Lion Babe
| Lion Babe | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Electronic Soul |
| Years active | 2011–present |
| Labels | Interscope |
| Associated acts | |
| Website | LIONBABE.com |
| Members | |
Lion Babe is an American electro soul duo from New York City. The duo is made up of singer Jillian Hervey and record producer Lucas Goodman. Following their meeting through a mutual friend, the pair released the single "Treat Me Like Fire" (2012), which raised their profile and led them to sign a record deal with Interscope. Following the signing, the duo released their self-titled debut EP in 2014.
Jillian Hervey,the daughter of actress Vanessa Williams and Ramon Hervey II, initially planned to pursue a career in dancing. Lucas Goodman began producing in his dorm room at Northeastern University before moving back to New York and interning at retro-minded Truth & Soul Records. During this time he found a vinyl version of Eunice Collins' "At the Hotel 1974" and would go on to sample it for "Treat Me Like Fire." The pair met through a mutual friend at a party where Hervey heard Goodman's music, during this time she introduced herself to Goodman but the pair failed to stay connected, however did follow each other on the social networking website MySpace. Hervey then moved to New York college and had to do a dance piece for school with original music, so Hervey contacted Lucas. This led to Hervey discussing her interest in singing and Goodman encouraged Hervey to try a soulful style of singing similar to that of Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu.
We wanted there to be a certain duality, like there is with Blondie, with me as the frontwoman, you might think I'm Lion Babe, but it's like, no, we're Lion Babe. We liked that. It's about embracing your uniqueness and rocking it.
The duo went on to name themselves "Lion Babe" which they described as taking on further meaning over time, the name stemmed from Lucas' horoscope sign a Leo and Hervey’s hairstyle. The duo released "Treat Me Like Fire" in December 2012. During SXSW the following March, rapper Childish Gambino (Donald Glover) contacted Lion Babe and asked them to open for him. The duo subsequently acquired a US record deal with Interscope and a UK deal with Polydor that summer, and kept in touch with Glover who would go to guest on the lead single, "Jump Hi," from their self-titled debut extended play.
Following an underground following, Lion Babe released their debut self-titled extended play digitally on December 15, 2014, alongside the digital release the duo released vinyl and stream versions of the project with two extra songs. The EP was written and produced by Hervey and Goodman, under his production name "Astro Raw" and received positive reviews from music critics who described it as "a warm-blooded blend of soul, R&B and electronica" and noted similarities between Hervey and Erykah Badu. Rapper Childish Gambino was the only other artist who made an appearance on the EP, appearing on the song "Jump Hi' making the collaboration the trio's second. The song "Jump Hi" featuring Gambino would later go on to peak at number nine on Billboard's interactive chart Billboard Twitter Emerging Artists.
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