In "The Resistance," Jupiter Winter's hooky debut single, bassist and lead vocalist Lelia Broussard resolves the chorus with the line "love will find a way somehow."  While the song is a sharp and urgent attack at the current political temperature of the country, the refrain is a particularly resonant indicator of what is at the heart of this new Los Angeles-based indie pop rock band.

Lelia Broussard and Royce Whittaker, the primary songwriters for Jupiter Winter, met on the road in the fall of 2015.  Broussard’s band, Secret Someones was opening for Vancouver’s Marianas Trench for whom Whittaker was a guitar tech.  “We had an instant connection,” she says about their initial meeting, and the two started dating.  When Secret Someones broke up suddenly and Broussard was “gutted,” she moved from Brooklyn to LA to be closer to Royce and family and start anew in warmer skies.  The move led to the writing sessions that would soon become Jupiter Winter.

Although relatively young still, the pair bring valuable stage and studio experience to the project.  Broussard was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine and performed at The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in 2011.  Over the years, she has appeared on The Voice and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and shared the stage with such notables as Ingrid Michaelson, A Great Big World, and Feist.  Whittaker began touring as a session guitarist at the age of eighteen and became musical director for the Canadian singer Jessica Lee shorty thereafter.  After performing with the theatrical hard rock outfit Incura for a short stint and getting featured in Guitar World, his passion took him to the studio recognized by his award-winning work as a producer and engineer before coming on board with Marianas Trench in the summer of 2015.

The duo’s synergy is especially palpable in “The Resistance,” a song whose mainstream appeal comes not without a mature attention to craftsmanship.  While the rhythms are driving and move the song forward, the sonic palette, which is primarily comprised of Whittaker’s edgy guitar lines underneath Broussard’s emotive and soaring vocals is reminiscent of 80s jangly alternative rock combined with the contemporary anthemic inclinations of bands like Metric and Stars.  Other songs in their catalogue include the whimsical “Hey Johnny,” which offers chunky guitar riffs (90s’ Weezer), and the uniquely gritty ballad “Starting Now.”  

Consistent throughout Jupiter Winter’s sound is a sense of joy even in the most serious of lyrical sentiments.  There is an earnest inventiveness that Broussard and Whittaker, two artists with considerably different histories in the industry, bring to the music, and their connection is integral to the band’s appeal.  Often the level of excitement a band brings to its art plays a big role in how that work is received by audiences.  Jupiter Winter is certainly no exception.  

Look for Jupiter Winter’s debut EP in the summer of 2017.

Alan Semerdjian

New York City