LA Priest

Under the name LA Priest, Samuel Eastgate develops a solo project that emerged in the wake of Late of the Pier, a band formed in Castle Donington, England, for which he was the singer, guitarist and keyboardist between 2004 and 2010. Originating from the British indie scene of the 2000s—then marked by dance-punk, new rave and electronic hybridizations—LA Priest gradually shifted his songwriting toward a more flexible experimental pop at the intersection of synth-pop, art pop, warped funk, indietronica and a light psychedelia. After a first single released under the name in 2007, he truly relaunched the identity with Inji (2015), an album largely crafted solo, and continued with Gene (2020), co-produced with Erol Alkan, and Fase Luna (2023), recorded after a stay in Mexico and nourished by work with local musicians. In parallel, Samuel Eastgate formed Soft Hair with Connan Mockasin, a duo that released the album Soft Hair in 2016. LA Priest’s music rests on supple vocal lines, slightly off-kilter rhythms and shifting arrangements within a pop framework that remains open to experimentation.