Photo of LANY by Alessio Boni
As emerging Los Angeles trio LANY finishes their impressive rookie year, the band is capping off the last 12 months with a repackaged EP called Make Out, which includes some previously released material and a new bonus track "Kiss."
The set arrived last Friday courtesy of the band's new label Polydor Records, home of fellow Variance favorites like The 1975 and Ellie Goulding, the latter of whom has recruited the rising pop outfit to open for her upcoming U.K. arena tour, suggesting the new year will be even better than the last.
Calling 2015 "the best year of my life," vocalist Paul Klein says their run of nearly 80 shows this year turned out to be "a lot for a little indie band that didn’t have a big label putting them on tour. We just took every opportunity that came up," he revealed, speaking with Variance shortly after the release of Make Out. "We played some really great shows and some really horrible shows. But we’re here and alive and we’re writing the best songs we’ve ever written."
» The 100 Best Songs of 2015: LANY
As for the Goulding tour, Klein says the idea came up when he and bandmates Jake Goss and Les Priest were initially speaking with Polydor. "Our [A&R] guy was like, ‘I’m gonna get you guys on tour with Ellie. I think it’d be perfect,'" he recalls. "We thought it would be great, but a lot of people just say stuff in this industry and it doesn't turn out to be true. So then when it was confirmed, that was pretty crazy. We’ll be playing 11 arena shows with her, so that should be pretty life-altering. And we’re excited."
Life-altering would also probably be the best way to describe the kind of year LANY just had, following tours with the likes of Halsey, X Ambassadors and Twin Shadow. And just two weeks ago, Sam Smith took to Instagram to declare that he's officially "so obsessed" with the band.
All of this when just a few months ago, the three musicians were living in a one-bedroom house together. They recently relocated to a bigger "little house, which is where we’re making this record," says Klein.
As their journey continues, Klein says they're still putting tremendous thought into even the smallest parts of their career, including some of their tongue-in-cheek lyrics. "We come from pretty conservative families," he admits. "I would [use profanity] and be fine with it, but then I’m like, ‘Well, let’s not make my mom super upset.’ But it’s not a deliberate thing. Like, there are so many drum parts and the way the vocals are chopped on ‘ILYSB,’ those were all actually 'mistakes.'"
"But we never take away those mistakes," adds Goss. "People will ask if we need to redo it and we’re like, ‘No, that stays,’" he says with a chuckle.
With another big year ahead of them, a lot is still up in the air for LANY, but Klein insists they "are working on a record right now," although some of the timeline will be out of their hands. "In fact, as soon as we finish this interview, we’re going to be finishing a new track," he says, adding: "I don’t know if there will be another EP before the album, but I think the next thing that we are gonna do is put out a live video from our last show in L.A., where we recorded “ILYSB (Stripped).”
The band also has other things in the works, but for now, they're promoting their Make Out EP, which is out now. See their tour dates with Ellie Goulding here.
