Name: VANDALS
Origin: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Genre(s): alternative rock, indie-pop, dream-wave, shoegaze, pop
Years Active: 2019 - present
Label(s): Studio60 Records
Influences: David Bowie, The Pixies, Sonic Youth, The Cure, The Replacements, The Smiths
Band Members: Jonas Haaland, Danielle Leone-Wilde
“VANDALS” are an indie-pop duo formed in 2019 and originally from Brooklyn, New York but currently based in Hollywood, California. Composed of Studio60 Records own Head of Songwriting and Creative Jonas Haaland and New York native songwriter and performer Danielle Leone-Wilde. The duo bring their unique style of indie-pop sounds with emotive narrative driven lyrics amidst the lush and dreamy tones of their vocals both in trade-off’s and harmonies. Having toured extensively throughout smaller venues in New York and surrounding east coast states both as a duo and as solo artists, they made their journey to California in mid-2020 in search of a change in fortunes and a recording contract.
Having signed their first major record deal with Studio60 in early 2021 they look set to begin recording their debut album which will be expected to be released in late summer 2021 as they make their biggest steps yet in an attempt to make a name for themselves within the music industry. Their debut single is expected to release in the coming months as they continue to write and record together what will become the material on their debut record.
HISTORYJonas Haaland (born July 13, 1996) was born to Swedish parents Klara and Anders who moved to New York City in the late 1980’s, his mother was a successful painter and his father was an environmental scientist before the two began their own charitable foundation in an attempt to help the fight against climate change which would become a much more pressing issue in the late nineties and early noughties. They have three children in total, Lukas, Astrid and Jonas with Jonas being the oldest of the three siblings. They were all raised in New York and have never visited their ancestral home of Sweden due to their parents conflict with Swedish government regarding issues of climate change which is what drove their parents to move out to the United States in 1987, with Jonas considering himself very much an American citizen.
Along with his siblings, he went to public school in New York and it was clear early on that he had received the artistic genes from his mother, with a passion for creativity of any kind. He didn’t fare quite as well in traditional subjects early on and was later diagnosed with a mild form of ADHD, but as he grew older and with the help of personal tuition tailored specifically to the way that he learnt best he quickly became a more academic student and graduated top of his class in high school. It was music that connected with him the most however, learning piano proficiently by the age of fourteen and then learning guitar as well as showing a keen interest in the production side of music and how it’s made. Becoming a self-confessed music nerd well into his teenage years.
Following high school he had ambitions to further his education at Berklee College of Music but failed to make the grade and was unable to get into the prestigious college which led to him studying at Syracuse University in New York which is where he remained for the four years before graduating. After finishing college, he played as much as he could around the East Coast as a solo artist and some short-lived bands, cutting many demo’s but never receiving much success along the way with the exception of a couple of auditions. In 2017 he met an eighteen year old New York based singer called Danielle Leone-Wilde.
Danielle Leone-Wilde (born July 4, 1999) was born in New York to Stephanie and Alexander, an only child to wealthy parents as her mother was a realtor and her father was a lawyer. She was brought up in Manhattan up until the age of five where she then moved with her parents to a private estate in New Hampshire which included their own privately owned lake. She was primarily raised by the families live-in nanny Clara and has since gone on record to say that it was a very lonely upbringing and spent most of her time alone in her room as he parents lived a very busy and lucrative professional life, making time spent with Danielle very minimal. She is no longer close to either of her parents but remains close to her former nanny Clara.
She went to a private Catholic school in New Hampshire and was an A+ student throughout her entire school life, later owing this to a childhood spent primarily studying but in her heart she never had major academic interest or a career that only brought her financial success. It was clear from an early age that she had a passion for singing which was encouraged by Clara but not something ever noticed by her parents. Following high school she went to Columbia University to study law which is where both of her parents met, something she states wasn’t her choice. This became clear when she dropped out of University after a year and a half and refused to return home to New Hampshire.
Living with friends in an apartment in Brooklyn she worked three jobs, two retail jobs and a weekend job at a café in an attempt to cut ties with her family and prove herself to be self-sufficient. She also performed wherever she could as a singer around New York which is where she met future bandmate Jonas Haaland. She had found her feet in a City away from her parents and her true home state and found that she was finally enjoying life and not just living it for somebody else. The two became friends from 2017 which eventually led to the formation of “VANDALS” in 2019.
DISCOGRAPHYStudio AlbumsTBASingles"Sunday Night Smoke Signals" (April 17, 2021) [#6]
"Drunk in Brooklyn" (October 15, 2022) [#1]
E.P’s/Compilations/OtherN/A