Listen To Leaked Tracks From Lorde’s High School Band

Just a few years before New Zealand’s Ella Yelich-O’Connor became global pop superstar Lorde, she contributed vocals for New Zealand rock outfit And They Were Masked and now those tracks have surfaced online.

The songs can be found on a 2012 album Characters by And They Were Masked, a self-described “future noir” band from New Zealand who according to a recent Facebook post have remained inactive over the past few years.

Among their listed influences are The Mars Volta, PJ Harvey, Soundgarden, Fugazi, Bloc Party and Massive Attack. The tracks featuring the young Lorde’s distinctive croons are titled Sands Of John and Piece Of Mind. Listen to both below.

The tracks weren’t released by the band themselves in an attempt to jump on the Lorde train but were unmasked by fan site Lorde Daily and after waking up and finding out that “the internet is kinda crazy this morning”, And They Were Masked’s Bandcamp page was flooded with orders.

The internet is a treasure trove filled with gems of Lorde’s musical past, including footage that emerged last year of a 12-year-old Lorde performing Rainbow’s Man On The Silver Mountain during her school’s Battle of the Bands competition. That girl went on to front Nirvana.

The entire album is available for download on the And They Were Masked bandcamp page.

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