After a rural childhood, surrounded by the sounds of cattle, and his dad playing hymns on a home keyboard, LJ Kruzer has grown into a modern master. He says of his influences, “Influences? Let’s see. The Shadows, ABBA (my parents). Def Leppard (my brother). Rick Astley (my sister). Herb Alpert. Russ Conway (parents again). Gallon Drunk, Unsane. These were the sounds that surrounded me.” Unsurprising then, that it wasn’t long before he took to borrowing his dad’s keyboard and laying down his own brand of melancholy ambience. Early efforts were committed to tape and shared tentatively with friends, it was then that Uncharted Audio’s A&R man became a lifelong fan. Impressed with the quality of the music, he promised to one day release the first LJK vinyl recording, which was released during 2002.