Alvvays

Alvvays are a Canadian indie pop and dream pop group formed in 2011 and based in Toronto. Their line-up includes Molly Rankin, Alec O’Hanley, Kerri MacLellan, Brian Murphy, Phil MacIsaac, Sheridan Riley and Abbey Blackwell. The band’s sound sits across alternative rock, chamber pop, dream pop, indie pop, indie rock and jangle pop, with a lo-fi quality also associated with their work.

Formation and early background

Molly Rankin and Kerri MacLellan are childhood friends who play music together while growing up in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, during the 1990s and 2000s. Both later move to Prince Edward Island for college. There, Rankin meets Alec O’Hanley, who has links to the Charlottetown bands The Danks and Two Hours Traffic. O’Hanley encourages Rankin’s songwriting and plays on her recordings, also producing them. Rankin issues a solo EP, She EP, with O’Hanley in a major supporting role.

In 2011, Rankin works on a full-length solo album with O’Hanley, but producer Chad VanGaalen remarks that it feels more like a band record. Rankin and O’Hanley then form Alvvays with MacLellan on keyboards, Brian Murphy on bass and Phil MacIsaac on drums.

Albums and releases

After touring with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Peter Bjorn and John, Alvvays release their self-titled debut album in 2014 through Royal Mountain Records in Canada, Polyvinyl Records in the United States and Transgressive Records in Europe. Chad VanGaalen, John Agnello and Graham Walsh of Holy Fuck all contribute to the album’s production. The record reaches number one on the US college charts. In Rolling Stone, Simon Vozick-Levinson describes it as an indie-pop wonder.

The band’s second album, Antisocialites, appears in 2017, and Sheridan Riley joins as the group’s drummer. After an extended tour in support of that album, the band pauses to write material for a third release. Work on the next record is delayed by the Covid pandemic and by a break-in at Rankin’s apartment, during which a recording device containing the band’s demos is stolen.

Abbey Blackwell joins on bass in 2021, replacing Brian Murphy. The third Alvvays album, Blue Rev, is completed and released in 2022.

Later recognition

Alvvays receive their first Grammy nomination in 2024, for Best Alternative Music Performance. That same year, Abbey Blackwell leaves the band to pursue solo projects. In 2025, Rankin and O’Hanley co-write Miley Cyrus’s track End Of the World with several other writers.

Line-up

The band’s members include Molly Rankin, Alec O’Hanley, Kerri MacLellan, Brian Murphy, Phil MacIsaac, Sheridan Riley and Abbey Blackwell.