LAWN ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM "GOD MADE THE HIGHWAY" + SHARE NEW SINGLE "DAVIE"
Posted on July 29th, 2025
For the past decade, the New Orleans band Lawn has thrived on the palpable chemistry between co-lead singers and songwriters Mac Folger and Rui De Magalhaes. Though each boasts distinct sensibilities—Folger’s songs are breezy, jangly, and personal while De Magalhaes’ are biting and propulsive post-punk—they’ve seamlessly blended their idiosyncratic styles over three unassailable indie rock full-lengths, while becoming a fixture in a thriving New Orleans scene, and sharing stages with artists like Momma, Hovvdy and Omni.
De Magalhaes had moved to Chicago following the release of the 2022 Bigger Sprout, and released an acclaimed solo LP under the name Rui Gabriel via Carpark Records, which earned praise from folks like Pitchfork, Stereogum and Paste.
In May, the band announced their signing to Exploding In Sound and shared a single entitled "Sports Gun." Today, the band are returning to share announce their 4th LP God Made The Highway, which will be released on Exploding In Sound on September 19th. To mark the announce the band are sharing a new single called "Davie."
While their latest, God Made the Highway, is their most confident, energetic, and cohesive yet, it’s also the product of distance. De Magalhaes had moved to Chicago following the release of the 2022 Bigger Sprout, while Folger stayed in Louisiana. Despite being apart, the two still found their relentlessly collaborative spark through remote writing, ample voice memos, and a blistering studio session. These 11 urgent and inviting tracks are a testament to their enduring friendship.
When De Magalhaes lived in Chicago (he moved back to New Orleans this year), it marked the first time he had been states away from Folger since they formed the band in 2016. “I didn't know how writing new music was going to work out, because Mac and I couldn't practice with the distance between us,” says De Magalhaes. “I put out my solo record as Rui Gabriel and playing guitar was weird because I didn't have Mac as a reference anymore. I leaned on writing very bass-heavy riffs and adding drum machines.” Two ideas required help from Lawn’s drummer Mark Edlin (Hovvdy), and the two hit the studio with engineer Greg Obis (Stuck). When Folger received the demos, he decided to write parts over them. “Rui would text me the voice memo, and I would go into the studio and plug my phone into the PA so it felt like we were in the practice space together,” Folger says. “From there, we just started sending each other voice memos of different song ideas.”
As the tracklist came together, they booked recording time with the full band—drummer Edlin and guitarist Nick Corson (The Convenience, Video Age) at Chicago’s Palisades studios.
Where previous Lawn LPs were home-recorded, this marked the first time the band had tracked an LP in a real studio. They had also never recorded without fully rehearsing and tour-testing each new song. “We had to get everything done in three days, but it felt very natural even if it was a new thing for us,” says De Magalhaes. Folger credits the camaraderie between the band with getting them through. “Our bandmates Nick and Mark have been in our lives for basically 10 years, he says. “I just felt very comfortable. We tried to overdub certain things, but it was just never the same vibe. We wanted it to keep this loose and spontaneous rather than tidy.”
"Davie" exemplifies this effortlessly laid back approach, and the camaraderie the band shares. Written by Folger, the song is a crystalline power pop gem, about the early days of the band, when they were living in a crumbling house in New Orleans.
Folger says of the track:
Davie is the name of our landlord back in 2016-2017, after college. The song is about that time in our lives. The house was in Hollygrove, New Orleans. It was big and beautiful and falling apart. You could see the dirt through the floorboards in some places, and anything that could break did. The landlord was the type of guy who acted cool and was always high, but in the end, he totally sucked and took all our deposit money. We started Lawn in that house, recording most of the first EP and LP in the living room with our friend Ross (Video Age). We made barely any money working at restaurants, and frequently had bands stay with us for multiple days at a time (this is how we met Mark Edlin, who plays drums on the record and live). Substance use and trying to rock and roll were at an all-time high. The first few weeks in the house, we would regularly spend what little money we had on beers, sit in lawn chairs in an unfurnished living room, and jam while we just sort of shot the shit and played music. Every day held the pursuit of cool, every night we all came back to the same historically preserved shithole. In retrospect, it’s hard to say if they were the worst or the best times, but they were very meaningful.