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10 Questions with ... LANCO
February 3, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. I kind of would maybe like radio to know that we're not in an RV anymore. We started out in, like, 2015. We were like road warriors and had this Winnebago we'd tour around in. Sometimes radio people still ask about it, but we got rid of that thing like two years ago. That thing's long gone thanks to them. But I feel like radio kind of kind of gets us. I feel like they've got a grasp on who we are and what we do
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
The five-piece Country band LANCO landed on the map in 2018 with their No. 1-selling debut album, "Hallelujah Nights," and a headlining tour of the same name. The album included their double-platinum hit single "Greatest Love Story," which became a multi-week chart-topper, and follow-up "Born To Love You." On the strength of those singles, Country radio staffers chose LANCO for fill one of the five prestigious spots during the "New Faces Of Country Music" show on Friday, February 15th during Country Radio Seminar at Nashville's Omni Hotel.
The band members -- Brandon Lancaster (lead vocals), Chandler Baldwin (bass guitar), Jared Hampton (keyboards), Tripp Howell (drums), and Eric Steedly (guitar) - are currently working on their second album with famed producer Jay Joyce, who also helmed "Hallelujah Nights." They have made national television appearances on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," "Today," "The Bachelor," and "Dancing With The Stars," and earned nominations in 2018 from the Academy of Country Music (ACM), CMT, the Country Music Association (CMA), and the American Music Awards, while Lancaster won Nashville Songwriter's Association International's (NSAI's) "Songwriter/Artist of the Year" award.
All Access recently caught up with Lancaster for the Q&A below.
1. Where were you when you found out that you had been selected to perform at CRS 2019 New Faces, and how did you react?
We were actually at a show, and it was funny because, coincidentally, we had just been talking about it, and knew that it was coming up in a few months. Right around then, one of our reps walked in and broke the news to us, and so we were super excited.
That night we were going to make a thank-you video. [The New Faces lineup] hadn't been announced [publicly] yet, so we pretty much told the crowd at our show that we were going to say something to the camera and then turn around and told them to go crazy. They didn't know what the surprise announcement was. We just did this thing where we were in the middle of a show, and I just stopped the music for a second, looked at the camera and said a big thank you, and then turned around and looked at the crowd and they all went nuts, even though they didn't know what they were going nuts for. That's the power of house lights and waving your arms around and saying "yeah." They found out what [they were cheering for] once it was announced.
It's a lot easier to do that if you're playing sold-out shows on your headlining tour. Back in the day it wasn't as easy trying to get, like, seven people in a bar pumped.
2. What do you have planned for your New Faces set, and the video that will introduce you?
I'm going to be honest. I've never been to New Faces. I've heard a lot about it. I've tried to go and couldn't get in. So, I didn't know a whole lot about the process, or even how long the sets were. I kind of heard about the videos. I didn't totally know what that meant.
So, our label talked to us about it, and we actually got to see some other videos and got an idea going. We're kind of procrastinators, but we had an idea that we came up with sitting around the green room. It's going to be awesome, so we're really excited about it. I think people will enjoy it. It's very LANCO, and kind of a fun message.
For our set, obviously we're going to play the songs that we're so thankful that radio supported and that we've had a chance to be on the country chart with. Also, we spent all of the holidays - a lot of time in December and last Fall - in the studio working on new music, so I'm really hoping with everything in me that we get to maybe debut some new stuff that we've written.
3. What have you learned about how radio operates since you signed with Arista in 2015?
When we first start out, honestly, I don't think artists really know what radio means. Maybe we were just naïve, but for us, radio was these stations in your car, or however you listen to it, and you turn it on and there's these people and they play music you like. Then you find out there's things called program directors and music directors, and this whole way that it works, and there's all these people. Going out on radio tour and meeting this whole community actually became a really cool thing.
So, a night like New Faces is cool because all these people that you know from going to their stations and hanging out with them, they're all in the same room. We've developed relationships and friendships with a lot of them. We have a few inside jokes and things we've experienced that they'll all be familiar with that wanted to reference and pay tribute to. The [New Faces] video is more of a tip-of-the-hat to that.
4. Is there anything you feel like radio still doesn't know about LANCO that you want them to know?
I kind of would maybe like radio to know that we're not in an RV anymore. We started out in, like, 2015. We were like road warriors and had this Winnebago we'd tour around in. Sometimes radio people still ask about it, but we got rid of that thing like two years ago. That thing's long gone thanks to them. But I feel like radio kind of kind of gets us. I feel like they've got a grasp on who we are and what we do.
5. If you were look into a crystal ball ten years down the line, where do you hope to be professionally by Country Radio Seminar 2029?
