Music Monday #15 - "(I Just Died) In Your Arms" by Lakyn Heperi (@Lakyn_Heperi)

This week's Music Monday comes from my Shadowhunter friend Laura (@lortabear), who told me to check out Aussie singer/songwriter Lakyn Heperi. The song she picked out for me was called "Better Than That" (take a listen because you'll love it). The problem is I could not for the life of me get the embed feature to work for the song. So, I had to figure out another option.

In the middle of struggling and cursing at the computer, I ran across the song I'd been longing to find. I'm a sucker for 80's covers by current artists in movie soundtracks. This one stopped me in my tracks. For those of you music fans who might remember Cutting Crew's "(I Just Died) in Your Arms", you'll know that it's a killer ballad with all the great elements of a good 80's tune. Lakyn did something very interesting with it. He stripped it down to just piano and strings (the world thanks you for dropping the synthesizer), slowed it a bit and added his gutwrenchingly beautiful vocals. This is my Music Monday song of the week!

Take a listen.

  A lot of times in movies and TV shows, the music supervisor finds a great cover from an indie artist and implements it because it's recognizable and much loved. For The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, I could see this used when Clary is laying on her bed trying to draw Jace. What do you think?

More on Lakyn:

Lakyn Heperi is a semi-pro skateboarder who transformed into a singer/songwriter after a broken ankle kept him off his board for 8 months. Lakyn started playing every day, not because he was aiming for anything in particular, but because it allowed him to express his frustration after the accident. He recorded his music in his bedroom and put it up online and is now a YouTube sensation with tens of thousands of followers.

With the fan momentum behind each clip growing exponentially (several now reaching 300,000+ views), producers working on a brand new TV production sat up and took notice. The show was The Voice. Mentored by Joel Madden (Seal wanted him too), Lakyn made it through to the semi-finals covering MGMT and Youth Group, suddenly thrown into a whirlwind of TV production, record labels, management and media requests. “Before ‘The Voice’ I’d only done about four gigs that year,” he admits. “I was a bit hesitant at first, but what I wanted to get out of it is exactly what I’ve been given – I had to learn to make the right decisions.”

To learn more about Lakyn, check out his website and follow him on Twitter at @Lakyn_Heperi.