La Luz

Shana Cleveland’s guitar techniques and songcraft anchor La Luz, a group that merges surf music with garage rock and adds an otherworldly psychedelic element. Their initial recordings came across as direct and unrefined, mirroring the energy of their live shows while highlighting Cleveland’s rapid fretwork and command of the whammy bar. Over time the surf elements gave way to denser arrangements and stronger production values, evident on the 2018 release Floating Features. By the arrival of their 2021 self-titled record, cut alongside producer Adrian Younge, the quartet had matured into dedicated psych-rock practitioners attuned to dynamics and negative space; 2024’s News of the Universe furthered those psychedelic directions while reflecting the personal challenges Cleveland confronted during its creation.

Cleveland launched La Luz in summer 2012 after earlier projects with the Curious Mystery and under the name Shana Cleveland & the Sandcastles. Seeking collaborators who could navigate both bright surf material and darker garage sounds, she enlisted Alice Sandahl on keyboards, Abbey Blackwell on bass, and Marian Li-Pino—another Curious Mystery alum—on drums, with every member contributing vocals. Taking the Spanish phrase for “the light” as their moniker, the quartet quickly assembled a makeshift studio inside a trailer and issued the four-track Damp Face EP before year’s end. During 2013 they placed 7-inch singles on Suicide Squeeze and Mississippi Records; the Sub Pop-affiliated Hardly Art imprint soon reissued Damp Face and, in October 2013, put out the band’s debut full-length, It’s Alive.

Promotion brought extensive touring, yet November 2013 found the members returning from a show when their van hit black ice, veered, and collided with a truck. The crash totaled the vehicle and much of their equipment while causing only minor injuries to the musicians; a scheduled run with Of Montreal was scrapped as a result. Blackwell subsequently departed, though by March 2014 the group had added bassist Lena Simon and resumed the road. Early 2015 sessions for the follow-up took place inside a surfboard shop in San Dimas, California, with Ty Segall handling production and engineering duties. Hardly Art released the resulting Weirdo Shrine on 7 August 2015, after which the band embarked on an international tour. Upon returning they announced their relocation to California with a heartfelt public message to their former hometown. Once settled, they recorded 2018’s Floating Features under Dan Auerbach’s guidance; the album stood as their most refined and expansive effort yet, featuring broader sonic textures, folk-rock touches, and thicker vocal layers. Following another stretch of dates, Li-Pino exited and the remaining members dispersed—Cleveland to Northern California, Simon to Florida, and Sandahl remaining in Los Angeles.

When the trio reconvened for their fourth album they worked with noted hip-hop and jazz producer Adrian Younge at his Linear Labs studio. Drummer Riley Geare, previously associated with Unknown Mortal Orchestra, joined the sessions. The resulting collection represented their deepest foray into psychedelia, emphasizing studio experimentation, heightened vocal harmonies, and inward-looking themes while further diminishing surf references. Hardly Art issued the self-titled set in October 2021.

In 2020 Cleveland and partner Will Sprott welcomed son Osceola Malcolm Dune Shakari Cleveland, known as Ozzy. The period of pregnancy and early motherhood shaped Cleveland’s 2023 solo outing Manzanita. While nursing Ozzy she detected a breast lump that had formed gradually; a mammogram led to a cancer diagnosis, prompting treatment that included mastectomy even as she cared for her infant. The ensuing physical and emotional ordeal, compounded by encounters with the medical system, supplied the impetus for 2024’s News of the Universe, which extended the psychedelic and expansive pop approach of the 2021 album. Sub Pop released the record, which Maryam Qudus—recording as Spacemoth—produced, engineered, and mixed, with every performer and technician involved being women in order to mirror the band’s collective female perspective. Once tracking concluded, Sandahl and Simon stepped away; Lee Johnson assumed bass duties while Qudus took over on keyboards.