Hello, and welcome to Quick-Fire Questions!
In case you missed the last instalment, let us fill you in on what Quick-Fire Questions is all about. It’s pretty easy: we get together with an artist we love, and we try and find out as much about them as we possibly can in no more than five minutes. Simple, eh?
For this edition, we sat down with Californian indie boys LANY at this year’s Barn On The Farm Festival and fired a bunch of questions at them about their influences, writing with OneRepublic‘s Ryan Tedder, and their brilliant debut album.
We think that they’re pretty bloody good
They’re a talented bunch, and their set at Barn On The Farm was one of our genuine highlights of the weekend – so, we were intrigued to see how they’d handle the questions we threw at them for our latest Quick-Fire Questions interview. We had five minutes with them, and we tried to make the most of it:
Your album’s out now! Are you glad to finally have it out?
‘It’s so cool. The reaction to it has been amazing, as well. We’ve had a bunch of billboards with our faces on in cities all around the United States and Canada, and people are finally getting to hear these songs that we’ve worked so hard on – it’s fantastic.
Was it easy for you to write and record?
‘Well, it definitely took a long time – around fifteen months in total, actually. During those fifteen months, we were actually putting out EPs, so we were constantly writing and then deciding which songs were going on the EPs and which songs we were going to save for the album. We had written, I think, The Breakup, Dumb Stuff, and a few others… So, we just held back a load of the songs that had the same ‘feel’ to them for the album. I suppose that, at the time, we were making these huge decisions without really thinking about how important they were. They kinda just happened.
You wrote your new single with Ryan Tedder, too – how was that?
‘It was sick. It was the last song we wrote for the album, and it was a really cool experience. We don’t really do co-writes as a rule, and this is the first time we’ve come away from a session with something that we’re happy with. He expressed some interest in writing a song with us, and I didn’t want to go into a session looking for a song for the album – I just wanted to go in and see what happened. As it turns out, we came out with something really great. So, from there, we took it down to Nashville – where Les lives – and finished it off on a crappy old Dell computer.
What are your plans for the next few months?
‘Tour the hell out of the album. After this festival, we’ve got a couple of promo days in London, then we go home and do a few different events in New York and LA. Then, we go to Australia and Asia for a month, playing shows and doing promo. From there, we come home and have a three-week break, and then we go straight into rehearsals, and then touring throughout the USA, Europe, and finally the UK.
Are there any songs from the album that you’re particularly excited to play live?
‘All of them! It’ll just be great to see how people react. We’ve been playing the singles live for a while, but it’ll be awesome to see how the crowds take to the new songs. It’ll be a scary challenge, to bust out songs that we didn’t think we’d ever play live, but it’ll be a fun one!
Out of every song ever recorded, which do you wish you’d written?
Jake (Goss, drums): ‘I’d have to go for In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins. He’s like, in his mid-sixties now, but he performed on Jimmy Fallon a month or two ago and it was still the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard. To be that age, and still have that kind of passion… It’s amazing.
Paul (Klein, vocals): ‘I’d say Gravity by John Mayer. Definitely one of his songs; I think that he’s got a few that’ll stand the test of time.
Les (Priest, keyboards): ‘I’m going to have to cheat and go with Jake’s answer. I don’t think I beat that.
If you could be in any other band, which would it be and which instrument would you want to play?
Les: ‘I’m just gonna go with being the bass player in The Beatles. Who wouldn’t want to be Paul McCartney?
Jake: ‘I’d like to be the drummer in Rage Against The Machine. Brad Wilk’s a stud.
Paul: ‘I’d probably go with being the frontman of Coldplay or something like that.
Describe each other in three words?
Paul: ‘Les is smart, and quiet, and humble. Jake is talented, funny, and hot.
Jake: ‘Paul is a legend; he is one-of-a-kind; and, he is wonderful. Les is consistent, brilliant, and thoughtful.
Les: ‘Alright, Paul – you’re handsome, a powerhouse, and a leader. Jake’s a… A douche, haha! No – Jake’s loveable, happy, and my best man.
