Young Liars

Emerging in Vancouver in 2008, indie pop quartet Young Liars took shape when several area groups dissolved, exchanged personnel, and coalesced again around revised aims. Bassist Andrew Beck and drummer Tyler Badali combined with singer and guitarist Jordan Raine, after which their associate Wes Nickel came aboard to play keys. Early material leaned toward dance-punk laced with elaborate math-rock patterns, yet the sound had already mellowed into the style the band called summertime synth by the time Nettwerk Records issued their first EP, Homesick Future, in 2012. Residual math-rock precision still surfaced within their concise guitar lines, but the group aligned more readily with Washed Out’s luminous, synth-soaked reveries and the candid sentiment of the Postal Service. Their first full-length album, Tidal Wave, appeared in June 2014.