We caught up with COIN at Hangout Fest, the last time we talked to the band was in February so we were stoked to see the guys playing in Gulf Shores. If you haven’t noticed, the band has been gaining a lot of traction. They’re playing festivals and they’re on their headlining tour.
Chase says, “It feels like nothing it all,” when I ask him about their recent hype. He says, “We’ve worked so hard to get to this point. Any success around us feels great.” Joe adds, “It’s just nice to feel more responsibility, the more things happen the more work you have. You have to be aware of your surroundings and your responsibility but you can actually start making a difference.”
We could hardly even see them during Hangout Fest. They were scheduled for the Mermaid Stage, which is about medium sized, at 5 p.m. and the crowd was so dense despite the scorching sun and intense humidity.
They’re heading out on their first headlining tour and they couldn’t be more excited. Ryan says the tour has it’s perks. He says, “It’s our first headline tour. So there’s a lot of new fans and we’re going to cities we’ve never been to before.”
It’s so amazing the different a headlining tour makes, when you’re opening, the crowd isn’t 100% there for you and the same goes for festivals.
Chase says, “When you’re playing on a tour, the crowd is there for you, they know the songs and they know who they’re going to see. At a festival it’s adding so many people who have very little knowledge of who you are and you have to immerse them in the world and get them up to speed with that front barricade of people. If you can level that playing field by the end of the set. You’ve done your job.”
I always feel like festivals are a sampler, you get a good taste of bands and see which ones you really love. Ryan says, “It’s cool to know theres so many fresh ears and we haven’t won them over yet. We need everyone! We hope they like us, it’s a different energy, there’s more to prove. These people are going to see so many great artists all day and you have to stick with them.”
I’m sure they did, they were so enthusiastic on stage! We danced the entire time and we couldn’t even see anything, it was one huge, sweaty, foam party. One of the highlights was definitely “I Don’t Wanna Dance,” the dynamite song with one of our favorite videos of the year.
They got the concept for the video driving around Nashville. Chase says, “We were driving downtown and we though, ‘What if we made this music video where we wore Manuel suits honoring 70’s heritage country music”. I think originally it was Keith Urban punching me in the face, but he was unavailable. The video ended up being a tip of the hat where we come from. We’re a product of Nashville and even if we aren’t country, we wanted to honor that.”
Of course being an alt pop band, they feel like they didn’t always have a home in Nashville, known for it’s country music scene. Ryan says, “I think initially we stood out, because there wasn’t a big wave of this kind of music. When we first started, it was us and a couple of others and then country and blues rock. Initially we stuck out like a sore thumb and it was a good thing.” Joe adds, “Nashville has become mecca for any type of music. We came in at an interesting time, where nobody was really doing that.”
Catch them on tour and obviously watch the video if you haven’t seen it yet.
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