Interview: LANY’s Paul Klein on their upcoming Australian tour + next album.
Having spent the very beginning of 2018 writing their sophomore album ‘Malibu Nights’ (which they recently announced via Instagram), LANY show no signs of slowing down - with an Australian tour this weekend, their first ever sold-out arena show in Asia, and a year which will see them likely complete and release the aforementioned ‘Malibu Nights’.
We caught up with the band’s Paul Klein this week to talk about the Australian dates, the new album, and more…
COUP DE MAIN: Hi Paul! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me tonight in New Zealand - how’s your day going?
LANY - PAUL KLEIN: It's good. I’m in Shanghai, I’m surprisingly not jet lagged, which is a miracle. Get this, we were in Russia, and we bought this around-the-world ticket so we always fly on the same airline or group of airlines as it helps us rack up rewards and things like that. When you do that, sometimes you just have to take the most ridiculous layovers, so we flew from Moscow to Madrid, which is 5 hours out of the way. We got on the plane and flew Madrid to Shanghai which is like 13 hours, so it was almost a 24 hour travel day. We got in at 7 this morning, we play tonight, and then we fly to Brisbane tomorrow. But I actually feel alright, which is amazing.
CDM:You’re heading back to Australia this week for three shows, are you excited to be coming back to Australia?
PAUL: Absolutely. It’ll be the first time that we’ve been able to play the album set. We’re bringing all the screens and the lights, so it’ll be a completely different experience from the last time. And obviously we’ve never played Brisbane before, this is our first time in Brisbane, but it’s our third time in Sydney and Melbourne, so it’ll be amazing to bring a full LANY show.
CDM: We’re so sad that you aren’t making it to New Zealand this time around - do you know when you’ll next be in New Zealand to play shows?
PAUL: I know, what the hell! I don’t know why we didn’t make that happen, that’s so stupid actually. I don’t know. But I would love to come back, so we’ll figure it out. It’ll either be at the end of this year or the top of next. I’m sorry it’s gonna be a little while, but we’re gonna figure it out.
CDM: Thank you for doing the shoot with us last time, I hope you got your zines okay!
PAUL: Yes, they are so cool! We all got one. It was amazing - we’ll do it anytime. You guys have great taste and such good aesthetic, it’s amazing.
[Click here to buy a Coup De Main x LANY zine]
CDM: Very important question. We are so excited about ‘Malibu Nights’. What can you tell us about the album so far?
PAUL: I didn’t write it on accident, but I wasn’t planning on writing an album this soon, but I was just so in the zone, and had so much to write about. So we pretty much wrote 17 songs in January and February, and I just whittled them down to nine. Obviously whatever I say today could change tomorrow, ‘cuz I could write a song tonight and be like, ‘Oh, shit, this has to go on the album,’ but we brought it down to nine tracks. The way that we work is that I kind of write the skeleton of the song, it’s what I call it - the melody and the lyric, it’s just me on a piano, it just paints the framework - then we pack on the muscle and put meat on the bones. We just got to that stage about two weeks before we left to come on tour. So we have set aside a lot of time, we’ve switched up our whole touring schedule, our tentative one, and we’ve moved a bunch of things around so that we can get the album out, if all goes perfectly, late Summer, late August or early September. So that’s kind of where we’re headed. I guess it’s okay to say all this stuff, I don’t know the bigger deal, I’m just telling you what the plan is.
CDM: We won’t hold you to that release date!
PAUL: <laughs> I don’t want to get a bunch of comments!
CDM: The album was written between January 4th and February 14th - what was it about that time period that was so significant to you, that you wanted to write an entire album about it?
PAUL: It was just a tough time. I just felt extremely driven, focused, and had a lot to think about and process. It was just a very significant season in my life, and I think there’s a million ways that I could’ve come out of it, and if I’m allowed to say, I’m really proud of how I went through it, and how I came out of it. I think they’re the nine best songs we’ve ever written, and it’s just gonna be a really beautiful album, and I’m really excited to make it perfect and then give it to our fans. Because I live for that. It was so weird working on it, it sounds morbid, but when I was done writing it I felt like I was okay if I died. In the most healthy way, I just felt like, ‘If I died tomorrow, I’m okay with that, because I’m so proud of these songs, and what they are.’ I felt like I was almost put on earth to write ‘Malibu Nights’. So that’s the feeling I was in when I did that, and I’m really excited to make it perfect and give it to our people.
CDM: Are you going to be playing any new/unreleased songs on the upcoming tour?
PAUL: No, I think it’s important to let people hear the recorded version first, and then we play them. That’s how I would prefer to give it to people.
LANY play sold-out dates on Friday 23rd March in Brisbane and Saturday 24th March in Melbourne, with only tickets remaining to their Sydney show on Sunday 25th March. Click here for more information on the tour.
Watch the ‘Super Far’ music video below…
P.S. Full interview coming soon!
