Family of the Year

Family of the Year are an American indie pop-rock band formed in Los Angeles, California. Built around the songwriting of brothers Joseph and Sebastian Keefe, the group emerged from California's early-2010s indie scene with a warm, harmony-driven sound that blends folk instrumentation with anthemic pop-rock arrangements. Their music favors gentle acoustic textures, layered vocal harmonies, and simple, emotionally direct lyrics.

The band's breakthrough came with «Hero», a wistful, string-inflected ballad from their 2012 album ‘Loma Vista’. The song reached a massive audience after being featured prominently in Richard Linklater's acclaimed film ‘Boyhood’ (2014), where it became closely tied to the film's coming-of-age themes. The exposure introduced Family of the Year to listeners well beyond the indie circuit and remains their most widely recognized work.

Beyond «Hero», tracks like «Make You Mine» and «Dead Poets» showcase the band's knack for bittersweet, singalong melodies paired with themes of youth, longing, and self-discovery. Family of the Year's sound sits comfortably alongside other early-2010s indie-folk-pop acts, marked by an unpretentious, radio-friendly warmth that has kept their catalog in steady rotation on playlists and in film and TV placements.