Started in as a group of two, who grew to five, but settled at three, Sons Of An Illustrious Father is the musical outlet of Josh Aubin, Lilah Larson, and Ezra Miller. Everyone plays a little of everything; everyone writes the songs. They frequently trade instruments, and co-produce their music.
They’ve released a couple much-loved albums, an EP, and have toured multiple times throughout America. Their sound is a bit punk, a bit folk, a bit raw, and a bit elemental, a mix they’ve summed up and named “genre queer.”
Released in 2018 Sons’ most recent creation, a tightly-coiled, gorgeously prismatic collection of 9 songs, is titled Deus Sex Machina: or, Moving Slowly Beyond Nikola Tesla. After two albums, it’s the first time the band have experimented with electronics, nestling machine-made droplets and hums, turns and whirs, amongst their visceral melodies. It’s also an album that reconciles with the struggles of our now, a response to the sociopolitical and technological climate. And like all things Sons do, it’s an all-encompassing response – a record for every person who feels unseen, unidentified, ill at ease in the current political climate who seeks them out as a salve.
Their inherent inclusivity, vulnerability, and expression makes them more than three parts creating a whole; these things make the band and their expansive new record a resonant, emotional movement.