Kevin Bronson on October 8th, 2018

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L.A. folk-pop trio Distant Cousins make with a classic (and some might say Midas) touch. Their songs trade in traditional pop, rock, folk and blues with updated production and uplifting harmonies — the familiar kind of fare that helped principals Duvid Swirsky, Dov Rosenblatt and Ami Kozak succeed in writing for film and TV and that holds up when you witness the threesome making a ruckus onstage.

Rosenblatt and Kozak grew up on the East Coast, migrating to California from New Jersey, and Swirsky was reared in a musical commune in Israel, where the only appliances the hippies and gypsies owned were record players. They share writing, production and instrumental duties in the studio. Live, Kozak sings, plays bass and handles looping responsibilities; Rosenblatt sings and plays drums and acoustic guitar; and Swirsky plays anything with strings. The trio first got together in 2013, and two EPs and a bunch of singles later, Distant Cousins are ready to release a full-length. Their debut album “Next of Kin” will be out Nov. 30 via Jullian Records.

The first single is the rave-up “Lights On,” kind of a self-help mantra with horns, handclaps and a chorus that begs to be shouted to the heavens, not to mention a breakdown made for stomping your troubles away. It’s sonic tonic for self-doubters. “Our scars, our bruises, our insecurities — the complicated feelings we often tend to hide and bury somewhere deep inside are often the very qualities that make a person special and unique,” the band says. “‘Turn your lights on’ is about letting your true self shine.”

||| Watch: The video for “Lights On”

||| Also: Stream the song here

||| Previously: “Your Story,” “For a Moment”