Chairlift Biography
Biography
Chairlift was founded in 2005 by Caroline Polachek and Aaron Pfenning, who were both enrolled at the University of Colorado in Boulder at the time. Their goal was to create music specifically for haunted houses. They moved east and settled in Brooklyn after realizing that their work had grown beyond its initial intent. Later, they welcomed third member Patrick Wimberly. They established a reputation for themselves rapidly, playing gigs alongside other rising stars like MGMT and Yeasayer and signing a deal with the independent label Kanine.
Career & Projects
With the release of the album Does You Inspire You in 2008, Chairlift made a dramatic, synth-heavy foray towards avant-pop. For their major-label debut, Something (2012), which charted on the Billboard 200, the trio broadened their style with whimsical arrangements and Caroline Polachek’s beautifully ethereal, elastic vocals.
Chairlift officially broke up a year after the release of Moth, their third and most commercially successful album, in 2016. The only other constant member, producer Patrick Wimberly, was busy working on other projects and working behind the scenes with artists like Beyoncé and Solange during the band’s existence.
MGMT provided a remix for Chairlift’s first song under the Kanine record label, “Evident Utensil,” which served as a lead-in to their full-length debut. When “Bruises” appeared in an advertisement for a well-known computer company back in 2008, the song Does You Inspire You got an extra boost in advertising. Major labels started calling in early 2009, and Chairlift eventually signed with Columbia, who reissued Does You Inspire You that April. Following Pfenning’s departure, Polachek and Wimberly created the sophomore album, Something.
With help from producers Dan Carey and Alan Moulder, the LP arrived in early 2012 and helped the band’s kaleidoscope pop reach a larger audience. Early the following year, Polachek released her first solo record, Arcadia (Terrible Records), under the name Ramona Lisa. Before the year was through, she released her EP Dominic; the three-song Piano Versions followed in 2015.
