Los Angeles-based musician John Cudlip came of age cueing dream-pop records to the beachside backdrop of his hometown in Orange County. He's a student of the sound — melodic, textured guitar music — and a believer that, when honest and real, it can enthrall and facilitate catharsis. Under the name Launder, his recording project developed in 2018 out of casual sessions with friends Jackson Phillips (Day Wave), Soko, and Zachary Cole Smith (DIIV). The resulting EP, Pink Cloud, received unexpected attention, with Stereogum placing it “somewhere at the intersection of ’90s lo-fi and shoegaze,” and Gorilla vs. Bear noting Cudlip’s “serious knack for the kind of wistful, soaring choruses that immediately make you feel like you've known these songs forever.” In 2019, Cudlip signed to Ghostly International and several months later shared the single "Half-Life."

With live shows paused in 2020, Cudlip immersed fully into writing and arranging an overflow of ideas. He also embraced sobriety, redirecting his once-destructive addictive tendencies into studio craft — all his thoughts consumed by melody and texture, all his resources lobbed into gear, every buzz, hiss, and hum of this record became his entire world. The resulting set sprawls across a double LP release, which sees release in summer 2022. Through its thirteen songs, Happening is timeless, grappling with something bigger than just melody, the cathartic and the tender, indebted to indie rock greats while informed by modern and prudent self-reflection.

Record Label: Ghostly International

Artist Links: Instagram / Spotify / Bandcamp

Agent: matthew@versestouring.com