Author: "EmilyCassel"

In the summer of 2002, 70,000 music lovers gathered in Manchester, Tennessee for the first annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. They watched as performances by Ben Harper, Jack Johnson and Trey Anastasio kicked off what would become one of the most expansive and successful yearly festivals around. And while it may have gone through some major changes since that first summer, at its core it’s still the same sunny, happy hippie-fest it’s always been. We’re sure you’re as excited about ‘roo 2011 as we are, so we sat down with  festival co-founder Jonathan Mayers to get the lowdown on  all things Bonnaroo—from the festival’s history to the struggles of keeping the lineup under wraps to what the future holds. (Spoiler alert: it involves roller skating.)

OS: Can you give us the condensed version of how Bonnaroo got started?

JM: Yeah, sure. My company, Superfly, we were based in New Orleans. We were doing events around special event time frames like Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. We were doing that for a while, and then around 2001 there were a lot of changes in the music business. A lot of big, independent promoters were being consolidated—SFX, which today is LiveNation—so there was kind of a big shift in the concert business. We recognized that traditional concert promoting wasn’t, for us, the right business model. We were very much inspired by the big Phish events, as well as the New Orleans Jazz Fest. So we did a partnership with a guy named Coran Capshaw … a prominent artist manager who manages Dave Matthews Band and Phish and a handful of other artists, as well as a promoter based in Knoxville, Tennessee [at] EC Entertainment. We found a site in Manchester, Tenessee, which is 60 miles south of Nashville. And basically a lot of artists we were working with at the time were in the jam band scene, you know, the disciples of the Grateful Dead. In that whole scene there was a tradition that it was all about community—the tape trade, going on tour, artists selling direct tickets to their fans—and so we kind of brought all those artists together. In February of 2002, we announced the lineup, and we used no traditional advertising. Not a dollar spent on advertising. We didn’t use Ticketmaster, we used our email list that we had accumulated from doing our events in New Orleans as well as the artists that were on the show. We sent out one email blast and ended up selling 70,000 tickets in two weeks.

OS: Seriously?

JM: Yeah, yeah. So that was the first year, and it came out great. What’s unique about Bonnaroo is everything is done on site. We’re creating a virtual city. And since that first year, we’ve really expanded the programming. We’ve had everyone from Radiohead to Stevie Wonder to Bruce Springsteen to Metallica, Pearl Jam, Jay-Z, My Morning Jacket, Kings of Leon, et cetera et cetera. And we’re entering our tenth year this year.

OS: You mentioned that Bonnaroo started out as a jam fest, and now there are so many different types of artists. Was there a demand for a genre shift?

JM: Well, we’ve always set out to do a great music festival, not so much any specific genre. One of the reasons we do this is our love of many different types of music. And also our audience— most people don’t like just one type of music, you know? We’re constantly talking to the fans. “What do you want to see? Who do you want to see?” The biggest response that we get is, “I like everything.” I think that with the iPod and music being so available, it’s broken down all that segmentation. So for us, it was keep evolving, keep bringing new people into the Bonnaroo experience and keep it interesting. You can’t stay the same thing you are, you’ve gotta keep evolving and yet also pay attention to make sure that it’s still in step with the original ethos of why you started it.

OS: Has that been a challenge for you—to have the festival grow and yet preserve those original roots?

JM: Yes and no. I think it’s been something that we’ve been conscious of, but at the end of the day, I think we’ve taken a few programming chances and I think it’s worked for us. I think at the end of the day, it’s all just about presenting great artists. That’s at the heart of it. You’re never gonna please everyone. With Bonnaroo, there’s so many options out there that if you don’t like one particular artist, you go somewhere else. One of the great things about festivals in general is the sense of discovery. You may go because your favorite artists are playing, but here’s an opportunity to discover something.

OS: How do you keep the lineup under wraps for so long? Do people bribe you for the performers?

