LOVE & THEFT

Love and Theft, the platinum-selling duo of Eric Gunderson and Stephen Barker Liles, has six Top 25 radio singles, including top radio gold recurrent #1 “Angel Eyes.” The pair has more than 1 million followers on its social media accounts and has done everything from appearing on “Late Night” with Jimmy Fallon to touring with Charlie Daniels during his final run.

The country duo is known for its contemporary hits, including “Runaway” and “Angel Eyes,” as well as “Whiskey on My Breath,” which reignited the members’ careers. After a 7-year hiatus, singers Eric Gunderson and Stephen Barker Liles released “Better Off” in 2022, a new six-song EP with a fresh, original sound they wrote and produced themselves.

For “Better Off,” they pulled from their classic rock and gospel influences. Stephen and Eric leaned into the sounds of the Eagles, The Beatles, The Doobie Brothers, and the Gaither Vocal Band. They took risks experimenting with synthesizers and different instrumentation to create a distinct contemporary pop-rock and pop-country sound.

“This is just what we do naturally, which is what I think is cool about it,” Eric says. “I think what we set out to do was something that was just authentic and uniquely us. That’s what we ended up doing.”