AR/CO is taking over on the dance-pop scene, and we want Just Jared readers to get to know them even better!
The London-based psychedelic dance-pop songwriter/performer duo is made up of members Mali-Koa and Leo Stannard.
The songwriters, who first met in a songwriting camp in 2019, have gone on to support 5 Seconds of Summer‘s UK tour in 2023, and collaborated with some major heavy-hitters in the dance world, including “Bright Lights” with Kaskade and Deadmau5 (Kx5), “Vibrations” with Sub Focus, “Back Around” with Tiesto and “Hot Air Balloon” with Dom Dolla.
The Helix Records duo just dropped their new EP Origin Stories on Friday (July 12), including their latest focus track, “Boys Like Girls.”
The duo explains that the EP, crafted throughout the lockdown, is “our chance to let people head-dive straight into the enigmatic and wonky world of AR/CO. It’s crazy that we had ideas of this planet where everything was set, to call it AR/CO and build a whole project around it. This EP is us swinging those doors wide open and saying come and hang with us in this place where the music is great and we’re all in it for a good time.”
“The music on the EP is a capsule collection of songs that we wrote from a place of innocence and creativity through the lockdown, the ideas are inspired and fresh and we know people will fall in love with the place where we re-found our passion for music and creativity. Earth is now, AR/CO is forever.”
Listen to “Boys Like Girls” and learn 10 Fun Facts about the duo…
10 Fun Facts About AR/CO
1. We met at a songwriting camp in 2019 in London, we didn’t start AR/CO until two years after that.
2. Mali was born in Sydney, Australia and Leo was born in Leicester, United Kingdom.
3. Both Mali and Leo were signed to separate major labels as solo singer-songwriters before AR/CO.
4. Mali is the sister of Callum Hood from 5 Seconds Of Summer.
5. AR/CO’s collaboration with Tiesto “Back Around” was originally worked on by Calvin Harris.
6. AR/CO originally started as a songwriting project during the pandemic, the idea of making it an artist project only came later.
7. AR/CO is the name of the planet where the band’s story is set. There are two avatars called The Twins, which are two members of the band and parallel universe versions of Mali and Leo.
8. AR/CO’s signature vocal sound was discovered by Leo and Mali accidentally in a writing session, when layering their voices in weird and wonderful ways.
9. The AR/CO world creative is inspired by Gorillaz and Burning Man festival.
10. Together, AR/CO have already played live in over 20 cities around the world.