JM: I just have no friends, really, so I have no one to talk to. [Laughs] No, it’s hard, you know? First off, you want to tell people, because you’re excited about it. But we try to do our best with rumors that leak out there. We’re just happy that people care and want to find out. People definitely want to know. We just do our best to make it somewhat of a surprise.

OS: What’s the farm like the other 360 days of the year? Do you break everything down? We have this vision of it being like Disney World—going on even when no one is there.

JM: [Laughs] It’s actually really cool to be on the property when no one’s there. For me, it’s like going to camp. I live in New York City, so when I’m able to come down there it’s an amazing feeling. All this amazing, positive energy has been there. All these amazing musicians have played the property. And I still remember ten, eleven years ago now first rolling up on the property. So it’s magical, but it’s basically just pasture land during the rest of the year. We bought the property back in 2007, so during the year we do all kinds of different projects. We built the permanent main stage, all kinds of other capital improvements. So there’s a bunch of different work that goes on. We’ll be doing other things on the property besides Bonnaroo, but yeah, right now it’s not much. It’s really cool to go down there when there’s snow on the ground, and see the arch and all that. It’s cool.

OS: How about some tips for artists—how can they make sure their set at Bonnaroo will be a memorable one?

JM: What’s a good way to make your set memorable? I think do what you do. Just do what you do. I think also, take advantage of all the marketing opportunities that are there. Bonnaroo is almost like a press junket, there’s photo opportunities, opportunities to do more intimate performances. I always encourage artists to stay and hang out, because it’s kind of like summer camp for artists, too. Rarely do they get to see some of the other artists that they’re friends with or that they’re into. We’re also known for a lot of cool collaborations that happen. I’d just say get into the spirit of it and hang out and hopefully be there for the entire weekend.

OS: How do you keep Bonnaroo successful when it has to compete with all the other festivals around now?

JM: You know, I think just in general we focus on what we’re doing, and don’t worry about the competition and all this. I think for us, we want to keep putting on the best event we can put on, and that’s all we can focus on. We’re not the only [ones] that puts on a festival, but I think Bonnaroo is certainly different than most events. I think that the camping element is an immersive experience, and we’re doing kind of a different look. But there’s other great festivals as well. We just want to do our thing and focus on that. We’re not in any competition with anyone. We’ve been fortunate that we’ve been successful since year one. For us, it’s just keep improving, whether it’s the experience, the programming, all the elements. Because that’s why we do it—to have fun and keep challenging ourselves and keep making improvements. That’s all you can do, right? I can’t worry about anyone else.

OS: Have you ever had any crazy ideas for festival attractions that you’ve just never been able to implement?

JM: Absolutely. I have crazy ideas every single day. I’ve been desperately trying to build a roller rink, but for whatever reason we haven’t done it yet. But I want to do a roller rink. How badass would that be? You roller skate, right?

OS: Oh, yeah.

JM: It’s like, who doesn’t roller skate?

OS: You need to make that happen.

JM: I know. Well, maybe if you kind of build a consensus I can help push it through. But yeah, I work on all kinds of cool, different projects. Some of it’s like, budget decisions, and real estate decisions, and how much space we have, but we’ve been able to do a lot of cool things. That’s what’s great. It’s like, each year you kind of do make something different. And someday there will be roller skating, I assure you.

In case you somehow missed it, check out the lineup for Bonnaroo 2011 here! OurStage will be down in Tennessee for the 10th anniversary of Bonnaroo, so stay tuned for coverage in June, and to tide yourself over, check out coverage from last year!

• We’re still getting all misty-eyed over LCD Soundsystem’s farewell show.
• Foo Fighters channeling ABBA on new album? Sure, why not.
• “I BOUGHT THOSE MOTHERF–KING SPONGES!”
• How long until Charlie Sheen’s tour is canceled? We’re taking bets.
• More Glee related name-calling… Honestly, you actors are more dramatic than the show’s teenaged characters.
• Because you know you’re a sucker for a good publicity stunt.
• Mark us down for one of everything from Lily Allen’s upcoming fashion line.
• Sarah Silverman, you’re our hero.

