The Backseat Lovers

Alternative rock outfit The Backseat Lovers built their following through persistent effort and online momentum. After independently issuing their first album When We Were Friends in 2019, the tracks “Kilby Girl” and “Maple Syrup” accumulated multi-million streams. The quartet later signed with Universal ahead of their second release Waiting to Spill, which appeared in 2022. Over time When We Were Friends emerged as a sleeper success, its singles maintaining strong streaming numbers until the album itself reached the Billboard charts four years after launch.

Joshua Harmon (vocals, guitar) and Jonas Swanson (guitar) formed the band in Provo, Utah in 2018 after meeting while waiting to perform at an open-mike night. They recruited Ethan Christensen on bass and Juice Welch on drums to complete the lineup. Influenced by Cage the Elephant, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, and Pinegrove, the group quickly wrote material and began playing live, including a local battle of the bands that impressed both audience and judges. Their debut EP Elevator Days surfaced in mid-2018, yet the follow-up single “Maple Syrup” gained American radio play and spread rapidly on social media, driving substantial streams and introducing the band worldwide. The next year brought the full-length When We Were Friends, which contained both “Maple Syrup” and the breakout “Kilby Girl.” Following Christensen’s departure, KJ Ward joined on bass; subsequent tours, additional singles, and a live recording from the Troubadour followed.

In 2022 the band returned to the studio with producer David Greenbaum (Beck, Jenny Lewis), resulting in Waiting to Spill at year’s end. February 2023 saw When We Were Friends debut on the Billboard Top 200 at number 199. Continuous streams from new listeners propelled this delayed chart entry, with “Kilby Girl” surpassing hundreds of millions of plays and other tracks reaching tens of millions.