Lockyer Boys
You instantly know “DRIVE!” is going to be a a smash as soon as you hear the first two seconds of the song, and this is exactly what it is: a smash. From beginning to end. Filled with anthemic melodies and a dynamic production, “DRIVE!” will definitely be on repeat.
The Lockyer Boys has so much more in store, but for now, let’s stream this new single.
”DRIVE!” is available now !
Photo credit: Chad Kirvan
Hi guys ! How are you? Could you please introduce yourselves? What's the story behind Lockyer Boys?
Hey! We’re the Lockyer Boys! We’re just two brothers (Will & Charlie Lockyer) from Canada. To give the best and most accurate story behind us, it’s probably best to start from the very beginning. We’re the youngest siblings in our family with an older brother and sister. Our mom put them in piano lessons and then as soon as each of us were born, we were brought to the lessons. Once we were able to walk, we were itching to get in on the action and we began piano lessons young at around 2-3 years old. Disclaimer: they weren’t normal piano lessons, Mrs. Walter would literally place our fingers on the keys so we could feel included with our older siblings. As we got older we recognized our ear for music was special which led to vocal lessons (around age 7 and 9). Once our name became known around the vocal recital/competition community, we were able to book appearances as Lockyer Boys at local events. We knew we needed to write songs to get anywhere as musicians so our parents bought us an iMac with Garageband and started recording when we were 14 and 16. We started releasing the songs we were making and we were slowly getting better and better until we met up with our first producer in Vancouver and that’s when everything started to pick up exponentially. Fast forward to now, we’re going on multiple school tours, building our fan base and having the time of our lives!
"DRIVE!" is your latest single - what's the inspiration behind this song?
The song is all about ignoring your fears and shooting your shot. The fear of being rejected either in a relationship or career/life in general is so strong and common among everyone including us, so it was really easy getting it out into song lyrics. We wrote the song with our friend/producer Alan Poettcker back in December 2022 and the song was basically complete in less than a day.
Could you describe the songwriting/production process for this song? When did you start working on it?
The plan was to do 2 songs in 2 days with Alan at his studio. We made "DRIVE!" on day one, and when day two came around we were so excited about our new song we spent like 1 hour trying to write another one before we gave up and decided we were going to finish "DRIVE!"
What did you feel when recording this song?
I don’t think we’ve ever been more excited about a song. It’s exactly what we want to be putting out and honestly our best song yet. It has the perfect blend of emotion and fun, which made for a really great day in the studio.
What's your favorite lyric on this song?
“Full speed, go 100%” is a term we use with our family and one of our mottos in our career. We never want to do something if we’re not doing it 100%. We’ve always been the type of people to say “if we’re doing it, let’s do it right.” I think that lyric sums up the message of the song perfectly.
What made you want to release "DRIVE!" as a single?
"DRIVE!" was always going to be a single even before we wrote it. The first thing we did when we got to the studio was turn on the metronome and crank it to 185bpm. We didn’t know what we were going to do but we wanted it to be fast and fun. I think we achieved that with "DRIVE!," so it was a no-brainer to put it out as a single.
What can you tell us about the artwork?
Chad Kirvan has been travelling with us doing music videos, artwork, photoshoots etc. So we came to him for our Official DRIVE! Photoshoot and decided to mess around with some photoshop ideas. He had a toy car at his house that looked super cool so all we needed to do was take individual shots of us and let Chad work his magic on the computer.
What do you want people to feel when listening to this single?
First and foremost, we hope it doesn’t make you get a speeding ticket. But if we can put a smile on your face on the way to work then we’ve done our job. We want to make people happy and inspire people to live a more positive life so hopefully DRIVE! Can do that
As artists, what is the hardest part? And what is the best part?
As artists it’s difficult to predict what’s going to happen next. So much is uncertain and that can be hard… but that’s also the best part! Every day is different from the last and amazing things come at you out of nowhere! We’ve had so many amazing opportunities writing and performing with amazing people that we could have never predicted.
What are your thoughts on today's music industry? If you could change one thing, what would it be?
We think the music industry is at an exciting turning point with the implementation of social media technology. Nowadays you’re able to make an entire album, release it, and build a following all from your bedroom. WHAT! It’s a new era for the music industry and we love where it’s going. One thing we would love to have changed is the amount of money that makes its way down to artists from platforms like Spotify. On the subject of artists royalties, we believe the music industry has regressed however, we are optimistic that the industry is just going through a massive paradigm shift and soon everything will catch up.
Could you list a few records that influenced the music you are making today?
We listen to so many different records between the both of us. But one artist that we always seem to fall back to in the creative process is Harry Styles. We’ve been listening to all of his albums on repeat ever since they were released. You can even hear his inspiration in our songs, like "DRIVE!" which definitely took influence from "As It Was."
What advice would you give to anyone who'd like to form a duo?
Make sure you pick the right partner! We spend almost every waking moment together and that can be hard if you don’t have the right person with you. As brothers we have a lot of fun travelling and working. When times get tough we’re also very good at not letting it get in the way of what we need to accomplish. We make a good team!
In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?
Mental health is such an important part of everyone’s lives and our philosophy is; there’s lots of people writing sad songs to cope with mental health struggles but maybe what the world needs is happy songs. We write positive music to bring joy into peoples day and remind them that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
What biggest life lessons have you learned this year?
One life lesson that we’re starting to realize this year is to “trust yourself”. For so long we lacked the confidence that our contributions in the studio (for example) weren’t sufficient enough. This year we’ve started to work with very supportive producers like Alan who have been encouraging us to follow through with our ideas and even have us physically work on the project with him—something we’ve never had the confidence to do before!
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