Roy English

A singer and songwriter who has found an audience for his cool but openly emotional music, Roy English was born Brandon Roy Wronski in Los Angeles, California on May 22, 1988. Wronski first got his foot in the door of the music business in the mid-2000s as a member of the band Dead Letter Diaries. In 2006, Wronski and his DLD bandmate Cameron Trowbridge quit the group to form a new band, Eye Alaska. Wronski was the leader of the new group, singing lead, playing several instruments, writing the songs, and co-producing their recording sessions. After signing to Fearless Records, Eye Alaska released an EP (2008's Yellow & Elephant) and an album (2009's Genesis Underground), but Wronski was dissatisfied with the band, and in 2011 they broke up. Wronski announced his intention to form a new act, but by 2012 he'd soured on music, and planned to relocate to Boise, Idaho and get a day job before he met Jeff Bhasker, a producer who saw plenty of untapped talent in Wronski. Taking the new name Roy English, Wronski landed a record deal with Lava/Republic in 2013 through Bhasker's help. The deal proved only so fruitful, as Lava/Republic dropped English in a year without releasing any material, but after landing a publishing contract with Sony/ATV Music, English was brought in to help produce a session for Lana Del Rey's 2014 single "I Can Fly." In 2015 Roy English released his first single under that moniker, "Julianne," and the same year he sang on DJ Alesso's single "Cool," which became an international hit, rising to the Top Ten of dance charts in the U.K. and the U.S.A. "Tongue Tied July," a track with Michael Brun featuring lead vocals from English, was also released in 2015, and accumulated nearly five million plays on streaming music services. The following year English released an EP, I'm Not Here, Pt. 1, and toured as the opening act for indie emo band 5 Seconds of Summer. In 2017 English dropped another new single, "Hotel Pools 01101001." ~ Mark Deming