Last week, our girl Patti Smith announced that she was planning a sequel to her critically-acclaimed  memoir Just Kids, which won the 2010 National Book award for nonfiction. We’re psyched that the punk revolutionary plans to keep writing, and in addition to making us play Horses on repeat, her announcement got us thinking about other musicians and writers who wield both guitar and pen. Here are five author/musicians whose written words are as interesting as those they sing.

Nick Cave

You’ve no doubt heard Nick Cave’s unique brand of dark, bluesy rock, but what you may not know is that the Australian singer-songwriter has authored several books (also dark and bluesy). He published his first novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, in 1988, and has also written many poems and short stories. Cave’s most recent work is 2009’s The Death of Bunny Monro, which tells the tale of a cheating door-to-door salesman who takes to the road following his wife’s suicide. Not the lightest fare, but Nick Cave fans will appreciate the novel— it’s as beautiful and strange as his music.

Alice Cooper

Oh Alice Cooper, you crazy bastard. When he’s not incorporating guillotines into his show or taking the stage with a live boa constrictor wrapped around his neck, the shock rocker is hitting the links and working on his short game. That’s the inspiration behind his 2007 book Alice Cooper, Golf Monster: A Rock’n'Roller’s 12 Steps to Becoming a Golf Addict. “Some people turn to God, I turned to golf,” he told the Telegraph in 2007.  He even has a handicap of seven, which we hear is pretty darn good. And apparently, it makes for a good read. Go figure.

Pete Wentz

Fall Out Boy’s notorious bassist says that his 2004 book The Boy With The Thorn in his Side is aimed at kids ages 5-9. But here’s the catch: it’s based on nightmares Wentz had as a child. Yeaahhh, no thanks. As much as we love terrifying small children—and we really do—this just doesn’t sound like the best idea.

Continuum Books 33 1/3 Series

In September of 2003, Continuum Books started publishing a series of books written by musicians and music journalists about the albums that have had an impact on them. The result is a varied, eclectic mix of musings that range in style from Matthew Lemay’s thesis-like assessment of Elliott Smith’s XO to Joe Pernice’s fictional tale based on The Smiths’ Meat is Murder. So if you’ve ever hoped to hear John Darnielle’s take on Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality (the diminutive folk-rocker loves metal, in case you were wondering) or wanted to understand The Replacements’ Let It Be as interpreted by Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy, this series is definitely worth checking out.

Stephen King

Yep, you read that right. He’s the champion of creepy, master of mystery, the reason we’re still terrified of clowns… and the rhythm guitarist for a band known as Rock Bottom Remainders. The all-writer rock group has been playing together since ’92, and in that time they’ve raised more than $1.5 million for reading and writing charities. It’s a nice try Mr. King, but we’re not fooled by this good-guy charity act. You’re still a scary, scary man.

• Saves The Day and The Get Up Kids announce co-headlining tour. Angsty teens everywhere rejoice.
• As if we needed more reasons to love Win Butler and co.
• Ke$ha to guest star on Nickelodeon’s Victorious. Because she’s a great influence on children, obviously!
• John Mellencamp and Stephen King are developing a musical? Best. Collaboration. Ever.
• Adam Lambert gets sloppy, pisses off Gaga. Bad move, guy.
• Craig Robinson is wayyyy too cuddly to play the anti-christ.
• Awwwwwww.
• Stan Lee to develop Arnold Schwarzenneger comic book series. We’re seriously hoping that this isn’t an April Fools gag.
• …Okay. But only because it’s Friday and we, we so excited for the weekend.

