin Meldal-Johnsen, the disc continued the live-band sound of the debut and was nearly as big a hit, peaking at #7 on the Billboard albums chart (just one notch below the debut). For their third album, the band responded to the age of Trump by taking a more political turn, drawing on their background as immigrants (Gadhia, Doostzadeh and Comtois are respectively of Indian, Persian and Quebecois descent). Taking its lyrical inspiration from Franz Kafka, the first single "Amerika" proved moodier than previous Young the Giant singles. Yet the song touched a nerve and the album continued the band's run of success.