Lorde was Ella Yelich O’Connor before she was Lorde, the mega pop star of “Royals” fame. Young Ella O’Connor was a kid with aspirations like any other, singing in a high school band in New Zealand. The band was called And They Were Masked–a pretty good name for how adolescents tend to feel. The genre? According to the band’s Facebook page (joined 2001!), the musical genre was “Future Noir.” (Did she somehow know a Weird Al Yankovic parody was in her future?)
It was all so innocent then. The press contact listed for And They Were Masked is the same as the press contact for most high school bands: [email protected] ([email protected]) That’s the email for the “booking agent” too. Lorde, or Ella, sings on just a couple of tracks. She’s listed as one of the “characters” on the record, maybe not even an “official” member of the band–so she might not see a big pay day if and when And They Were Masked ever hits the big time! (Lorde, it seems, will be okay.) Here’s the record.