You’ve always known that your tracks had you destined for fame and fortune, and now OurStage and Coors Light are giving you a chance to prove it with the “Coors Light Search For The Coldest” Competition! MC’s are already  battling for the chance to open for N.E.R.D. and PacDiv, but it’s not too late to get your shot at superstardom. Artists age twenty-one and older can enter their “Coldest” original track until May 1st to compete for a chance to open for the hip hop heavyweights. We’re even sweetening the deal with $10,000 worth of studio time for the winning MC. If this sounds like something you’d be into (and why wouldn’t it?), check out the rules and information for the “Coors Light Search for the Coldest” Competition!

Don’t worry fans, we’ve got you covered too. Fans who judge the “Coors Light Search for the Coldest” Competition will be automatically entered for one of four daily sweepstakes prizes. So if you’re in the market for a free pair of Sony headphones, an MP3 player, a t-shirt or a free MP3 download, this competition is for you! And that’s not all; five Grand Prize Winners are going to get an all-expenses-paid trip to the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans in July. You have until May 15th to claim a prize, so start judging!

Judge in the "Search For The Coldest" and you could be next!

“Remember the ‘90s? You know, people were talking about getting piercings and getting tribal tattoos, and people were singing about saving the planet and forming bands?” Ah, yes, Fred Armisen, we do remember the ‘90s. Ever since we heard “The Dream of the ‘90s,” on Portlandia earlier this year, we’ve been super nostalgic for the decade that gave us flannel, grunge and “Tubthumping.” And apparently, we’re not alone—from Nickelodeon to SXSW, everyone is jumping on the ‘90s bandwagon these days.

Earlier this month, Nickelodeon announced that they’d be bringing back ‘90s classics including The Amanda Bynes Show, All That, Clarissa Explains It All, Rugrats, Kenan & Kel and Pete & Pete for a Teen Nick nostalgia-fest called “The ‘90s Are All That.” Sure, the programming block is scheduled to air from midnight to 2:00 AM, which is less than ideal from those of us who require more than 5 hours of sleep a night. And yes, the network definitely left out some choice shows. (No Aaahh, Real Monsters? No Rocko’s Modern Life?! C’mon, Nickelodeon.) But hey, we’d take any of these gems over iCarly any day.

Nick isn’t the only network going retro with their lineup. MTV announced last week that they’re relaunching 120 Minutes, the television showcase dedicated to alternative music. While the two hour music breakdown technically debuted in the late ‘80s, 120 Minutes featured a plethora of outstanding artists in the ‘90s, including Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer and They Might Be Giants. The show was cancelled in 2000 thanks to the success of The Real World and the rest of MTV’s successful reality programming (ugh), but with plans to bring back former host Matt Pinfield the network could redeem itself.

If MTV is looking for talent to feature, and recall the ’90s, on 120 Minutes we recommend they check out Theophilus London. The rapper took the stage at SXSW decked out in quintessential ’90s gear—Bulls championship tee complimented by Air Jordans—and remarked, “This s— feels like MTV in the motherf—ing ’90s, when it was the greatest motherf—ing music network on the planet.” London even sampled Whitney Houston‘s “Always Love You” during his set. So ’90s! And with Dave Grohl talking up his Nirvana semi-reunion (R.I.P., Kurt), it’s almost like we never made it through Y2K at all.

If all this somehow isn’t enough to satisfy you Gen X-ers, rumors have been swirling for months now that Will Smith and the gang could be planning a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion for as early as next year. Now if only we could get Nickelodeon to re-air Angry Beavers and convince Blake Schwarzenbach that it’s time for a little Jawbreaker reunion, we’d be all set.

With all the crazy world events taking place right now—the civil war in the Middle East, the tsunami in Japan—tragedies that occurred not so long ago, like Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill, can get lost in the shuffle. But while those disasters may be distant memories to many of us, Chicago rockers Rise Against aren’t letting go so easily. There’s still plenty of destruction in the Gulf region, as Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath saw during a recent trip to the region.  That’s what inspired “Help Is On The Way,” the first single from their new album Endgame, which features the quartet sticking to their socially-conscious roots.

