Having met at the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Swinburne and Mirza launched the 18+ project in 2011 under anonymous pseudonyms. Their first recordings, a trilogy of mixtapes entitled
M1xtape,
Mixta2e, and
Mixtap3, were launched online under the anonymous titles of 'Boy' and 'Sis'. Much of the band's lyrical content concerns sex. Mirza commented on this: "I don't ever think the way we represent sex is explicitly sexy; we're not trying to seduce. We're playing up to roles we still see in music today." This was followed by their debut album,
Trust, which was released on Houndstooth in November 2014. Killian Fox, writing in
The Observer, said of the album "Trust moves at a stoned pace, oozing sex and a glitchy sense of unease, though it’s never clear whether it’s critiquing its excesses or revelling in them." The band's follow-up single, "Dry", was released on Houndstooth on 23 February 2015. In January and February 2015, 18+ toured
Trust in the US and Europe, including dates in Los Angeles, London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris. == Discography ==