Reno Kid

Reno Kid formed in the early 2010s with Eliott Laurent on vocals, Antoine Morin on guitar, Vincent Henry on bass, and Raphael Pottier on drums. Their sound pulled from folk and rock without settling neatly into either category. They recorded their debut album, 'The Boy with the Amplified Heart,' themselves when money was tight, relying on live shows to build an audience.

That first album gave them their most recognizable song, 'Boy With The Amplified Heart.' It's a sparse, direct track where Laurent's voice carries the weight of the lyrics without much ornamentation. They followed it with albums like 'Wanderlust' and 'Lost in Translation,' which kept the same emotional core but let the arrangements breathe a little more.

Eventually the band stopped working together, but those early recordings, especially that first album, still get passed around. There's a plainness to them that feels specific to that time, not overly produced, just a few people in a room figuring out how to make the songs work.