LANNDS share a video for their new single “HITEM” and announce an expanded version of their 2020 EP lotus, that includes the previously released “In The Garden.” lotus deluxe is due February 11th via Run For Cover.

The Jacksonville, FL duo is comprised of Rania Woodard, a queer Black woman from Memphis, TN who grew up playing guitar in a Pentecostal church, and Brian Squillace, a North Carolina-born producer. Together they make trippy and dreamy electro-pop that pushes back against the environment it’s conceived in, creating progressive art and eschewing all outside influence in the deep south. The result is intoxicating and wondrous.

While “In the Garden” focused on seizing the moment amid an environment that’s punctuated by omnipresent deadlines and increasingly dire headlines, “HITEM” is a respite, inviting listeners to lose themselves and let go in the duo’s carefully created auditory oasis. A keen ear is required to catch every secret this single possess. A soft, bouncy outsets ushers in gradual experiments with loops and vocals, the mysticism of Rania’s tale flourishing and then collapsing, culminating into a brilliant finish. 

“This is a song about meeting someone and trying to be in the present moment even when you know things won’t last, ” Rania explained of the work. “It’s about accepting things as they are with someone you feel like you’ve known before and feeling some sense of nostalgia in that. In some way, it’s also about listening to your intuition and letting things go with the flow and if that means letting go for the time being then that’s what needs to happen.”

Combining Woodard’s pop sensibility and emotional approach to songwriting with Squillace’s trippy sonic palette, the duo created their third EP, lotus. For LANNDS, the EP represented a turning point. After the release of their first EP, they found initial success with an inclusion on Spotify’s “Fresh Finds” and they caught the attention of tastemaker blogs like Neon Gold and Line of Best Fit. Following their second EP in 2018, they toured supporting TENDER and played an official SXSW showcase. Afterwards, they spent a year working on a third release. They later scrapped the project after taking LSD together, concluding that they’d been weighed down by self-doubt.