Moshing to Isaac Roux? Never say never... Two years after the debut album that put him on the map with intimate indie folk and personal stories, frontman Louis De Roo kicks off a brand new chapter with his second effort Lost And Found that is out now. It finds him reaching for a more versatile and energetic sound, immersing the listener in a sun-drenched, nostalgic trip to a youth that never quite happened.
Photo Credit: Tone Verswijvel
Lost And Found began taking shape with Young Hearts, also released as the album’s first single earlier this year. De Roo wrote it when Trump was re-elected president and immediately began dismantling hard-won rights for minority groups such as LGBTQIA+. A powerful anthem of rebellion and authenticity, Young Hearts is about being young and free, ignoring conventions and daring to be yourself. That spirit of young freedom carries into second single Missing Out: a hypnotic track about the search for meaning and connection, but also about not feeling compelled to follow the crowd. "Just because someone else is doing hard drugs doesn't mean you have to join in. But at the same time you wonder: am I missing out?"
Things moved quickly after that: within barely six months, De Roo had all the songs for Lost And Found on paper. "That's why this record feels more coherent to me. The songs for Troubled Waters were written over the course of years, and they're very personal, about my difficult childhood. On this new album there is still something of me in everything, but I'm making it bigger, as if I’m turning it into an American coming-of-age indie movie. The same vibe is reflected in the artwork too, with bold lettering and colourful imagery, very different from the debut album."
Lost And Found is not just about being young and free, it’s a record that looks back with nostalgia on a youth that never really was. "I turned 30, and with this record I'm catapulting myself back to being 16 or 17, a time when you're out having fun, falling in love for the first time, going to parties..." Love, desire and connection run through several songs: How Dare You captures the overwhelming rush of meeting someone you can't forget, Poolside Kisses explores forbidden longing, and Marigold is a tender refuge, a song about the sense of safety you find when you dare to open your heart.
De Roo’s shift to a more uptempo, rougher sound also grew organically. "I started digging through my dad's record collection: The Cure, Joy Division, The Smiths… and started listening to more alternative music. Beach Fossils is a major influence on the sound of this record, as are Tame Impala, Royel Otis, and Old Mervs, an Australian alternative surf rock band." That surf rock vibe runs through sun-soaked indie anthems like Good Times and New Kids On The Run, which celebrate the fleeting magic of friendship and nocturnal adventures, while Lack of Nostalgia turns things around: what if looking back brings no joy, or the present feels like a haze with nothing to hold on to?
Lost And Found brims with nostalgia, summery sounds and an apparently carefree youth, but the record has a darker side too. Runaway, the heaviest track, tells a fictional story about working-class kids caught in a vicious cycle: how a difficult upbringing with limited means can push people into crime more easily. Exit Lights gets deeply personal: the closing track deals with the sudden loss of someone close, and the question whether he should have seen it coming, or whether he could have done something differently. "What I want to say with it is: sometimes you can't tell from the outside if someone is in a bad place. Sometimes we should just dare to ask: how are you doing? Because it might just be the last time you see someone."
After Exit Lights, an interlude concludes the record, including the words "lost and found". "That summed everything up for me: when you're young, you can sometimes feel lost, and you find your way back in different ways. If Troubled Waters was about the difficult childhood I had, Lost And Found is more about dreaming what a perfect youth could have looked like. But it's also a reflection on the present, a time when the world often feels too cold, too chaotic, too emotionally overwhelming. Music becomes a means to escape, to process, and to dream again."
Isaac Roux worked with producer Bert Vliegen again, and for the mixing they managed to bring in Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Kurt Vile, Death Cab for Cutie). "Bert and I went to Bridgeport in the US to mix the record with Katis. That was a bit of a childhood dream, being in the studio where so many greats have passed through. Katis is known for adding bombast to drums and guitars, and he definitely gave the record even more drive and momentum. It’s become the album I wanted to make. My debut was a real listening record, with this one I'm aiming for festivals and big gestures: I want to see people dancing, jumping and moshing to my music. That would be something."
