Chris Danks of Lostboycrow Is Not Your Typical Rock Star

While cutting his teeth in the eclectic Portland music scene, Chris Danks collected a mad mix of music. He lists everything from Albuquerque indie rockers The Shins to California punkers Joyce Manor, and says that reconnecting with such bands shaped his vision for his latest album, 2022's Indie Pop, as well as what comes next.

“It was like this lightbulb moment. I don’t know what changed. Not that I was trying to be them, but it was like, ‘Wait, I can also make music like this,’” Danks says, adding Tokyo Police Club, Built to Spill and Arctic Monkeys to his list of longtime influences. “I want to take all the elements of all these bands I love, [find] where I fit into that and make the music that I want to hear.”

Performing under the stage name Lostboycrow, Danks moved to L.A. nine years ago and has continued to refine his indie-pop sound. But his alternative roots underneath those California vibes are also evident. In recent years, Danks has been playing more guitar, which has led to building a more traditional four-piece. He says Indie Pop is a perfect example of that, though a pre-pandemic Lostboycrow tour also included the full band, which doesn’t use any backing tracks live.

“It’s just me and the boys on stage,” Danks confirms. “For some reason, that felt really right and just something that I wanted to keep pursuing. … I love this setup. I love who I am with a guitar in my hand. I love how it feels to play with that setup on stage and bring it to the people that way. … We’re just plugging in and playing. It feels really right to me, and it feels like a really beautiful connection between the recording process and then bringing it live. It just makes me feel really at home.”

Lostboycrow is playing Globe Hall on Friday, March 24, with Brooke Alexx and local opener Birdnest, while on tour promoting Indie Pop. Danks approached the latest Lostboycrow record with a different mindset, one that expounded upon the previous release, 2019’s Santa Fe.

“I just had just come out with this album Santa Fe, and it was kind of still lingering in this pop and a little bit of electronic universe. I started to pick up the guitar again and write from a singer-songwriter jumping-off point, which is something I had put away for a few years,” he explains. “When it came time for Indie Pop, it was really intentional that I wanted it to sound more like a four-piece band. … I knew I wanted to write every song starting from a guitar, and I wanted it to finish as basically four instruments. Maybe put a little synth in there for effect, but keep everything intentionally confined and explore the creative space within that minimal sound. That’s where I was mentally walking into it, and I stayed there for most of it.”

By far the catchiest song on the album is “Angelina,” with its surf-rock refrain and easy-on-the-ears chorus. But overall, the track list is a balance of upbeat offerings and more straightforward indie rock. Building Lostboycrow into a full-fledged rock band wasn’t necessarily Danks’s intention, however.

“I don’t think it was ever something I consciously thought of as a goal, but especially when I was starting out, I was in Portland and in different bands, seeing different bands and getting into discovering music. My favorite acts were traditional four-piece bands. I think I was always drawn to that for whatever reason, whether I wanted to be them or whatever. Obviously, it was resonating with me,” he says. “I think subconsciously, that may have been a goal. Creating some of the early Lostboycrow stuff and touring briefly with a more electronic setup, I think the pendulum has swung back the other way, and I was able to fall back in love with me playing guitar and starting songs on guitar, as well as playing it live. I missed playing guitar live. I think it just made me a different performer.”

The band also has “to be locked in in a different way,” he adds, whenever on stage and without the guidance of pre-recorded tracks. But that’s what makes it liberating.

“We’re not tied with this metronome or these tracks that are going to do what they’re going to do regardless of what we do. It’s a different kind of tethered. It just feels really locked in, but incredibly freeing,” Danks explains. “It’s really beautiful to explore that freedom. It gets us all on the same page in a very different way, because we have to be. We’re following each other.”

In that sense, it’s like any other rock show.

“We’re just up there having fun; we’re jumping off amps,” he says. “We’re just putting on a rock show. We’re singing pop songs, but we’re jamming and rocking, man.”

Lostboycrow, 8 p.m. Friday, March 24, Globe Hall, 4483 Logan Street. Tickets are $18-$64.99.