We spoke with one of our new favorite bands, COIN, about their upcoming tour dates with Passion Pit and Neon Trees, their experience at South By Southwest, and what we can expect next from the band. Check out the interview below!
So you’ll be playing with Passion Pit and Neon Trees pretty soon – what was it like finding out you’d be touring with them? Have you been fans of them for a while?
We were ecstatic. We’re all huge fans of both bands and discovered them at earlier times in our lives before we knew each other. Joe saw Passion Pit with some friends a few years ago, Ryan’s Dad showed/took him to Neon Trees in high school, etc. There’s definitely a lot of excitement and history for us embarking on these two runs. Finding out about the Neon Trees tour was funny though, because it wasn’t from our agent. Our agent told us we were up for it, but hadn’t gotten word yet. We then found out from the other opening act, Fictionist at SXSW. They came to one of our shows in Austin and Robbie (their singer) went up to Joe and told him he was excited to tour together…. We were SO confused at first and thought he was kidding, but then jumped up and down when we found out we got the tour.
Since South By Southwest is filled with tons of incredible acts, were you excited to catch any artists in particular? Did you stumble across any new artists that you are now a fan of?
Tobias Jesso Jr. essentially made us all cry. It was beautiful. We didn’t have a ton of downtime this year, so it was tough to see other acts that we love. However, seeing our friends in Colony House crush the IFC fairgrounds show was amazing, as well as watching our SXSW roommates Cruisr play directly after us at The Most Definitely’s day party. We’re unabashedly the biggest cheerleaders for both of those bands.
We’re huge fans of you guys and absolutely love the newest EP. Out of the three songs on it, which is your favorite and why?
Firstly, thank you!! Secondly, I think it’s a toss up between “Better” and “Fingers Crossed” best because they’re a little bit out of style for us. Not totally, just a little different. “Better” has this sort of new wave influence that our producer Jay helped us unlock, and “Fingers Crossed” was the punky song we always wanted to write.
Everyone has a different way of defining how and when they make it, whether it’s a radio single or playing sold-out shows. How do you measure your success?
That’s a good question. We are incredibly grateful to get any sort of recognition right now because we’re such a new band and really still in this initial “launch phase,” so I don’t think we have as many of those milestones and bucket list answers as one would think. However, we’re excited to play for some larger crowds this year with some artists that we really, really respect. I think that will measure some level of success for us because every band wants to be in front of people every night, and every band wants to open for bands they love. That is a such cool feeling.
The new album is due out in June – will we get a chance at hearing some new music before then? Or do you think you’ll hold off and release it all together later?
We will try, but really, so many folks in the world haven’t even heard the EP yet! Also, we assigned the track listing in the studio as a full length instead of broken into parts randomly, so we’d almost rather people get the other 7 songs all at once since 3 are already out! Who knows, though. If people ask usnicely…