Hear It First: ‘Bad’ New Track by Rising Artist LANY
Photo credit: Zedek Chan
Los Angeles-based electronic trio LANY embodies what it means to be a rising young band in today’s musical landscape. Using the tools at their fingertips – a Windows computer and the internet – they created and distributed their own music, primarily online through social media platforms, which quickly caught the attention of new fans and music-industry types alike.
Flash forward a handful of months and Paul Klein, Les Priest, and Jake Goss’s dreamy synth-pop tunes infused with R&B grooves have amassed more than 4 million plays on Soundcloud and the band has formed a powerful alliance with the audio platform.
"Soundcloud has been an integral part to our story," says Klein. "When we started, we threw our songs on the internet. We had zero followers on Soundcloud in April. I don’t know what happened but the right people heard our tracks and it gained momentum. I think that’s the power of the internet. I think Soundcloud really loved that story – that three guys making music in their bedroom on a Windows computer can put some tracks on the internet on their website and all of a sudden have opportunities to play shows and tour and reach a lot of people with their music…Within two weeks or maybe a month, I started getting emails from record labels in the UK. To be honest I thought I was getting spammed."
It turned out that these offers were legit, and the band hired a manager to field the requests and label offers, which they’re still considering.
Longtime friends, the 20-something members of LANY originally met in Nashville and ended up pursuing their music career in Los Angeles, where they currently share a one-bedroom apartment. Klein, who also works as a fashion model for brands including Levi’s, spent time in New York last year while continuing to work on the band’s music from afar. “In August I moved to New York for modeling opportunities and I was there for about four months and that’s how our band name manifested into Los Angeles and New York,” Klein explains of the band’s moniker, which merges the abbreviations of the two famed cities.
While all three members of LANY share similar musical tastes, each of them comes from very different backgrounds and has diverse musical influences that inform their sound. “For me, it’s James Brown and Michael Jackson,” says Goss. “We all love the 1975 and Small Black. For Les it’s Haim and Banks.”
"We all have different musical influences and we really appreciate that about each other," says Klein. "We allow those to come together and create our sound."
LANY’s latest track, “Bad, Bad, Bad,” which premieres on Yahoo Music, combines catchy synth-pop melodies with a playful bedroom vibe that recalls summer crushes and leisurely late nights with friends.
"It’s a playful story of young rebellion," Klein says of the track. "Instead of cheapening the listener’s experience by explaining the backstory to each song, we’d rather leave it open for interpretation— that way one song can mean a million different things to a whole lot of people."
LANY is gearing up for a handful of tour dates and are hard at work on new material. “We’ve been in a rehearsal space going over our live set and perfecting everything,” says Klein. “We’ve also got ideas laid down on the computer for new tracks. In 2015 we’ll release an official body of work.”
It’s obvious that LANY’s dreams are as big as their ambitious bi-coastal name would imply. “We’d love to be a household name,” says Klein matter-of-factly. “We’d love to play arenas and do all that and to take this as far as we can.”
"Bad, Bad, Bad" is available for worldwide download on January 22.
