Lightspeed Champion

Devonté Hynes created the Lightspeed Champion vehicle after experimental rock group Test Icicles split up in 2006, steering the effort toward folk-based songwriting. The move let him highlight his longstanding taste for pop melodies, an appreciation first sparked by childhood exposure to Broadway musicals and one that had already softened the jerky textures of Test Icicles. Once he finished a set of new songs, Hynes traveled to Nebraska to work with Saddle Creek producer Mike Mogis. An informal ensemble drawn from Cursive, Tilly and the Wall, and the Faint supplied the backing, generating rootsy and partly acoustic material that surfaced on the 2007 singles “Galaxy of the Lost” and “Midnight Surprise,” as well as the 2008 track “Tell Me What It’s Worth.”

Lightspeed Champion kept a busy road schedule through the second half of 2007, opening for Bright Eyes before stepping into headliner roles. While touring Europe in early 2008, Hynes saw his debut album Falling Off the Lavender Bridge issued worldwide; it drew positive notices, especially from U.K. critics. He kept issuing new songs during the next year, often placing them online for free and occasionally crediting them to the pseudonym Blood Orange, then delivered the follow-up full-length Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You in 2010.