Originally formed in the foothills of Colorado by college friends Jarvis Anderson (lead vocals, production), Sam Martin (vocals, keyboards), and Simon Katz (guitar), the band moved to Los Angeles after dropping out of school. Luis Rosiles flew from Jarvis’ hometown of Chicago to join the band as their drummer, and LA local Michael Bucher joined as bassist.
The band paid its dues in the glitter and grime of seedy Hollywood nightclubs before being adopted by Hermosa Beach, a Los Angeles sea-side community with a strong punk rock heritage, which identified with their synth-heavy, sweaty and wildly packed shows.
The love the band felt from the small beach town served as inspiration for the song “In This City” which became a worldwide hit in 2008. NME called it “an anthem in the making” while naming them one of “Twenty Bands Making America Cool Again.”
In their review of the band’s debut album “& Then Boom’, The Guardiancalled it “crisp electro-rock with a big hook in every tune…” while Q Magazine wrote, “This kitchen-sink hybrid works remarkably well.”
As the “In This City” single grew massively, the synth-pop group rose up the UK pop charts (#5) and US alternative charts (#35). The band toured the UK, Europe, and North America at a non-stop pace (SPIN included them in their “Best of Bumbershoot Festival 2009” and called their performance “absurdly successful”) which resulted in a strain on the group’s interpersonal relationships and by 2010 the band was dropped by the label, and the members went their separate ways.
Iglu & Hartly lay dormant in an extended hiatus for 10 years, until last summer when the band reunited for California’s Hermosa Beach Summer Series festival in August of 2019. The audience response from that show prompted the guys to go back in the studio to record new music and this is the first single from those sessions.
Anderson says, “As we closed out our set, and the sun was setting over the water, it just felt like the universe handed us a massive 2nd chance to continue the Iglu & Hartly story”. Indeed, those new flames of creativity led to a body of work that is to be released starting with the first single “Cooler”; a song fittingly about mounting a comeback.
Of the new single, Anderson explains, “Cooler is told from the perspective of a guy that is set on winning over a girl who rejected him in the past. I love how the throwback synths and guitars rise as his story gathers fun, frenetic momentum.”
The result is an absurdly epic and feel-good song that seems serendipitous to the band’s actual comeback. The single somehow finds a way of being equal parts soothing and exciting; healing and rambunctious. Those who are fans of their debut Hit “In This City” will find “Cooler” just as irresistible, with its veracious hooks, and genre-bending, disruptive appeal.
