The four piece band from Brooklyn, NY features actor/artist Penn Badgley (Greetings From Tim Buckley, Margin Call, Gossip Girl), bassist/producer Jimmy Giannopoulos (LOLAWOLF, Reputante), guitarist Simon Oscroft, and keyboardist Darren Will. In the last year, MOTHXR quietly released a number of songs that set the internet abuzz.
“Easy,” was a top ten track on the Hype Machine and the song sat at #1 on the Billboard and Twitter Emerging Artist charts in May (currently at #34). MTV reported that “within a week the sultry, sophisticated, genre-defying track had accumulated tens of thousands of listens and smashed the top 10 of bloggers’ favorite, Hype Machine… the band’s reign of cool is set to be unstoppable.” Neon Gold described the track as “[fully loaded with airtight guitars, smoked-out vocals, and icy synths, it comes together perfectly all wrapped up in a weathered leather jacket under the neon lights of the city.” Nylon calls the band’s sound” dark, brooding aesthetic and hazy, bass-heavy infectious bedroom jams.”
Penn Badgley says the band’s music lies “somewhere between DIY punk production aesthetic, new wave and R&B,” naming influences like LCD Soundsystem, the Beastie Boys and Arthur Russell. He called their improvised songwriting “meticulous, but totally spontaneous.” The band released their debut album, Centerfold, in early 2016. Washington Square’s international partner for MOTHXR’s first album is the French company and lifestyle brand Kitsuné.
