LANY's Paul Klein Says 'Nothing's Off Limits' When Writing Relationship Anthems (Exclusive)

"I find that I sleep better at night just telling the truth," the alt-pop band's frontman tells PEOPLE about covering his personal life in song

LANY have become synonymous with painfully honest breakup anthems, something that the alt-pop band's frontman admits has always been by design.

"It's much less stressful just being honest, and you don't have to keep up with a façade or a character," singer Paul Jason Klein, 35, exclusively tells PEOPLE about basing music on his own life. "I find that I sleep better at night just telling the truth, and just writing about my experience."

That candidness has led the band to multi-platinum success since releasing their first album in 2017, and helped them amass fans all over the world. For Klein, authenticity is the top priority when crafting new tracks.

"We get to go on stage and play one hundred-plus shows around the world every year, and those songs need to be true to me," he explains. "I feel like authenticity is the only thing that cuts through anymore because everyone's playing a character to a certain extent. I think just being super honest is awesome."

The band's latest single, "Love at First Fight," covers the insecurities that plague a new relationship when things go wrong for the first time. Klein, whose past flames include Dua Lipa and Nicola Peltz Beckham, is aware his love life has become public fodder, but hasn't let that deter him from opening up in songs.

"I had this weird moment a few years ago when I was literally at the YMCA on a treadmill, and I realized that a lot of the pain or trauma in my life, or just my experiences, are for the entertainment of the whole world," he says about putting his life on display to an extent. "It just is what it is; it comes with the territory."

The new track is taken from LANY's fifth full-length offering, I Really Really Hope So, which arrives Sept. 29. Klein promises that fans can expect more of their brutal honesty when it comes to depicting the highs and lows of his real-life loves.

"I really think nothing's off limits," he notes about drawing influence from his own life. "Fortune favors the bold, and you step out in a sense of bravery by talking about something, and people really resonate with it the most."

Related: WATCH: LANY and Julia Michaels Release Summer-Ready Music Video for Their Song 'Okay'

The Tulsa, Oklahoma native makes it clear to those in his life, whether it be friends or love interests, that anything is fair game for material. "I guess it's just kind of an unspoken rule," he confesses. "There will be times when someone will see me put something in my phone and they know that that might come out later in a song." That said, he makes a point of playing demos of tracks for his loved ones "so most people who are in my life know it's coming beforehand."

The only potential blindsides are those who are no longer in the singer's phonebook. "I've never called anyone to be like, 'Hey, I wrote this album about you, hope you love it or hope you hate it'," he thinks back. "The ethos of LANY is candidness and openness, and saying things how they are, and that's just how we write songs."

Klein calls drummer Jake Clifford Goss "my great sounding board and my great buffer" when writing music, but the duo underwent a big loss when guitarist Les Priest left the band in 2022. The remaining members decided to proceed without him and "hit the ground running" with a global tour as a two-piece.

"We didn't feel like Les was somebody that we could replace, and to be honest, it never crossed our minds [to replace him]," he reveals. "We just knew that it would be the two of us moving forward and we're really excited about the future."

The band was inspired by the musical idols of their adolescence for their upcoming collection, like U2, Coldplay, Yellowcard, Dashboard Confessional, The Killers and The Fray.

"We tried to really channel some of our favorite bands and our favorite songs in the studio," Klein says about the follow-up to 2021's gg bb xx. "I feel like this might be the most time we've spent on an album, and some days I don't know if it's dog s--- or if it's amazing. I've lost all objectivity, but I think the pursuit of excellence on this album is palpable, I am ready to hand it over to the world, and I'm definitely ready to go back on tour."

Related: Famous Break Up Songs — and Who They're About

"I think the whole album's about disappointment and pain," Klein adds, noting that the tracklist is designed to chronologically document "the evolution of a heart or of a life" and ends in "a place of being okay with yourself and not needing anyone else."

For a musician who calls the band's sophomore album Malibu Nights "one of the the best breakup album of all time," this leads one to wonder if he's now reached a place of personal joy. "I feel like that depends on the week or the day or the hour, but I'm doing my best," he shares. "I'm happy. I think I'm happy. Some days I am, some days I'm not."

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