There is a particular kind of confidence that comes from growing up in Laurel Canyon with a piano under your fingers and a father who scores some of the biggest films in Hollywood. Lola Bates has it. At 24, she has already played Abbey Road with the London Symphony Orchestra, toured the world with Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, and landed her vocals in the John Wick franchise—working alongside her father, the acclaimed film composer Tyler Bates, who scored those very films. Now, with “Madonna Gold”—the second single from her forthcoming debut album Love and Power—she is stepping fully out of his shadow and into her own.
The track arrives via Gravel & Echo Recordings, a label co-founded by Tyler Bates and award-winning engineer Robert Carranza specifically to launch this project, and distributed by Virgin Music Group. It sounds exactly like what happens when a classically trained multi-instrumentalist decides to write a song about wanting someone so badly it becomes its own kind of prayer.
Written at the Piano, Built Into Something Bigger
“Madonna Gold” began where most of Bates’ songs begin: at her upright piano in her Laurel Canyon studio. But it didn’t stay there. The finished track is a richly layered, atmospheric record that owes as much to PJ Harvey’s controlled intensity as it does to The Stone Roses’ widescreen shimmer. Her father contributed electric guitar. Puma of Sunday (1994) handled drums. Maxwell Joseph co-produced. Carranza mixed the final product.
The result is a slow-burning track anchored by a hypnotic groove that doesn’t let go. It’s not a song that grabs you in the first five seconds. It’s a song that grabs you and you don’t realize it until the chorus arrives and you can’t stop humming it.
— Lola Bates
A Family Legacy, a Solo Statement
The Tyler Bates connection is impossible to ignore—and Lola doesn’t try to hide it. She has spoken openly about the experience of working alongside her father, whose credits include the John Wick series, Guardians of the Galaxy, and collaborations with Jerry Cantrell. He is the executive producer of Love and Power and co-founded Gravel & Echo Recordings with Carranza in part to give her album the independent infrastructure it deserved.
But the music makes clear that this is not a vanity project backed by a famous parent. At 12, Bates performed the piano work for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 at Capitol Records. At 15, she was the solo pianist with the London Symphony Orchestra for Vol. 2 at Abbey Road. Her performance of Martha and the Vandellas’ “Nowhere to Run” was featured in John Wick: Chapter 4. She joined Cantrell’s touring band as keyboardist, backup vocalist, and acoustic guitarist, then played bass with Sunday (1994) on their 2024–2025 tours.
She writes, produces, and arranges her own records, performs the majority of instruments on her songs, and directs her own music videos. The album was recorded between her Laurel Canyon studio and the legendary EastWest Studios in Los Angeles. This is someone who earned her place long before the label was built around her.
What “Madonna Gold” Signals
The single follows her debut track “Girl’s Girl,” which took a darker approach—exploring loyalty, morality, and romantic complexity through a three-person entanglement. “Madonna Gold” moves into warmer, more sensual territory, but with the same willingness to sit in emotional ambiguity rather than resolve it neatly. Together, the two singles suggest that Love and Power will be an album that earns its title.
Bates will be taking the album to stages in 2026. If the live show carries even half the weight of what she’s built in the studio, it will be worth the ticket.
For more information, visit LolaBatesMusic.com. Follow Lola Bates on Instagram and Spotify.