Augustana Review and Interview

Augustana at Summit Music Hall

June 7, 2011 – Denver, Colo.

By Benn Farrell

It’s amusing to see a band which prides itself on its live performance over studio efforts when the performance itself isn’t what makes the band unique.

It’s the tunes and the talent that sets Augustana apart from the pack when it hits the stage.

Supporting their self-titled third full album with EPIC Records, fourth overall, Augustana took to the planks June 7 at Summit Music Hall in Denver with its trifecta of popular tunes, including “Steal Your Heart,” the first single off the latest album and the show’s opener, as well as the highly notable ballad “Boston” and the band’s second-album sweetheart “Sweet and Low.”

The three tunes in succession provided for an exciting opening for the crowd, but there after the show turned into a softer place where the band relied on its subtleties.

Electronic feedback was an enemy for frontman and songwriter Dan Layus and his comrades in the first half of the show; however, the experienced Layus played off the early technical difficulties easily.

Layus didn’t do a whole of talking to the crowd in this performance. The band didn’t have a whole lot of time in its set, which he explain to his audience, so he kept the ball rolling constantly.

However, Layus did change up lyrics for quite a few tunes to personalize the experience for the Denver crowd.

After tunes like Stars, Dust and Still Ain’t, Augustana gave the crowd Meet You There, a song written with Layus’ daughter in mind. Although the song itself is a medium tempo call, the song went over big for the mostly teenage girls in the audience.

Two songs later and Augustana slipped into the slow and soulful Shot In the Dark from the latest album. By that point in the show, very few people weren’t at least swaying to what the San Diego five had to give them.

Layus donned his piano-man attire for Fire, which gave a little life to the later-middle part of the band’s set, which is determined 20 minutes prior to every show; however, the frontman seemed to have trouble staying connect to his listeners when sitting upstage on the keys.

With Stay Here Tonight’s simple hook and easy chorus, another new one which was used on the soundtrack for an episode of TV’s Private Practice, fans were again committed to hanging on Layus’ every word. They didn’t hold back. It was during numbers like Counting Stars where the less-than-die-hard fans would take a moment to hit the rest room.

Hurricane, also from the new album, rolled around in the band’s final three tunes of the night and gave the fivesome a chance to show off a little country influence in their live approach, of which Layus said he takes pleasure. The combination of the tune’s strong chorus an Layus challenging himself to slip from tenor into more alto ranges, the crowd soaked up every minute with praise and dance. The tune showed how songwriting can solely carry the band’s live entertainment value.

Augustana’s songs are the reason to seem them live. Much of Layus lyrics speak to multiple ages in his audience.

As for the actual performance, there is little to see. One could stand in the venue with their eyes closed and get the same concert experience from Augustana as someone eyes open. It felt like the band had come to someone’s home and was playing a top-shelf set in his or her living room.

Vocally, Layus doesn’t miss anything. Even on his more challenging ranges, the frontman has a clear pitch that carries throughout the venue and every word can be heard. Late in the band’s set, one can hear the Tom Petty influence.

Augustana let their new material carry them to the end of the show. Layus laid it on thick for the crowd with a more emotionally-driven delivery for The Wrong Side of Love, a performance commanded everyone’s attention and applause from every one in the head count.

Layus closed the show behind the ivory once again for the new ballad The Other Side of Love, written with Evan Bogart, son of Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart. The delivery was haunting, but any couples facing the stage were arm-in-arm by the time lights faded out. Layus’ drawn out conclusion of the tune’s last refrain was agonizingly brilliant.

Overall, Augustana’s live show provides a quality evening of highly talented song writing, but it isn’t what one would call the most “active” show. It’s perfect for bringing a date, having a beer and let the tones of Layus and company take over for 45 minutes or more.

Augustana frontman and songwriter Dan Layus interview

You’ve had some very popular tunes already, so how does the band approach a new album with that behind you?

