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    Concert Preview: LANY

    Los Angeles-based alt-rock trio LANY is cashing in on their quickly-rising stock with their ambitious 35-city Super Far North American tour, which will stop by Newport Music Hall in the University District on Thursday night.

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    Band mates Paul Jason Klein (lead vocals, keyboards, guitars), Jake Clifford Goss (drums), and Les Priest (keyboards, guitar, backup vocals) released their first full-length eponymous album in June, which followed four EP projects released between 2014 and 2016. Current single “Super Far,” a mid-tempo melodic jam co-written by Grammy winning songwriter and OneRepublic front man Ryan Tedder, has been accumulating in the neighborhood of 500,000 streams per day and currently has over 29 million listens on Spotify.

    “Super Far” is a good representation of much of the album’s vibe — neat little synth waves packaged with punches of electronic drums, drizzled with Klein’s breathy tenor vocal. Crafting LANY was an ambitious affair for the band as it searched for legitimacy.

    “I wanted [the] album to prove that we deserved a seat at the musical and cultural and artistic table,” Klein explained recently to Billboard. “At the beginning we were just making the most of what we had, and then the trajectory and the path became kind of clear.”

    LANY has been on the road non-stop for the past two years – by the end of 2017, they’ll have amassed a total of 150 live shows in the past two years alone. While the band is still building their radio audience, their presence on social media has earned them an impressive fan following in the digital realm.

    “I think we have that audience online, because we have good songs,” Klein insists. But he acknowledges that their personal approach in engaging with their supporters on the internet plays a significant role in their largess. “I’ve always taken the approach that [posts on social media] need to feel like they’re coming from us. So I write the captions, pick the photos and post everything from my phone. It’s an important part of what we do.”

    The numbers speak for themselves. LANY has collected over 7.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify and combined streams of their tracks have exceeded the 250 million mark. The band was also the most streamed artist of 2016 through the Spotify “Discover” feature, with “ILYSB” (the first single from the album) also holding the title of the most streamed song of the year.

    After their current tour itinerary wraps up in Calgary on November 12, LANY will play Festival Corona Capital in Mexico City before heading across the Atlantic for another 18 dates in Europe before the end of December.

    And then? Work begins on their sophomore album early in 2018. According to Klein, the band’s best days are still ahead of them.

    “I feel satisfied and I feel good about where we’re headed, but [we] want to be the biggest band in the world, so until we’re there, it’s going to be hard to say, ‘Hey, we’re doing great!’ you know? We’re just going to work our asses off and play every single show and try to do those little things right.”

    LANY (featuring openers Dagny) will play Newport Music Hall, 1722 North High Street in the University District on Thursday, October 19 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 (plus applicable taxes and fees), and are available via Ticketmaster. Music downloads, merchandise, and more information about LANY can be found on their official website.

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    Grant Walters
    Grant Waltershttps://columbusunderground.com
    Grant is a freelance writer for Columbus Underground who primarily focuses on music and comedy. He's a Canadian transplant, born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and schooled in Vancouver, British Columbia. Grant is also the co-author of two internationally acclaimed books: "Decades: The Bee Gees in the 1960s" and "Decades: The Bee Gees in the 1970s." He has also penned numerous articles and artist interviews for the nationally recognized site, Albumism.
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