EXCLUSIVE

Premiere: Rocky and Ross Lynch Are Rock Stars in the Driver Era’s New Music Video for “Feel You Now”

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina star is back to life on the road.


ross-rocky-driver-era-2.jpg
Maggie Einstein

For fans of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, April 5 marked the premiere of part two of the Netflix series. For Ross Lynch, the 23-year-old actor who plays Sabrina’s ex, Harvey Kinkle, on the other hand, it marked the one-week point of his nationwide tour with his 24-year-old brother, Rocky Lynch.

Not that going on tour is remotely new for either; thanks to R5, their previous (and quite appropriately titled) band, with their siblings Riker and Rydel, plus their friend Ellington Ratliff, they’ve spent a good chuck of the past decade on the road. But it’s the first time that Ross and Rocky, the youngest of the Lynch family, have embarked on a tour since beginning a new, more experimental era, the Driver Era, which is the name of their new, two-person band.

From the sound of it, (relatively) unchaperoned life is treating Ross and Rocky just fine. “We’re still getting up pretty late, and we’re still getting into a pretty fair amount of debauchery,” Ross said from Chicago, where he and Rocky were about to head to their favorite tiki bar and play yet another sold-out crowd. They doubled their tour in length after the dates they initially released sold out—and that’s all while doing their own writing and producing, and essentially acting as their own label. (They’ve self-released each of the band’s four singles to date, and more songs—which their fans already know all of the words to—are on the way.)

Plus, as is their custom, they have another family member in tow: Their 16-year-old cousin, Gordy Shor, who is to thank for the group’s new music video for their single “Feel You Now,” which premieres exclusively on W, below. Made up entirely of footage taken on their current tour, it’s an inside look at their life on the road: Both Ross and Rocky can be seen repeatedly sipping beer and mixing drinks backstage—plus sharing voice memos and getting the word out about the Driver Era via spray paint—but it’s Ross who really stands out. He’s in full rockstar mode, whether dangling a bra off of his microphone, tossing his guitar pick out to the packed crowd, or casually allowing his chest to be stroked by quite a few disembodied hands. (He spends a good deal of time shirtless.)

Behind the scenes, though, it’s often Rocky who’s the real star; he wrote and produced their previous single “Low” while Harvey was off in Vancouver filming Sabrina, making for quite the welcome home. As for “Feel You Now,” both describe it as being about “the struggle between your head and your heart,” and having more of an “anthemic pop feel.” (The chorus even features hand claps.) Typically, however, they prefer to classify their style as “multi-genre,” with a heavy “hip-hop influence.”

Ross Lynch and Rocky Lynch of the Driver Era, photographed by Maggie Einstein.

Maggie Einstein

As for what’s next for the group, Rocky says the next few songs reflect the fact that lately Ross has been feeling “pretty existential.” Ross agreed, adding that he’s been pretty “fed up” (though not with music, just in general). That isn’t too surprising, given Ross’s nonstop trajectory from Disney star to serial-killer-actor to heartthrob mortal to, well, rockstar. (He’s also a classically trained dancer, surfer, snowboarder, and, as W can attest, quite the talented ice skater.)

And filming for parts three and four of Sabrina is fast approaching for Ross, who spent several days in the studio with his brother in order to squeeze in this tour during his “brief hiatus” from set. They’re still working out the details of the long-distance relationship at the center of the Driver Era, but fret not: As usual, Ross plans to bring “a whole portable studio” with him to Vancouver, where he’s almost never without a guitar on set.

Related: Gavin Leatherwood, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Nick Scratch, Is Actually “Team Harvey”