Recently I was given the opportunity to ask Chase Lawrence of COIN, a few questions regarding their new album Dreamland coming out February 21st, and their upcoming tour. COIN is an Indie-Rock band based out of Nashville, TN. The band consists of Chase Lawrence (vocals), Ryan Winnen (drummer) and Joe Memmel (guitarist.) They recently finished a fall tour in Kingston, ON and since then have released one single, “Let it All Out (10:05) and teased about the song, “Youuu” on Twitter.
It’s been almost three years since your last album, How Will You Know If You Never Try, was released. How excited are you for the new album?
CHASE: I mean very excited. It’s crazy it’s been three years, I don’t think I realized. We started on it before the last one was even out, it’s been a journey. I’ve already written two more albums worth of songs so you can say I’m ready to put this out.
The Committee for Sound and Mind seems like a big project, what are the plans for the label? Do you plan on keeping it small or adding more artists?
CHASE: I think it’s a little unclear what we’re gonna do precisely but we just needed a place to make our own decisions you know and decide where we want to put our efforts and resources and we weren’t able to make those decisions for a long time so it definitely became a home for our band. Who knows where it will go in the future? It has always been a passion of mine to help other bands and work with other bands and write other songs for people like, I’ve been writing songs for other people every day when I’ve been home. Yeah, who knows where it will go it’s pretty abstract right now but definitely home for COIN for the moment.
How Will You Know If You Never Try was built around the mindset of a teenager while Dreamland is more personal, What inspired the album?
CHASE: Yeah, sure. All these songs are just, they’re kinda about, all three of us went through so much heartbreak around this album. Just growing up stuff, normal things and music became our outlet for like all the disappointments and just life and what it was that was related to career or personal relationships, family moving. Everything that could have happened bizarre and different, it happened in the past two years and it became an outlet for that and really it’s just growing up and i don’t know it’s just normal things like expectations changing is a huge part of this but then realizing you’re dealt these cards and it’s better to just be happy with whatever you built. That was the whole purpose of what we got into with the album specifically we experience all these things but its so much loss, I don’t want to get too specific with it but I learned to be happy in the sadness and the loss and to appreciate it as much as I appreciate the highs and this album is therapy in that way for me.
Can we talk about “Lately III”, I read an previous interview you did with Hollywood Life about “Lately II” being connected with your nephew and your brother-in-law so is “Lately III” an add-on to the song or is it something different?
CHASE: Yeah so “Lately I” was about how my sister took that loss with my nephew passing away and the only show I think we, I don’t think we have ever cancelled another show because of personal things, but we cancelled a show that night and it was a tough day and a tough year so “Lately” is about my sister’s reaction and the second one is about my brother-in-law and what he went to and similar to what I went through as well. The third one, it’s an interesting song because my sister now has two children and they’re amazing and she’s actually pregnant with her third and it’s amazing how we don’t even consider the loss. Not that we don’t consider it, it will always be a part of her and a part of our life, but this child we never got to know him and we’re like so okay and it’s almost like I feel guilt every now and then for that so this song delves in deeper to that. When you hear the song I think you’ll understand. It can mean anything to anyone but that’s kinda where it came from. It’s got this beautiful orchestra, big grand sounds.
That’s exciting! In March you kick off the Dreamland Tour in Tampa, Florida are there any shows you’re looking forward to?
CHASE: Honestly I’m looking forward to them all but for some reason I’m really looking forward to House of Blues Orlando and really looking forward to The Ryman in Nashville. I think House of Blues Boston, all of them are so exciting, everyone just looks truly amazing. Sometimes I just freak out and realize this is real, it doesn’t seem real sometimes, it’s really just, surreal is the only word that comes to mind and it’s just bizarre. I get like anxiety when I stare at the tour and see how big these places are and how many dates there are, it’s exciting.
Recently you released a song called, “Let It All Out (10:05)”, that’s an emotional song for sure. I was reading the inside scoop you posted, you talked about doing more and saying less and the process of unlearning. Relating that to the band’s new direction, what has been the hardest thing to process?
CHASE: The band’s new direction, you mean like artistically or sonically?
Kind of artistically but also with the start of The Committee For Sound and Mind.
CHASE: I think it’s been in all of our pasts, to overcompensate and stay busy for busy sake and because it feels comfortable to feel like you’re doing something. I think often I confuse doing more with working harder and I’m trying to undo that philosophy and to simply say more by doing less and do more by saying less. Trying to choose my words and choose my actions more carefully because I just realized how much time you can waste overthinking things.
What was the most memorable moment of the three tours in 2019?
CHASE: Oh man. I feel like walking on to the stage in Tokyo because I think we thought, the crowd are very quiet in between songs and between the sets and I didn’t go on stage so I was just like it sounds like there’s just four people out there like I’m not kidding it was so quiet. I walked on stage and there was like thousands and thousands of people so that was a very fun experience at least for those ten minutes where I was like “wow we’re gonna play to zero people” but it was great that was a cool experience. I love when your expectations just get shattered, even in a bad way, it’s nice just to have a break from what you know to expect.
