The Driver Era

THE DRIVER ERA emerged as a vibrant pop/rock duo built around Ross Lynch, the singer and actor, and his brother Rocky Lynch, a multi-instrumentalist and producer, both formerly of R5. Their major-label debut arrived as the 2019 album X on BMG, led by the alternative hit “Preacher Man.” Aside from that single, the pair handled all writing, production, and recording themselves before shifting to an independent path that yielded the 2022 release Summer Mixtape on their TOO Records imprint and the 2023 track “Rumors.”

Although the project was formally launched in 2018, its origins trace to the sessions for R5’s New Addictions EP, which the Lynch brothers co-produced. After completing the accompanying tour, the siblings chose to pursue their own venture as a duo. Their first single, “Preacher Man,” surfaced that March and reached the Top 40 on Billboard’s alternative songs chart; it later appeared on X, issued in June 2019. A collection titled Some Remixes of X followed in January of the next year.

Steady single releases kept the act visible on playlists and streaming rankings, culminating in the October 2021 arrival of their second album, Girlfriend. While supporting that record on the road into 2022, the brothers ended their association with BMG and issued their next full-length, Summer Mixtape, independently in September 2022. The set featured a duet with soul singer Nikka Costa. Subsequent dates spanned Asia, Australia, and Europe, after which the non-album song “Rumors” appeared in December 2023.