The first time you see Stolen Gin live — not just hear them, but feel them — it’s like being hit by a brass section in a back alley at midnight. There’s a drumbeat crawling up your ribcage, a bassline growling low and hungry, and then five NYU friends fling themselves into the room like someone set the stage on fire. Not just musicians — operators. Magicians. Mad scientists. A frontman with the soul of a showman, a guitarist who hasn’t stopped grinning since 2019, and a crowd already drenched.

Stolen Gin is Jackson Lardner (vocals and guitar), Will Adler (guitar), Sawyer Adler (bass), Evan Jacobson (saxophone and EWI), and Josh Farrell (drums) — five friends turned full-throttle performers, who’ve shapeshifted from college basement gigs into one of New York’s most electric live acts.

They weren’t born Stolen Gin. Back then, they were Bathtub Gin, a jam-band/jazz hybrid slamming through NYU dorms and Manhattan basements. Then came loft parties, rooftops, and Washington Square Park blowouts, and the name changed: Stolen Gin — sleeker, wilder, ripe for something bigger.

Their new single, “Spoil My Night,” doesn’t walk in — it struts. Syncopated drums. Neon-lit guitar flickers. Lyrics flirting, spinning, challenging the night to stay open just a little longer.

“We did our first shows with synthesizers…and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this sounds like we just have another…a whole ‘nother member of the band.,’” Sawyer laughs, thinking back to when he felt Stolen Gin had found its sound.

“It’s a fun song. It’s energetic, and it has kind of like, almost like, zesty tone to it. It’s like a little spiteful in a way,” Jackson Lardner adds. The hook hits with sly confidence.

This single marks their shift from loose live takes to studio precision. “The crunch time for us…was giving the song to the distributor,” Sawyer says, reflecting on their release week. “That’s like our more real deadline.”

That precision hasn’t cost them their soul. Their shows — eight sold-out NYC gigs, a whirlwind through Boston and DC, an opening slot for TAUK — still brim with sweat, spontaneity, and split-second improvisation.

Jackson says he’s learning to stay present, to celebrate the moments as they come — every sold-out ticket, every fan who says they love the music. He explained that when you’re always chasing growth, it’s easy to forget how far you’ve already come.

Instead, they say they’re chasing that visceral energy. “We always want the crowd to be having fun,” Sawyer says. The goal? Well they’re shooting for bigger stages.

They’ve already hit UK, France, Germany, Netherlands — but Jackson declares, “I would love, in five years from now, I would love to be doing like, the same quantity of like stuff that we do in the US. I’d love to be doing that amount in Europe as well, because we only just started going over there the first time last year.”

“We’re going to go again next year, but it’s so much fun over there. And I think our our music is, you know, appreciated over there, similarly how it is here. So I would love to get to a place where we can hang out over there a lot.”

Ambition? It’s in every beat, every riff, every packed dance floor. Stolen Gin isn’t here for ambient playlists. They’re here to spoil your night— in the best way possible.

BA‑DUM.
BA‑DUM.
BA‑DUM‑CRASH.

And just like that — you’re back in it.

Image taken from Spotify/Stolen Gin