Bomba De Luz: High School Heroes

Lydia Hoglund sings with the ache of an old soul — even though, at 17, she's just beginning her senior year of high school. Here, she and her band perform a sultry, chills-inducing version of "Howl At That Moon" in The Current's studios.

When Lydia Hoglund sings, her words convey the ache of an old soul. She unspools her melodies in big, booming somersaults that sound both effortless and ageless, her elastic delivery recalling emotive singers like Jeff Buckley and Sharon Van Etten. Yet Hoglund is only 17 — just beginning her senior year at Central High in St. Paul, Minn., and just beginning her journey into music.

Hoglund recruited three accomplished classmates — guitarist Evan Slack, bassist Gavin Taylor and drummer Jonas Taghavi — to form a band, Bomba de Luz, which already has an EP and an excellent full-length album, What a Heavy Weight, to its name. Spurred on by the songwriting skills she's picked up while taking post-secondary classes at the McNally Smith College of Music, Hoglund has attracted such attention in the Twin Cities that she's already begun collaborating with high-profile artists like rapper P.O.S.

The band recently performed in The Current's studios for a special "back to school" edition of The Local Show. It's surely an act to watch, especially once its members graduate high school.

Credits

Nate Ryan, photos and video; Michael DeMark, audio

Copyright 2013 KCMP-FM. To see more, visit http://www.thecurrent.org/.

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