The track’s first verse is dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, an indictment of the slow government response to the storm’s devastating effects. The verse is written from the desperate point of view of those trapped in New Orleans during the flooding, and vocalist Tim McIlrath’s lyrics voice the panic and abandonment Louisianians must have felt. “Can nobody save us? Will anyone try?/The bayou is burning, the severance is tight.” Coupled with the song’s intense music video, which tells the story of a family trying to survive the disaster, this verse sets a scene of total havoc and desolation.

In the song’s second verse, Rise Against recalls the BP oil spill. “Five thousand feet below/As black smoke engulfs the sky/The ocean floor explodes/11 mothers cry.”  The vivid imagery of the explosion combined with facts from the incident (11 people were killed when the barge blew up) make this verse a humbling reminder of the toll the disaster had on families as well as the environment.

And really, that’s what sets “Help is on the Way” apart. Sure, McIlrath calls out FEMA and BP’s failure to act during the chorus, singing “And all along they’re saying help is on the way.” And when the song crescendos and McIlrath howls “But it never came!” the full force of his words hit you like a punch to the gut. But the song’s sole purpose isn’t to point fingers and assign blame, it’s to remind us of the suffering that people endured. After all, amid all the political posturing, it’s easy to forget that there were real people, real families, destroyed by these disasters. But by humanizing these tragedies, by giving them a face, Rise Against ensure that we don’t forget so quickly.

You can check out Endgame on the band’s Web site, and if you’re ready for a good cry, watch the heartbreaking video for “Help is on the Way.”

Have an interesting story behind your lyrics? Let us know at pr@ourstage.com!

Rapper, actor, producer, writer, designer – Sean “Diddy” Combs is one of the busiest men in the music biz. And despite his already packed résumé, Combs shows no signs of slowing down. He recently teamed up with vocalists Dawn Richard and Kalenna Harper to form Diddy Dirty Money, a dance-infused hip hop trio who won fans over with their moving single “Coming Home.” OurStage got the lowdown on the new collaboration from singer Dawn Richard, who told us about the challenges of working with Diddy, the concept behind Last Train To Paris, and what sets Dirty Money’s soulful dance music apart.

OS: So how did Dirty Money come together?

DR: I had just came from Danity Kane, I was writing for Mya, Cassie and Day26 and sending records to Puff for his new project. He had asked me to come write on his new project he was starting. At the time he had no idea who was going to be in his group. I was writing and referencing records for him, and I think he just loved what Kalenna and I were writing and the hustle we had. I had that “hustle ‘til we win attitude” that Puff had. Four am one morning Puff called me and asked if I would be in his group. I was skeptical at first because of all the previous drama from my last group experience, but I knew this would be life changing for me—an opportunity to make great music and write an amazing story.

OS: Diddy has been involved in so many projects in the industry, what sets this group apart?

DR: The fact that Puff is in this group with two women. That alone sets this design apart from anything he has ever done.

OS: What are the challenges of being part of a band where one member is as well known as Sean Combs?

DR: The only challenge is people not being able to see there are three people in the group. Puff is such a huge entity they can’t see where we fit. But we aren’t the type to let that bother us. All we need is a mic and a stage and the rest is for the birds. People will see, one city and live show at a time.

OS: What does the band name mean? Some people have speculated that it’s about drug money.

DR: [Laughs] No, we just wanted a name that was as epic and different as “Vampire Weekend” or “Silversun Pickups.” Dirty Money was the perfect candidate.

OS: Did you write or co-write any of the songs on Last Train To Paris?

DR: Kalenna and I co-wrote on Last Train to Paris: “Loving you no More,” “Ass on the Floor,” “Hate you Now,” and more … That was one of the reasons I signed on to this project. It was the opportunity to use my pen on the project. Being the female perspective and voice of the ride.

OS: Can you describe the concept behind Last Train To Paris?

