They Won't Win

Singer-songwriters Danny M. Cohen and Greg Lanier were friends for just a few days before they realized they each made music. One night in the basement, Greg picked up his guitar and played Crowded House’s 'Fall At Your Feet.' Danny came in with harmonies and Greg stopped playing as they realized there was something special happening in the way their voices locked. They swore on the spot to bring some music into the world together. And so, the Chicago-based folk-rock duo They Won’t Win was born. (Their name is a nod to a Crowded House lyric.)

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A series of original songs followed, inspired by their vastly different backgrounds and stories—Danny hails from London and Greg from America’s south and heartland—combined with their similar experiences as gay men. Each happens to be partnered and each happens to parent a mature-for-her-years daughter.  

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Hearing their songs, it becomes clear that They Won’t Win has a deep love for meaningful lyrics, intricate harmonies, and beautiful soaring pop and folk melodies. So, it comes as no surprise that some of their inspirations include Simon and Garfunkel, Travis, Patty Griffin, Coldplay, Indigo Girls, Glen Hansard, Everything But The Girl, U2, Billy Bragg, Kings of Convenience, Damien Rice, José Gonzalez, and Aimee Mann.

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After a few years of songwriting interspersed with open mics and benefit performances, Danny penning a novel and founding a human rights nonprofit, Greg opening a neighborhood men’s shop with his partner, and the obligations of dadhood and day jobs, They Won’t Win has finalized its first album of original music titled Lost At Sea. What began as a series of acoustic “coffee shop” tunes grew into a collection of fully realized songs created with Gravity Studio’s Julian Stacey, and featuring keyboardist Ben Walter, cellist Chai Wolfman, and a close-knit group of musicians and collaborators from Chicago and Nashville. The songs themselves draw deeply on Danny's and Greg’s real and wide-ranging lives—they are both in their forties—to explore love and loss, heartache and gratefulness, friendship and loneliness, and failure and triumph in the face of abuse, depression, and the challenges of navigating the modern world with your head held high. Ultimately, Lost At Sea is an album about hope, worthwhile journeys, and the epicness of second chances.