The High Plains Drifters - Topic

Last year, “Summer Girl (Redux)” held up a mirror—a chance to step back, shake one’s head, and chuckle—to those chronically unlucky in love. Since then, this collective of professional musicians has built a modest yet devoted cult following that’s only growing. Fronted by lead singer Larry Studnicky, The High Plains Drifters have honed a lovelorn sound like no other. Walking the line between mellowed-out rock and breezy electro-pop, their music playfully reimagines, reinvents, and redefines dreamy 80s New Wave, refracting the simple exhilaration of a time where futuristic synths, snappy hooks, and snarky storytelling dominated the airwaves. Listening to an HPD song is bound to stir a memory buried deep in the folds of the brain. Brilliantly weaving threads of love and loss—and the many tangled moments in between—Studnicky's lyrics and nonchalant pearls of wisdom speak to the soul, to the lovers in all of us who only know how to be true to the heart. Though they often traverse the terrains of relationships gone awry, a resounding hopefulness—a quiet resilience—always peeks through the cracks. And true to form, their self-curated New Wave attitude romps through their visuals, too, which are always adorned with unique flourishes of sex appeal, humor, and lightheartedness, plus plenty of good-natured dives into the trials and tribulations of romance that the human family knows all too well.