DR: The journey of finding love, losing love and getting it back again. Puff tells his story of love in the male perspective while me and Kalenna play the female conscience of Puff ‘s love interest. We are the right and left of her brain. I may be the part of the woman that wants love to work where K might be the woman scorned. It’s the emotional tug of war love takes you through.

OS: You collaborated with a ton of artists on the album – Justin Timberlake, Usher, Wiz Khalifa – how did you decide who you wanted to work with?

DR: We actually just played records for them. And they picked the records they wanted to be on. We were so blessed to have so many great people hit us up and say “yo can we get on” or “I can outdo the records you already got”. It made for amazing, organic features that added color to the album.

OS: What does Dirty Money bring to dance music that’s original and fresh?

DR: We bring soul, truth and rawness. We are the ones that will get you to dance a lil’ different than you are used to. That pelvic region will be the first to sway with our shit… [Laughs]

OS: What’s next for the group?

DR: The tour is at the end of March—The Coming Home Tour. I just released my mixtape AtellTaleheart … along with our V-Day mixtape Love Love vs. Hate Love. Basically taking over the world one day at a time.

Check out the video for Dirty Money’s smash single “Coming Home,” and don’t miss the trio on their upcoming tour!

You might be inclined to believe that a plucky, heartfelt acoustic track called “Please Forgive Me” is a plea to a bitter ex-lover, but Arizona-based singer/songwriter Nick Heward will surprise you—he wrote it for his mother. The youngest of three children, Heward says he’s always been extremely close to his mom. His father was never a constant figure in his life, and growing up he wanted to provide for his family like his dad never did. “I always felt like one day I would make things right and be the man of the house,” he says. “Basically my mom has always struggled and I’ve always wanted to fix it.”

Unfortunately, it hasn’t always been easy for him to help her. “When I was twenty-three, I came home from visiting some friends in Denver and found out that my mom was homeless and had checked into a Motel 6, which was the original name of the song,” Heward says. “It really broke my heart. That’s when I wrote ‘Please Forgive Me.’”

The song’s lyrics are at the same time heartwarming and heartbreaking. “I want to buy you a house in Arizona/I want to buy you some art from LA” Heward croons. “Wanna see you free and clear/not bound to them government chains.” You can sense how badly he wants to help his mother, but his feelings of helplessness are also apparent in lines like “Wish I was a bigger man with faith to move your mountains/Seems I’m running out of time these days.”

The lyrics of the chorus—“Please forgive me/I’m not gonna make it to the party of the year”—refer to Heward’s sense of guilt after he found out about his mother’s situation. “I felt like I was losing or I had failed. ‘Please forgive me for letting us down.’ I had envisioned something much different for our future as a kid, a celebration, ‘the party of the year!’”

These days, Heward says things are looking up. He’s working as a full-time singer/songwriter, and his mother has an apartment ten minutes away in Scottsdale, AZ. “I’m still working towards something bigger and better for both of us.”

California-based rockers Augustana caught lightning in a bottle back in 2005, when their first single “Boston” skyrocketed the young five piece to sudden success. But the track’s unexpected popularity meant that since then it’s been an uphill battle for the band; no song from their 2008 follow-up Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt could match its runaway success and the album faltered commercially as a result.

Augustana are hoping to change that in 2011. With a new album, a revamped sound, an instantly likeable first single and a co-headlining tour with Arizona pop-punks The Maine, the band is ready to claim a spot on your next romantic mixtape. We caught up with Augustana frontman Dan Layus to learn about the new album, their new sound and life after “Boston.”

OS: You guys got an interesting start thanks to the success of “Boston”—you didn’t have a huge fan base yet and all the sudden you had this insanely popular single. Was it weird to get thrust into the scene like that?

