Catch LANY While You Can

Three months ago, nobody in Denver knew who LANY was. When the three-piece alt-pop electronic band opened for Troye Sivan back in February at the Ogden, it was playing to a crowd of people who had only just learned its name and hadn’t yet had a chance to learn its music. Despite touring with acts like X Ambassadors, Halsey and Twin Shadow in the United States and opening for Ellie Goulding in the United Kingdom within its first year of being an established touring band, LANY was barely a blip on anyone’s radar. “We spent our entire last year as a band going everywhere and supporting a lot of people, and playing probably 100 shows to rooms of people who didn’t know who we were,” says LANY frontman Paul Klein.

After releasing the EP Make Out, featuring remastered versions of music in the trio's back catalogue of tracks and a stripped-down version of hit single “ILYSB,” LANY announced a headlining tour throughout the U.S. Seemingly overnight, the once-unknown band sold out tickets in every city of its Make Out tour, including Denver’s show at the Lost Lake Lounge, prompting the band to throw in extra dates and add its name to summer festivals along the tour route.

“I guess it’s one of the best feelings in the world to have success like this, and I hope people understand that this is a LANY tour, so it doesn’t look or feel the same as it did the last time they might have seen us,” Klein says. “When we were last in Denver, it was a Troye show, not a LANY show. Now that it’s a LANY show, we have our own production, lighting and everything that we bring to the table.”
Since this is the act's first headlining tour, Klein and fellow members Jake Goss and Les Priest are getting their first taste of fandom, and they’re learning just how taxing it can be. “I wasn’t really sure what to expect since it’s our first headline, but the tour’s been great and it’s been completely sold out,” Klein says, adding that at the time of this interview, LANY was about to complete its sixth show of the Make Out tour. “It feels so good to play to people who know who we are, but this might be the last headline where we wait and meet every single person in the room. Last night we got done playing at 10:15 but ending up staying well past midnight meeting everyone and signing autographs, and that’s not sustainable. We’ll do it for this tour because it’s probably our last chance to meet everyone in the room.”

Klein says that in the fall, LANY will be switching to 1,000-capacity venues and larger, and at that point it will be physically impossible for the band to meet with every one of its fans after the show while still remaining respectful of the venue staff and their tour schedule. “We’re always going to be just three boys, though,” Klein adds. “There’s nothing pretentious or scary about us. “We’re the most low-key people in the room, and hopefully everybody always feels that way about us.”

For now, LANY's fan base continues to grow, and although Klein and his bandmates acknowledge that they reach a predominantly teenage demographic, they're hopeful that they'll evolve into an all-ages band. "It kind of feels like the older people get, the less they want to be fans, and I hate that so much," Klein says. "The best thing we can do as human beings is to be fans of things and to be appreciative of each other and supportive of what one another is doing." 

LANY will be playing at Lost Lake Lounge on Tuesday, May 24. Tickets to this show are sold out, but visit the Lost Lake Lounge Facebook event page for more information.