Oh my god. I have no idea. Hopefully still there, still hanging out. If anything, I would just love in 2029 to be able to be in a place where I can walk into CRS and hang out with all those [radio] guys I've known for years, and just have more stories to tell, and more inside jokes to have, and just deeper relationships.
6. What have you learned about the music industry in the time that you've been on a major label?
The thing I've discovered that, yes, Sony is a big, globally recognized name. But really, at the end of the day, it's just [made up of] people who love music. They're passionate about it and want to help see your vision and want you to come to fruition and impact people. As musicians, we just want to impact people. We want our messages to be heard. We want our songs to be heard. The people at Sony want that too, and they actually know how to make that happen.
It's mind-blowing how much they do taking a song -- just some notes, some chords, some words -- and turning that into something people literally all over the world can have access to and hear. It's been an incredible journey for us to create art and then watch them help us get that art out in the world.
7. You've obviously been touring hard over the last few years. What's one of the craziest thing that's happened to you on the road?
We have a lot of crazy stories from back in the RV days being broken down on the side of the road and having to try and rent a U-Haul to get to our gig.
I remember one night we were going to pull over and just sleep in the RV, but our generator broke and it was the middle of winter in the Northeast and so we had no heat. We've got to stay in a hotel, but we didn't realize it was graduation week up there, so we spent three hours on the phone. We called over 100 hotels within a three-hour radius and no one had rooms. I finally called the Extended Stay [America] corporate offices and asked if they knew of any places in the Northeast, and they gave us reservations to a place.
We get there and nobody is at the desk. Then this guy comes out in sweat pants, flip flops, and a t-shirt and told us to come back tomorrow. It's five in the morning, and I tell him we have reservations and have to check in now. He said, "I don't really work here, I just clean the towels, and anyone who could check us in would be there tomorrow." I literally asked him if there were homeless shelters or hostels where we could stay, or if we could sleep in the lobby. This guy was just like, "Follow me." He took a master key and started knocking on doors he thought no one was staying in and was letting us into these rooms. He's opening doors, and when we got in there the beds were totally not made up, like someone had obviously been there and it hadn't been cleaned. We didn't care, we just put sleeping bags over the beds and were just happy that we didn't have to sleep in 15-degree weather.
I remember the next day walking out and a lady at the front desk was like, "How did you get in here?" She went to the back office to get her manager and we all just ran, got in the RV, and sped off.
8. What do remember about the first time you heard your debut single, "Long Live Tonight," on the radio?
We'd just played a bar in Chicago. I heard our song playing and I thought someone hooked their phone up and was playing it to be funny or just to be annoying. Then we realized there was a radio station. We were freaking out and rolled the windows down. That was wild.
The first time I heard "Greatest Love Story" on the radio it was brand-new. I was actually in my hometown. I went back to Smyrna to have dinner with my family. I'd stayed really late, it was, like, midnight or one in the morning, and I was leaving, and driving through Smyrna. No one on the road but me, and I remember it came on. It was surreal hearing that song driving through my hometown because that song was so much influenced by that town and how I was raised.
9. Are there going to be any more singles from "Hallelujah Nights" or are you ready to move on to this next project that you're recording with Jay Joyce?
That's a tough thing because I love that record. It's your first record. It's your firstborn. It's your only child right now and you love it. There are so many songs on that record that I would love to put out and have the whole world hear. It's fun being on this tour, seeing that people have heard it. They've listened to our record. We go play our shows and they sing every song. It's wild. [But] I think that record did what it needed to do. It opened the door. I think it created identity.
Some of those songs really are as old as the band is. So, [while] I would love for there to be more stuff from "Hallelujah Nights" on the radio I know that the quicker that we bring new stuff out, the quicker we get to release all that stuff that, right now, is on Jay Joyce's computer. So, we're really hoping to bring some new music very soon. We're ready to start this new chapter. We're so excited about what we've been working on.
10. So what can fans and radio expect from your sophomore album?
Our sophomore album will represent a new stage of life that we're all in. It's a new perspective. I think it'll definitely be new sound. Every day as the band is going through sound check we're working on fun sounds and new ways to convey our music. So, I think this next chapter will be ideas tossed about and concepts that we haven't explored yet. Musically, it's a new, fresh sound that people haven't heard yet.
Bonus Questions
Do the band members all live in Nashville?
Yeah. We're kind of spread out all over now. We used to all live together in Donelson, [TN,] and now we're kind of all in the Nashville area. We're with each other so much [on the road that] we kind of all spread out once we get home. But once we get home, if we ever have days off, it's only a day or two before we end up texting each other, and [saying,] "So, what are you all doing?" [Laughs]
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