DL: That’s a great question. You know, not to sound arrogant, but we were so young. And I think a lot of younger musicians would identify with this—people that were younger and hadn’t had much prior experience and did well in their first ventures— it felt normal to me. It didn’t feel crazy, didn’t feel that exciting, you know what I mean? It was just normal. It was like, “Oh yeah, of course it’s going to do well.” And that’s a testament to our immaturity at the time. There’s a lot of people that would kill for that kind of experience and that kind of success. And me, now, I would kill for that. It’s tough because when you’re sort of just picked off the sidewalk of a suburban street and don’t have much life experience, all you know is, “I went to high school,  I had a good upbringing, I did a couple semesters of college, and started this band, and here we are!” You didn’t have to fight tooth and nail and work and work and work to get to the place that you are. That being said, we were incredibly fortunate. I look back now and go, “Wow, I’m a lucky motherfucker.” [Laughs] It sort of worked in reverse in the sense that now we work our ass off and we’ve really fought tooth-and-nail to get to this third record and to get to this place where we have an opportunity to put our music out and do this for a living. It’s a really phenomenal thing, ‘cause you look around and there’s so many people that want to be able to do something like this, something that they love, and make a living at it and enjoy it. And it doesn’t happen for them. You see it all the time. I’m a really, really fortunate young man. It’s nice to be able to look back and learn from your arrogance and appreciate where you are now. Not to say that we were assholes about it, but it felt like it was supposed to be that way, I guess.

OS: When “Boston” was featured on an episode of The Big Bang Theory, one of the characters jokes that it’s a great song “If you’re compiling a mix CD for a double suicide.” How did you feel about the track being featured in that way?

DL: Oh, that was awesome. I loved that. That was one of those weird moments when you sort of go, “Is this real? Is this really happening?” That’s a really surreal thing. Because it’s one thing to hear your song on, like, a WB show. It’s another thing to see something like that where somebody pulls the iPod out of their ears and they’re singing your song, and it’s a pop-culture type moment. It’s just really weird. It’s hard to wrap your head around that. It just doesn’t even feel real, to be honest. It felt kind of like a weird dream, or something. But that was really flattering, you know, that’s a really successful show. It was great.

OS: So what can you tell us about the new album, Augustana?

DL: Well whenever you make a new record, you always think it’s the best stuff you’ve ever done. You always think it’s way better; you always think it’s a huge step forward. I’m going to go ahead and say that that’s the case. In my opinion, I think it is a big step forward in a lot of ways. It feels really good to have new material to be able to bring out to the… whatever you want to call it. The forum of music listeners. The process of making the record was at times very frustrating, a very trying experience. But it was so worth the effort that we put into it, and the hours, the days, months, years that we ground away trying to get the product possible. Trying to get the best product of ourselves and balance that world between making it satisfying to ourselves but also satisfying to other music listeners. It’s a tough thing to do, because you can really over-intellectualize it all, and you can really over-think a lot of it. Especially when you’re spending years doing it. It’s just ten songs, you know what I mean? It’s just a couple of songs that are three-and-a-half minutes long. It’s funny how you can really over-think it. But it feels great.

OS: Augustana definitely goes in a different direction than your previous albums, was that something that you did intentionally or something that just happened as you were working on it?

DL: Yeah, it was very intentional. We wanted to make something that felt— to our own ears and our own gut—felt timeless and real. We wanted to feel the conviction in the music and the lyrics and the performance and delivery of the takes. And we also wanted it to feel relative to what’s happening today. Essentially, we wanted to make a 1975, Tom Petty/Bruce Springsteen American rock record, but we wanted it to make sense for 2011. And that’s a tough thing to do. It sounds sort of easy on paper, but when you really set out and try to do that, you run into a whole set of issues. Sometimes it’s easier to kind of just go back and do the same thing. It’s hard to push yourself into new frontiers sonically and in the writing process. But if you do it right, it sounds like you just made some music. [Laughs]

OS: Was “Steal Your Heart” the obvious first single?

