Coin’s Chase Lawrence explains how taking a step back and enjoying the moment shaped the band’s third album.
“These are dark, strange times. But I’m enjoying being with my family and I’m as good as can be.”
So says Chase Lawrence of Nashville’s indie pop-rockers Coin. He is, of course, referring to the global pandemic we’ve all been living through. And while there has been undeniable darkness to the unprecedented situation, I learn from Lawrence that he and his two bandmates have never worked harder on their music in their lives, revealing a personal silver lining.
Lawrence’s vocals and synths are completed by drummer Ryan Winnen and guitarist/vocalist Joe Memmel. The band managed to put pen to paper with Columbia Records very early in their career, with their 2016 breakthrough single, Talk Too Much following on quickly.
They dropped their third album, Dreamland in February of this year. The band had just started touring the record before the quarantine hit the United States and forced them to postpone their remaining dates.
I mention that Dreamland has proven to be a fitting title for the surreal times in which it was released.
“We definitely would have spent less time on tour production rehearsals if we had foreseen all this,” Lawrence says with a laugh. “But I often hear people say a third album is such an important album, so we really had our wheels turning over this one. We’ve worked with some amazing producers in the past.
"But I kind of realised that everyone is throwing darts blindfolded – nobody really knows what they’re doing. For the most part, everyone is just guessing and following their taste. So it was freeing for us to step back and say, ‘let’s make this album more internally’, only work with a few collaborators, and say what we really want to say.”
