That’s okay, they’re still bad asses in our eyes. After their 2005 hit single, “Boston,” hit the airwaves, the band has been unstoppable. Even if that means taking a 15-hour flight to Rome for a two-song set. We had a chance to sit down with the lead singer of Augustana, Dan Layus, to get his scoop on their quest to attain “rock star status.”
Congrats on the new album, “Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt.” It seems like the album is pretty deep. Would you consider it to be one of those albums people can put in their cars and cry to on an emotional day?
[Laughs] Uh possibly. You know if it connects deep to someone I guess it could. We put a lot of time into the songwriting and wanted to keep it very real sounding. Kind of how it would sound at a live show, I guess.
So would you say you definitely change up each concert to make it different for what city you’re in?
I think naturally that just kind of happens, because that’s really difficult to do sometimes. You know, once you get into a certain pattern it’s really hard to think how we’re going to make it different. It takes a lot of creativity to be able to do that. And if you’re going to do a cover song you don’t have to do the same thing every night. But it is kind of risky to say we’re going to do this cover song that we’ve never done before, you know what I mean? I think the crowd usually guides where the show goes more than we do and we kind of feed off each other.
You guys are coming to Denver. Don’t know if you know this, but it is kind of a sore subject with Denver and Boston ever since the World Series. Do you guys think you’re going to sing “Boston” when you’re here?
We’re definitely going to play it for sure. You know what’s funny, is I think we were in Denver the last time when the World Series was going on.
Really?!!
Yeah actually, I think we were playing that night when Colorado got bumped out for the final game. We were playing at the Gothic Theatre and I think we worked that somehow in the song. I don’t remember how, but it was fun.
So….are you Red Sox fans, big baseball buffs?
Uh, we all vary. We’re Padres and Dodgers fans. So we’re kind of your NL West rivals I guess.
I may have to print that I am sorry.
Oh no! We went to a Rockies game one time before a show because we had a couple hours to kill. It was a great time.
Okay now you’re just trying to sugar coat this. Back to the interview (It’s easy to get distracted with baseball), are there any certain routines you guys do before you go on? Like chug a beer or anything rock-starry like that?
[Laughs] Yeah you know we shotgun beer. No, um we do keg stands.
Wow you guys are real rock stars.
[Laughs] Exactly. No really, we keep it pretty mellow. We might have a sip of whiskey or something before a show to kind of loosen up and help the nerves a little bit. And then before that we just gather around and play some songs, acoustic and do four or five singing parts together. We do old traditional bluegrass and cover songs just to help us get in the mood.
Have you ever had a really crazy crowd? Like thrown something up at you or jumped up on stage or anything?
Not really. The craziest thing that has happened [laughs] this is our “rock star story” right here, it is really lame. We were playing in Spokane [Washington] and we got a bra thrown on stage on the last song. And it is a fairly large bra and whatever, and you know this bra gets thrown on stage and lands on Chris’ guitar or my guitar or something…and I throw it on Chris and we start laughing while we’re in the middle of a song. And we were like ‘wow that’s the first time we have ever had a bra thrown up at us.’ We were so excited that we were like big rock stars or something. After the show, somebody tells us that it was the security guard and somebody threw it up at the Hinder show the night before.
Oh man, really? So it wasn’t even for you guys?
[Laughs] Yeah the security guard threw the bra that was left over at the Hinder show the night before and we lost all our confidence after that. Maybe we’re not in the Major Leagues just yet.
Well speaking of which, it seems like success definitely happened over night for you guys. Once Boston came out, it just became this huge hit. How’d you handle that?
Well it is funny, because it might come across like it was an overnight thing but we have put probably three and a half, four years breaking that song and breaking that record and getting ourselves out there. It may seem like a song just takes off out of nowhere, and in some cases it does, but in our case we really had to do a lot of work. And we’re happy to do that then not working.
Did you guys know that “Boston” would be the song that would become your hit single?
I think everybody was pretty aware. We went into the studio and when we got a record deal and all that stuff, we were very young and didn’t know what would happen, and didn’t know how to make a record. But we thought whatever happens with the rest of the 10 songs, you know, this is the one that has to kill it and go all the way. There was a lot of pressure to kind of not let people down since they really love that song.
Total random question of the day, where do you want to travel that you have never been before?
We’re going to Rome next week. We’re doing a conference out there for Sony, playing two songs. [laugh] We’re going all the way to Rome to play two songs, pretty crazy. It is a big international Sony conference and we’ve never been out there before so we’re really excited about that. Get some good Italian food.
So you’re doing like a 15-hour plane ride for two songs?
Yeah, serious ride.
Well that’s good, but is there anybody in the band that is scared of flying since you have to go all over?
Yeah, I would say Justin our drummer is always pretty stressed out on planes. One time we had this flight into West Virginia and it was so cold and stormy and we were on this prop plane landing in the mountains in West Virginia. We had never been on a prop plane before and he was just freaking out since the turbulence was unreal and he was puking. We pretty much fly on average two times a week, sometimes three, and right now the schedule we’re on, every other day we’re on a flight.
So does Augustana have their own private jet yet or what?
[Laughs] I am not out of a one bedroom apartment yet, so we definitely don’t have a private jet I can tell you that much.
Bummer.
We’re trying to get the two-bedroom right now…