DL: For me, it was the obvious single. There was no doubt in my mind. If it was my money, and I was putting out the record and needed it to do well, that was the song that I would do. Luckily, we were able to get everybody that works in our camp on board with that. They were considering some other songs, and sort of going down that safer road like we did with the previous record, which really didn’t do that well commercially. I don’t know if that matters or not. I don’t think “Steal Your Heart” was the obvious choice for everybody involved, but I hope that it was the right choice. I think it’s the right choice, for whatever that’s worth.

OS: So why did you choose to self-title this album? Were you trying to say, “This is Augustana, this is who we are?”

DL: That’s exactly it. It just felt like it was all in the record. Everything was in the music. There’s so many emotions and words and stories, that it was like, “Let’s just self-title this thing.” This is the band, this is the sound, these are the songs. This is what we’ve been essentially working on for my entire adult life—making other records, maturing, finding my voice (both metaphorically and physically), finding out how to write what I think is a good song, touring and touring, playing show after show—it just felt like it was all leading up to this. I don’t know where it goes from here, but it felt like the end of a very long chapter of Augustana, and hopefully the beginning of a new one. It just felt like the period at the end of a sentence.

OS: All of your releases have been on Epic Records, which is pretty unique since bands switch labels so often these days. Why do you think that relationship has been so successful?

DL: You know, I can speak from my experience. [Pauses] I don’t want to assume how other people feel, but from my observation and my own experience, it’s easy to look at the major label as kind of the big bad wolf. I don’t know why they get that stigma, but to be honest, it’s kind of a cop out. I don’t know if they get enough credit for what they do. They invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into kids, hoping that they get their shit worked out and know how to make a good record. I think that we’ve been very fortunate that they’ve been incredibly patient with us. Epic Records has been beyond supportive when the cards were down and when things have been really rough over the last couple years. A lot of bands get hung out to dry, and maybe that’s because they tarnish their relationship with their labels and the people they’re working with. But essentially, I don’t have the money to finance my own record. I need these people. And they certainly don’t need me. There’s always somebody waiting in your shadow to take your place. There’s plenty of kids that would be hungry to make a record, and be happy to be on a label. I think you have to look at it like, I’m in a really fortunate position. These people want us to do well, because if we do well they do well. Everybody wins. Everybody’s happy. So if you can look at it from that perspective you can make it a positive relationship, and then it kind of feeds off each other. Then you start taking steps forward, in the right direction. Nothing positive comes out of rolling up your sleeves and thumbing your nose at the label. It really doesn’t get anything done. They don’t need you; there’s a million other bands out there. So you just have to work with them and try and move forward. It can be a good thing, if you look at it like it’s a good thing.

OS: That’s great, because there are a lot of horror stories out there.

DL: Well, yeah, at the end of the day it can be tough. They certainly ask a lot of you, and sometimes they want you to do things that maybe you wouldn’t normally do if you were on “Augustana Records.” But I think at the same time, they ask you to do things that maybe at the time you don’t want to do, or you think it’s a bad thing, but I think sometimes they do know better. It’s good to have people outside your bubble pushing you to go further into your songwriting, pushing you to write a competitive, commercially viable song. Maybe you want to be cool, or you don’t want to go there, but sometimes I think they know what’s better for you. It is what it is.

OS: So what do you guys have coming up? Are you planning a summer tour to support Augustana?

DL: We head out in May and June. We’re going to be doing a tour of fairly… not small rooms, but 500, maybe 1,000 at the most and see if we can fill out those rooms. ‘Cause it’s been quite a while since we’ve really done a real tour that wasn’t supporting somebody else—as far as a headlining tour it’s been about three years. So we’ll see what we can do, and if we can take it beyond that, that would be great. If there’s a demand for us to keep going out and playing, then we’ll do it, for sure.

Stream Augustana’s latest single “Steal Your Heart” on AOL Music until the album hits stores on April 26th, and be sure to catch them on their upcoming tour with The Maine.