The Lost and Found

Beginning in the summer of 2004, Los Angeles alt-rock band The Lost & Found made a stir in the Los Angeles music scene, earning warm reviews, with their unique blend of melodic 60s & British inspired rock n roll, reminiscent of such artists as PJ Harvey, Nico, Velvet Underground, the Bangles, and Pretenders. However, soon after putting out their self-titled debut on Status Records, they decided to call it quits for various reasons. This past fall, songwriter Aimee Lay reunited with original drummer, Erik Herrera, and began writing new material more confident and ambitiously inspired than ever before. They were soon joined by guitarist/organ player, Shoichi Bagley, formerly of the Weather Underground and Red Cortez, and Aimee's brother, Al Lay on bass, who, among working as an engineer at A&M records, has also played with the likes of Black Sabbath during his career. The Lost & Found will be recording a new album in the coming months and plan to have it ready for release early 2012.
Al Lay & Aimee Lay - "Beach Reporter" News Story 4/8/10:



http://www.tbrnews.com/articles/2010/04/08/stepping_out/step1.txt



"All in the Musical Family".For the past few years, ex-Lost & Found frontwoman Aimee Lay has been moonlighting as the bass player for Al Lay, who happens to be her older brother. Now ex-Sonny Bones member Al (who worked as an engineer at A&M records), will be playing drums with Aimee. The Manhattan Beach natives share a gift for some of the smartest indie pop tunes on the L.A. scene."
-(LOS ANGELES TIMES)



"Aimee Lay can rock; but, most notably for me, she has a tendency to wrap her voice around my heart and ease it's fluttered rhythm. I then feel as though I've wandered over icy city streets with her, in search of a hot cup of coffee, warm conversation, and a cigarette."



- (DIRTY HIPPIE RADIO)



"A bit mysterious at first listen, Aimee's throaty vocals remind me of exploring dusty hidden places, only to find treasures from long past. The Lost & Found provide the necessary rock n'roll, while the hand drawn cover art reveals that creativity is seeping out of the South Bay."
-(EYEBALL BURP FANZINE)



(CLICK ON EITHER EP TO ORDER THROUGH CDBABY.COM)



TOGETHER BUT SEPARATE
BROTHER & SISTER RELEASE COMPLEMENTARY EPs
Manhattan Beach, Calif.—Aimee Lay's "Suncatcher" and brother Al Lay's "Change" reflect the individual styles of shared musical influences and common life experiences. "We feel we have a unique perspective as sibling singers/songwriters…being that our heritage and our experiences have made us in some way, Siamese souls," Al says.



Al and Aimee came up with their album concept, the co-production of individual albums, during an emotional family trip to the place in which their parents met; their mother's native country of South Korea. Their parents had not been back in more than three decades, since the time of their marriage. Their mother, a child during the Korean War, came to California with their Chicago-born father, a chemical engineer at the time, while another war raged in Vietnam. The inter-racial couple had a hard time being accepted both in America and in South Korea. Their mother, in particular, found it difficult to adjust to a new way of life in the U.S. "There was racism around us, no doubt," Al says about the joining of the two families and of growing up at the time. "There was a lot of heaviness that seeped into us as kids. At the time we didn't know what it was."



"We have a very close relationship with our parents," Aimee adds. "We didn't have a particularly bad childhood, but it was a heavy one. We were dealing with this huge culture clash and generation gap as well, being that our parents both came from a very different time and place."



Aimee and Al found expression and escape through music. Despite their four-year age difference, the two listened and discovered music together. "We fell in love with the same type of music at the very same time. Most kids discover rock n' roll through their parents. We introduced rock n' roll to them," Aimee says.



The Beatles were, by far, the pair's biggest musical influence, and they listened religiously every Sunday morning to "Breakfast with the Beatles" on the radio. Sixties music in general influenced them most. Other artists shaping their musical taste were the Beach Boys, David Bowie, Neil Young, the Faces, the Stones, 60s soul groups, Paul Weller, the Jam, as well as Chrissie Hynde, the Velvet Underground and PJ Harvey.



"We got into music that we're still heavily influenced by at an early age together. So our perspectives couldn't be very much different even if we tried, but our way of expressing our outlook on the world is at times yin and yang" Aimee says.



Their first musical collaboration came when Al was 15 and Aimee was 11.



"I played the cereal box," Aimee says of their first recording session. "We didn't have a shaker!"



Using whatever equipment they could find around the house, the two recorded their first co-written song, "My Boyfriend's Moving Away", a classic girl group-esque song, with equipment bought at Radio Shack. Aimee continues, "Al hooked our mom's blow dryer up to a melodica to create an organ drone, using the inner tube of a toilet paper roll to connect the two…pure genius."



"Whether she wanted it or not, she was an indentured session player," Al says laughing. Aimee admits she enjoyed it.



The two continued to collaborate, either playing or singing on each other's projects, including Al's first solo album, "Life", and the self-titled album recorded by Aimee's band, the Lost and Found.



With Aimee's band broken up and Al writing new material, the two needed to figure out their next step. It was appropriate, they say, to plan out their current project during their family trip. Al says, "It was the result of much soul searching…us finding this path, and it solidified in, of all places, our mom's hometown of Pusan in South Korea…which is why it was so clear…this vision we set forth."