Do the butterflies signify anything or are they just for the aesthetic of the new album?
CHASE: *Laughs* I feel like for the past year, specifically a year, maybe longer i don’t know, I have been, like I said the album is such a turning point in our career and our lives just growing up again, that I feel like I’ve just been in a cocoon, and maybe I’m still there but hopefully this album will be our butterfly. That song Let it all out was so much my butterfly, I just went through so much just weird anxiousness and self worth, weird things happening, the undoing of your ego and through that I was able to come out the other side and find joy even in the darkest place and that’s a fun place to be to not find your identity in your happiness and success is just so important. Whether that’s in career, in your personal life, your family, just to be where you are is so important. The butterfly, I went through a lot of weird stuff and metamorphosis. That process just has to be so painful, idk if it is or not for the butterfly, but I’d like to think that pain and sadness and loss all have a purpose and they make you stronger.
During your last tour you did a listening party before each show, how did that feel as a stepping stone in your career to share such a vulnerable moment with fans?
CHASE: It was weird. Honestly I didn’t think about how interesting it would be watching people, I mean I put my head down most times, but every now and then you put your head up. It’s just weird to watch people listen to music just in general but then it’s also even weirder to watch people listen to music for the first time. Some people are just immediately? affected and some people are just nonchalant and need a couple more listens and that’s understandable and I’m the same way, there’s very few songs that hit me first and honestly my favorite songs ever are the ones I didn’t get in the first ten listens. It was defiantly an interesting experience, I’m very happy I did it, I think that it will hopefully make the people who came to those things feel like they own the songs as much as we own them and they have a piece of it before the general public. That was our philosophy, it was defiantly unique.
The song “Youuu” is coming out on the 16th, can we talk a little about it?
CHASE: Sure!
So you first played the song in 2018 on tour, what is the meaning behind the song and has it changed from the 2018 version to now?
CHASE: It actually hasn’t changed. We recorded a new version and we decided to go with the old one. We thought we were going to release it during that 2018 tour, during The North American tour, but there were barricades in the way and we weren’t allowed and now we’re like we are gonna put this song out because we want to put the song out but that song has not changed, not even like a lyric has changed actually. Same running time, same master actually. That song came out of a really dark trip to Los Angeles, it was the four of us. It was Zach, Joe, Ryan and I and we all went to LA to play this festival. Joe broke his ankle, it was really traumatic. He had to play a show with a broken ankle and the show was just chaotic and there were wildfires so there were black clouds above our heads the entire time we were there and a lot of our writes with people while we were in LA got cancelled so we were just wasting our time just on vacation when we wanted to be writing songs. We went to this house, I don’t even remember where it was, somewhere in LA out in the hills and we wrote by ourselves. I started playing songs looking at everything that had gone wrong in the past two weeks and the black clouds and realizing that, I don’t even know, the song came out of such a sad moment and then realizing we have everything we need like with each other. We don’t need the weather, we don’t need any of the outside forces. Nothing matters. Joe’s broken ankle, the dark clouds all of it are ancillary to whatever immediately in this room with us. The song kinda took on a new life, a new story when we finished it in Nashville with our friend Trent, but I’ll never forget where it came from and that weird weird trip. I’m just so excited, it means so much to us. I’ll never forget, when we wrote it I said “this is the greatest song ever written” and I’ve never said that about anything, I’ve never said that about COIN “this is the greatest song ever written” I mean it’s a little daring but you know whatever I’ll take it.
Yeah I’ve been waiting for it. I remember you played it in 2018 and then you didn’t play it for a few tours and random shows you had it and I was like “hmm I wonder when it’s coming back”
CHASE: Aww, she’s back.
So about the song “Valentine”, is it going to be released as a Valentine’s song and can you elaborate on the meaning of it?
CHASE: Similar to the rest of the album, there’s an overarching theme of committing yourself to something so much you let it hurt you, I know that sounds maybe kinda backwards but there’s something so beautiful and its such a power in losing control and just submitting to the feeling so that song comes from that. Valentine is allowing yourself to __ goals, opportunities, your career, relationship, for me it was relationship. Allowing yourself to be so in it that you submit it to obviously make you but completely break you. There’s something so important about being all in and so that’s where the song comes from, and its gonna come out on Valentine’s Day, I’m so excited.
Thank you for everything, I hope you have a great day.
CHASE: Oh yeah you’re amazing, thank you so much. Great talking to you Brooke.
Be sure to check out COIN’s New Album on February 21st.
Pre Save here and find their tour dates w/ Sure Sure (Starting March 10th in Tampa, FL) here.
