Biography
The duo Vanity Mirror originated in 2020 as a link between Los Angeles and Toronto. Their approach builds from the 1960s Baroque pop that defined their earlier work in Electric Looking Glass while folding in indie pop, power pop, and especially the hazy 1970s textures associated with inventive figures such as Emitt Rhodes.
Canadian-born singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Brent Randall spent his formative years in Nova Scotia, where he performed and recorded as Brent Randall & His Pinecones during the late 2000s. He relocated to Toronto in the early 2010s. By 2017 he had begun releasing material under the name Gentle Brent and had settled in Los Angeles, where he encountered local drummer Johnny Toomey, a fixture in the Southern California music community. Toomey had drummed for the punk band the Stitches in the 1990s and later contributed to the retro-oriented indie rock group the Turns. The pair connected in 2018 through a mutual appreciation for the Rutles and vintage apparel, after which Toomey recruited Randall into the 1967-focused band Electric Looking Glass. That ensemble captured an album on period instruments using strictly analog methods; the results surfaced as Somewhere Flowers Grow in 2021.
Randall’s return to Toronto during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns led him to generate a new batch of song demos on computer, initially conceived for Electric Looking Glass. Because the material diverged from ELG’s template of Kinks-, Hollies-, and Monkees-derived beat and psych influences, he chose to develop it instead with Toomey under the name Vanity Mirror. After deciding the tracks merited release, Randall sent the files to Toomey in Los Angeles, who added drum parts. The bedroom-pop production lent the songs a secondhand, lived-in quality that felt instantly familiar. We Are Busy Bodies, the label that had issued Somewhere Flowers Grow, agreed to release the Vanity Mirror recordings, beginning with the single “Tuesday’s News” in February 2023. The jangly “Dandelion Wish” appeared in April, followed in May by the McCartney-esque acoustic ballad “Somehow You Know.” Also that month the duo issued their debut album, Puff, whose ornate minimalist production values drew notice from retro-focused U.K. music publications. In August they self-released the non-album single “Through the Wood, Across the Snow” before assembling a live band. The following month they launched a European tour billed as Puff Against the World, performing in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Canadian-born singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Brent Randall spent his formative years in Nova Scotia, where he performed and recorded as Brent Randall & His Pinecones during the late 2000s. He relocated to Toronto in the early 2010s. By 2017 he had begun releasing material under the name Gentle Brent and had settled in Los Angeles, where he encountered local drummer Johnny Toomey, a fixture in the Southern California music community. Toomey had drummed for the punk band the Stitches in the 1990s and later contributed to the retro-oriented indie rock group the Turns. The pair connected in 2018 through a mutual appreciation for the Rutles and vintage apparel, after which Toomey recruited Randall into the 1967-focused band Electric Looking Glass. That ensemble captured an album on period instruments using strictly analog methods; the results surfaced as Somewhere Flowers Grow in 2021.
Randall’s return to Toronto during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns led him to generate a new batch of song demos on computer, initially conceived for Electric Looking Glass. Because the material diverged from ELG’s template of Kinks-, Hollies-, and Monkees-derived beat and psych influences, he chose to develop it instead with Toomey under the name Vanity Mirror. After deciding the tracks merited release, Randall sent the files to Toomey in Los Angeles, who added drum parts. The bedroom-pop production lent the songs a secondhand, lived-in quality that felt instantly familiar. We Are Busy Bodies, the label that had issued Somewhere Flowers Grow, agreed to release the Vanity Mirror recordings, beginning with the single “Tuesday’s News” in February 2023. The jangly “Dandelion Wish” appeared in April, followed in May by the McCartney-esque acoustic ballad “Somehow You Know.” Also that month the duo issued their debut album, Puff, whose ornate minimalist production values drew notice from retro-focused U.K. music publications. In August they self-released the non-album single “Through the Wood, Across the Snow” before assembling a live band. The following month they launched a European tour billed as Puff Against the World, performing in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Albums
Singles
