Years & Years with Tei Shi

Olly Alexander, frontman and keyboardist of London electronic pop three-piece Years & Years, comes from a classicist musical upbringing, drawing upon iconic figures such as Joni Mitchell and Jeff Buckley, via the surrealist imagery of David Lynch and the dirty realism of Raymond Carver. The former qualities are wrapped in his distinctively dulcet tones, which Disorder described as “Nina Simone crooning a melodic lullaby to the folktronic lovechild of Beach House and Terry Riley.” Last year, Olly appeared at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah in support of his role as the lead in the upcoming Belle and Sebastian musical, also opening for the band at their secret show.The group is by no means a one-man affair; it’s down to Years & Years’ two other members — bassist Mikey Goldsworthy and synth player/beat-maker Emre Turkmen — to truly bring the tracks to brilliant life. Using an idiosyncratic process that takes Alexander’s timeless songwriting and updates it with a love of cutting-edge electronic music and R&B (think FKA Twigs, SOHN, Jai Paul) that is then finished off with a final collaborative output.Having featured as Zane Lowe’s next hype and picking up radio support from Phil and Alice, Edith Bowman and 1xtra’s Sarah Jane Crawford, their single ‘Real’ has now amassed over 240,000 plays and gaining a Number 1 spot on Hype Machine’s popular chart in the process, making it safe to say there’s never been a better time to catch on with Years & Years. A debut album is in the works.