Interview: LANY's Paul Klein on their upcoming album, 'Malibu Nights'.

LANY have kicked off 2018 with a bang - writing and working intensely on their upcoming sophomore album ‘Malibu Nights’, an album that frontman Paul Klein describes as “the nine best songs we’ve ever written.” The “very significant season” in his life inspired the upcoming album, a time which saw Klein at peak focus and drive, on writing the best possible album for the fans.

We spoke to Paul Klein about the upcoming album [N.B. Below is the full interview - a shortened version was published back in March]…

I think they’re the nine best songs we’ve ever written, and it’s just gonna be a really beautiful album, and I’m really excited to make it perfect and then give it to our fans.

COUP DE MAIN: Hi Paul! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me tonight in New Zealand - how’s your day going?
LANY - PAUL KLEIN: It's good. I’m in Shanghai, I’m surprisingly not jet-lagged, which is a miracle. Get this, we were in Russia, and we bought this around-the-world ticket so we always fly on the same airline or group of airlines as it helps us rack up rewards and things like that. When you do that, sometimes you just have to take the most ridiculous layovers, so we flew from Moscow to Madrid, which is 5 hours out of the way. We got on the plane and flew Madrid to Shanghai which is like 13 hours, so it was almost a 24-hour travel day. We got in at 7 this morning, we play tonight, and then we fly to Brisbane tomorrow. But I actually feel all right, which is amazing.

CDM: You’re heading back to Australia this week for three shows, are you excited to be coming back to Australia?
PAUL: Absolutely. It’ll be the first time that we’ve been able to play the album set. We’re bringing all the screens and the lights, so it’ll be a completely different experience from the last time. And obviously we’ve never played Brisbane before, this is our first time in Brisbane, but it’s our third time in Sydney and Melbourne, so it’ll be amazing to bring a full LANY show.

CDM: We’re so sad that you aren’t making it to New Zealand this time around. Do you know when you’ll next be in New Zealand to play shows?
PAUL: I know, what the hell! I don’t know why we didn’t make that happen, that’s so stupid actually. I don’t know. But I would love to come back, so we’ll figure it out. It’ll either be at the end of this year or the top of next. I’m sorry it’s gonna be a little while, but we’re gonna figure it out.

CDM: Thank you for doing the shoot with us last time, I hope you got your zines okay!
PAUL: Yes, they are so cool! We all got one. It was amazing - we’ll do it anytime. You guys have great taste and such good aesthetic, it’s amazing.

CDM: Very important question. We are so excited about ‘Malibu Nights’. What can you tell us about the album so far?
PAUL: I didn’t write it on accident, but I wasn’t planning on writing an album this soon, but I was just so in the zone, and had so much to write about. So we pretty much wrote 17 songs in January and February, and I just whittled them down to nine. Obviously whatever I say today could change tomorrow, ‘cuz I could write a song tonight and be like, ‘Oh, shit, this has to go on the album,’ but we brought it down to nine tracks. The way that we work is that I kind of write the skeleton of the song - it’s what I call it, the melody and the lyric, it’s just me on a piano, it just paints the framework - and then we pack on the muscle and put meat on the bones. We just got to that stage about two weeks before we left to come on tour. So we have set aside a lot of time, we’ve switched up our whole touring schedule, our tentative one, and we’ve moved a bunch of things around so that we can get the album out, if all goes perfectly, late Summer, late August or early September. So that’s kind of where we’re headed. I guess it’s okay to say all this stuff, I don’t know the bigger deal, I’m just telling you what the plan is.

CDM: We won’t hold you to that release date!
PAUL: <laughs> I don’t want to get a bunch of comments!

CDM: The album was written between January 4th and February 14th - what was it about that time period that was so significant to you, that you wanted to write an entire album about it?
PAUL: It was just a tough time. I just felt extremely driven, focused, and had a lot to think about and process. It was just a very significant season in my life, and I think there’s a million ways that I could’ve come out of it, and if I’m allowed to say, I’m really proud of how I went through it, and how I came out of it. I think they’re the nine best songs we’ve ever written, and it’s just gonna be a really beautiful album, and I’m really excited to make it perfect and then give it to our fans. Because I live for that. It was so weird working on it, it sounds morbid, but when I was done writing it I felt like I was okay if I died. In the most healthy way, I just felt like, ‘If I died tomorrow, I’m okay with that, because I’m so proud of these songs, and what they are.’ I felt like I was almost put on earth to write ‘Malibu Nights’. So that’s the feeling I was in when I did that, and I’m really excited to make it perfect and give it to our people.

CDM: Are you going to be playing any new/unreleased songs on the upcoming tour?
PAUL: No, I think it’s important to let people hear the recorded version first, and then we play them. That’s how I would prefer to give it to people.

CDM: We have a few quick-fire questions about the new album. If ‘Malibu Nights’ was a colour, what colour would it be?
PAUL: I think deep blue.

CDM: If the album was a type of animal?
PAUL: Hmmm. <laughs> I don’t know. Let’s just go with a lion.

CDM: If it was any kind of food?
PAUL: <laughs> Oh man. Just the best pasta in the world.

CDM: If ‘Malibu Nights’ was a movie?
PAUL: <laughs>  I’m gonna say ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’.
CDM: It’s an emotional rollercoaster.
PAUL: I would say it’s an emotional rollercoaster. I loved it so much. I watched it during my time of writing the album, and one night I just cried myself dry after watching that movie. I was in a weird space, but that movie is amazing.

CDM: Do you think ‘Windows Down In The Rain’ is gonna be on the album? The snippet you posted is so beautiful.
PAUL: Thank you. It’s not on there, but maybe, like I said, maybe that could change. As of right now, it’s not on there. But there are some cool little cuts that we could place in between the nine songs that could be fun. You guys know everything, you do your research!
CDM: I don’t just want to ask you about your hair!
PAUL: <laughs> My hair. That’s the next question, isn’t it?

CDM: We’re very excited about the song you worked on with SG Lewis, what was it like working with him?
PAUL: Amazing. I’ve been a fan of him for a long time. I remember being on our first tour in 2015 in the van driving through Utah or something like that, and just diving deep into his music. I wound up becoming really good friends with him, and he was in L.A., so we just hung out, and wrote an amazing song that will be on ‘Malibu Nights’, it’s such a vibe.

CDM: I saw on your Twitter that you watched ‘Queer Eye’ recently, what else have you been watching at the moment?
PAUL: I watched all of ‘Coach Snoop’, have you watched it?
CDM: Not yet.
PAUL: It’s amazing. So, Snoop Dogg started a youth football league for kids in the inner city to keep them out of trouble, and give them something to do after school. It’s really amazing. It kind of follows the story, not just of the team, but the individual kids and their home lives, their stories, what they’ve gone through. I watched a lot of the Oscar nominations - I thought ‘Call Me By Your Name’ was amazing, I just want to live in Italy when I watch it. What I would do is I would write all day, then I would go home and I would just watch and just feed myself with stuff and then go the next day and write. It was kind of a cool season, I was completely filling my mind with a bunch of different storylines.

LANY’s debut album is out now - click here to purchase.

Watch the ‘Super Far’ music video below…