Biography
Electric Youth exploded into view in 2011 when the Toronto pair placed “A Real Hero” on the Drive soundtrack, establishing their expansive synth-pop as the signature of the sleek, backward-glancing style that colored the balance of the decade. Their 2014 debut Innerworld found instrumentalist and producer Austin Garrick alongside vocalist Bronwyn Griffin shaping a buoyant yet driving interpretation of 1980s textures refracted through a gauzy contemporary filter. They later leaned fully into their cinematic instincts on the largely wordless 2017 set Breathing—initially planned as a film score—and explored the full range of their sound on the expansive pop of 2019’s Memory Emotion.
Garrick and Griffin first crossed paths in sixth grade, began a relationship a few years afterward, and formally launched the project in 2009. Early home recordings, among them a version of Clio’s Italo-disco staple “Faces,” attracted the similarly nostalgia-minded Valerie Collective and led to encounters with kindred spirits including College and Anoraak. Around the same period the duo issued their debut single “Replay” independently and began playing local shows; they also teamed with College for the vocal on “She Never Came Back,” which appeared on the 2009 album Secret Diary. Grum soon enlisted Griffin for “Turn It Up” on his 2010 release Heartbeats. Their breakthrough arrived the following year via another College collaboration, “A Real Hero,” featured in Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 film Drive. Drawing partial inspiration from the 2009 emergency landing of Flight 1549 and the actions of pilot Chesley Sullenberger, the track drew widespread praise and helped codify the dreamy synth-pop aesthetic tied to Refn’s visual world. Their follow-up single “Right Back to You” surfaced shortly thereafter, succeeded by the 2012 track “The Best Thing.”
For the debut album the pair tracked material in both their Toronto facility and an L.A. space equipped with a screening room, allowing their love of film to permeate the recordings. Although they enlisted co-producers Vince Clarke and Peter Mayes, they still found time to guest on Sally Shapiro’s 2013 album Somewhere Else. After signing with Secretly Canadian they unveiled the single “Innocence” as the first preview of September 2014’s Innerworld, which collected “A Real Hero” and “The Best Thing” alongside new material and earned broad critical approval. In the wake of that release Electric Youth rejoined Refn, contributing “Good Blood” to the soundtrack of his 2016 film The Neon Demon. They also joined director Anthony Scott Burns on music for Breathing, yet the project underwent such extensive post-production revisions that both Burns and the duo ultimately stepped away. Griffin and Garrick subsequently issued the Breathing score through Milan Records as part of the Nicolas Winding Refn Presents series in September 2017. In 2019 they assisted Gesaffelstein on Hyperion and took part in Ryuichi Sakamoto’s remix collection async: Remodels before issuing their sophomore album Memory Emotion. Cut inside their Toronto residence using vintage synthesizers and samplers, the record appeared on Last Gang Records in August 2019.
Garrick and Griffin first crossed paths in sixth grade, began a relationship a few years afterward, and formally launched the project in 2009. Early home recordings, among them a version of Clio’s Italo-disco staple “Faces,” attracted the similarly nostalgia-minded Valerie Collective and led to encounters with kindred spirits including College and Anoraak. Around the same period the duo issued their debut single “Replay” independently and began playing local shows; they also teamed with College for the vocal on “She Never Came Back,” which appeared on the 2009 album Secret Diary. Grum soon enlisted Griffin for “Turn It Up” on his 2010 release Heartbeats. Their breakthrough arrived the following year via another College collaboration, “A Real Hero,” featured in Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 film Drive. Drawing partial inspiration from the 2009 emergency landing of Flight 1549 and the actions of pilot Chesley Sullenberger, the track drew widespread praise and helped codify the dreamy synth-pop aesthetic tied to Refn’s visual world. Their follow-up single “Right Back to You” surfaced shortly thereafter, succeeded by the 2012 track “The Best Thing.”
For the debut album the pair tracked material in both their Toronto facility and an L.A. space equipped with a screening room, allowing their love of film to permeate the recordings. Although they enlisted co-producers Vince Clarke and Peter Mayes, they still found time to guest on Sally Shapiro’s 2013 album Somewhere Else. After signing with Secretly Canadian they unveiled the single “Innocence” as the first preview of September 2014’s Innerworld, which collected “A Real Hero” and “The Best Thing” alongside new material and earned broad critical approval. In the wake of that release Electric Youth rejoined Refn, contributing “Good Blood” to the soundtrack of his 2016 film The Neon Demon. They also joined director Anthony Scott Burns on music for Breathing, yet the project underwent such extensive post-production revisions that both Burns and the duo ultimately stepped away. Griffin and Garrick subsequently issued the Breathing score through Milan Records as part of the Nicolas Winding Refn Presents series in September 2017. In 2019 they assisted Gesaffelstein on Hyperion and took part in Ryuichi Sakamoto’s remix collection async: Remodels before issuing their sophomore album Memory Emotion. Cut inside their Toronto residence using vintage synthesizers and samplers, the record appeared on Last Gang Records in August 2019.
Albums
North of Normal (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
2025
Come True (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
2021
Breathing (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack From A Lost Film)
2020
Singles
