Music like Gardens & Villa

Gardens & Villa is an American indie rock band from Santa Barbara, California, formed in 2008. The band consists of members Chris Lynch (guitar, flute, vocals), Adam Rasmussen (synthesizer), Shane McKillop (bass guitar), Levi Hayden (drums) and Dustin Ineman (keyboards). The band have released three albums and toured internationally.

The band began as a three-piece featuring Chris Lynch, Adam Rasmussen and Levi Hayden in 2008. All three had previously been involved in music since their days in college. On forming Gardens and Villa, Rasmussen explained that "one of our members wanted to take a break from our punk band ... and when we reformed we wanted to focus more on songs". A stylistic experiment followed where the band explored folk and electronic influences and recorded a five-track demo. While beginning to attract a local following the band self-financed a tour. Drummer Hayden recalls that "it was a huge step forward to play out of Santa Barbara for the first time and from there we knew the sort of direction we wanted to go in". After the tour the members "decided that we were actually gonna have to do this". Shane McKilop joined them on bass in the summer of 2010, just before recording their self-titled album.