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Electric Youth

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Electric Youth is a Canadian synth-pop duo from Toronto. The singer and songwriter Bronwyn Griffin and the producer, songwriter, synthesizer player and drummer Austin Garrick have been together since Grade 8. Their breakthrough came in 2011 with A Real Hero, in collaboration with College, which was given a prominent place in the film Drive. Garrick wrote the song partly about Chesley Sullenberger and the emergency landing of flight 1549. Spin magazine named A Real Hero one of the twenty best songs of 2011.

Music and breakthrough

In 2013 the duo signed to Last Gang Records and Secretly Canadian. Their debut album Innerworld was released in 2014. Rolling Stone named them in 2014 one of the ten artists you needed to know, and that autumn their first tour of the United States and Canada followed. They then made Breathing, the music for a lost film, in 2017, the album Memory Emotion in 2019, which received a Juno nomination, and music for the films Come True in 2021 and North of Normal in 2025.

Influence

Their music uses synthesizers and drum machines from the 1980s, with soft, almost whispered singing. Garrick says that they do not want to imitate the past and would rather make things for the future. The duo shows how the sound of synth-pop is returning in film music and playlists, as an atmosphere full of nostalgia and at the same time as a new sound.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to A Real Hero and notice Bronwyn Griffin's soft voice above the glowing synthesizers. Can you hear how calm the rhythm stays, while the chorus still sounds grand?

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists