Lofties, a local emerging bedroom pop band featuring Andrew Brown and Austin Ruhf, is bringing a nice, smooth, mellowing sound to Richmond. This duo is churning out dreamy lo-fi experimental sounds with their latest EP, Bad, and make a point to focus heavily on their visual choreography for all of their videos.
“With this camera, I filmed a lot and once I got Adobe Premiere, I started editing pictures into the video that had meaning to us. Every sound, every noise I record myself with a handheld recorder as well,” Brown said of their process. “That way everything is 100 percent original and meaningful and when we finally look back at this years later, we can really love what we did.”
Both Lynchburg natives, Brown and Ruhf have been friends since they were six, which Brown said is the reason why they work so well together as bandmates.
The musicians started playing music around six years ago, but Lofties didn’t start to take shape until more recently. “We officially started writing and playing together as a unit last February, but for years we’ve been just messing around,” said Brown.
Lofties’ latest EP, Bad, was recorded in their own apartment and released last February. The album features five tracks produced by Brown and definitely showcases them playing around with their sound and style.
“It kinda just started song by song, we started experimenting more, wanting to do our own thing as opposed to sampling other artists,” said Brown. “ I just kept writing and making weird sounds we thought were cool. We’d play around a bit and then start recording it, and slowly, the puzzles pieces just came together.”
And the album was a very personal one for Brown to create.
“The inspiration for the album itself was a mix between losing one of my closest friends and about a girl I was with at the time,” he said.
Bad is perfect for winding down and having nice relaxation sessions, for background music to listen to while working, or even something to listen to when winding down before bed or chilling out on a rainy day.
In addition to Lofties, Brown produces under the name Captain Pizza, which he started when he was 21 living out in South Lake Tahoe, California.
“I had just moved out there and I was desperately looking for a job. That’s around the time I really started getting into music because, in a way, music was my saving grace,” he said. “I started making everything from sampling bigger artists to futuristic atmosphere beats, all the way to really pop type sounds where I would sing over-top of it.”
And the inspiration for the name came from an unlikely source as well.
“The name itself came from a girl bringing pizza to my house and texting me after telling me how I was cute, and subconsciously I came up with the name Captain Pizza. I felt it was weird enough to grab people’s attention and really want to look into it,” said Brown.
While there are no shows on the books yet for Lofties, the band continues to carve a name out for themselves in the Richmond music scene playing house shows. The group said they want to get more songs and add a few more musicians it seems before playing bigger venues.
“We’re looking to add a few more band members with separate instruments that will really solidify Lofties,” said Brown.
Currently, they’re working on an upcoming release of more music, so keep your eyes peeled on RVA Mag because this is a project we are looking forward to hearing from more.