Dan Layus: In a lot of ways, we sort of had to wait for it to approach us. We toured for quite a while on our first and second album—I mean, longer on the first one than the second with Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt. The process was fairly smooth with getting the record in stores and the distribution and all that. This one, as far as getting to the recording process and writing and getting the sort of approval from the label and all those things, it took a lot longer than normal. As far as the way we approached it, we just did the best we could. We just tried to write the best songs that we could and perform them the best that we could in whatever situation we found ourselves in. That’s really it. It’s kind of a long story short.

You have a fan-base built already. With that in place, why would Augustana decide to self-title their third full album with EPIC Records?

DL: I think self-titled records are sort of self indulgent like [saying] “Look at me” or whatever, but I guess that’s kind of what we were doing. We wanted to—and this sounds silly to say—we essentially wanted to make a statement. This is a collection of songs performed in a certain way that I think embodies the band at its most elementary form, which is not too many overdubs, a lot of live performance, a lot of raw mistakes and also an attention to detail, the hooks, things like that. The ear candy. I think that’s how we wanted to do it. We felt like the time was right.

Would you say that was the theme of this one?

DL: It’s almost like we’re going in reverse at this point where we had this quote-unquote hit song really young and we kind of had to work our way back up the hill to where we started. We’ve kind of just stumbled down and now we’re trying to trudge back up that hill. I think the songs are better now then they used to be. I think the records are better now than they used to be. It’s been hard to bring people out to the shows. It’s hard to sell records. We’re doing the best we can.

How much do you guys write songs with the idea they will be played live? Or do you start with your message and then work on how they will sound live?

DL: Half the record was developed, written, produced and performed live with [the producer]. And that was the initial idea, to get ten tracks like that. Like a ‘70s classic rock record, but it proved to be more difficult that what we had foreseen. So, we got I think five or six that felt really good and then we felt like, and the label, we needed a few more songs and approached them in a different way for the second half of the record. So we scrapped some songs, went back in and gave it the old college try. We were really happy with what we came up with.

This band doesn’t really have much difference between playing in the studio and playing live then?

DL: It’s pretty cohesive, especially now. I think early on, we were making our first record and we didn’t know how to shake a tambourine let alone how to write and record a song. We didn’t know our elbows from our asses. We were really green. I think now, we definitely—at least with this [new] record—went in knowing a lot of these we’re going to be playing live. We wanted to make it feel live, like how you receive the band when you’re at a show. I wanted to have people be able to play that in their cars or on their headphones. And that’s actually a very difficult thing to do, especially when you don’t have full control over the outcome of how the record is going to sound and other things. Sometimes people want it a little cleaner and a little sharper. We really aren’t that sharp. We’re pretty much like bands like The Replacements, Bryan Adams and Wilco. Those are dirty raw bands. And those are the kinds of sounds that we do live.

What do you think people say about the band after seeing it perform live?

DL: Generally, I think they say that we’re better live than on record. I can’t say that without sounding like an asshole, but that’s what the feedback tends to be; “I wish the record sounded like the live show.” There’s a lot of backstory there. There’s a lot of reasons why. Without bagging on people who aren’t with us, but there’s a lot of reasons why the records can’t be like that. … We have a lot of old country and country and folk-rock influence and that comes out live, more so than anything else. More so than the pop side of us.

You have a few big venues on this tour with a few House of Blues stops and the Filmore in San Francisco, and you have little venues like Summit Music Hall in Denver. What do you get out of playing the little venues?

DL: I actually prefer the smaller venues to be honest. I think they lend themselves to our thing, like I was saying, is a little more off-the-cuff and close. We don’t have a very polished sound live, no tracks, nothing like that. That whole arena sound or big theater sound, I mean it works for us certainly and if we ever got to that point I wouldn’t say, “No, let’s go back,” but I’m fine with it here. And I can’t complain.

Personally, what do you think defines you as a songwriter?

DL: I try to be very honest in songs both lyrically and with melodies and the progression of the song, whether it be a verse or a chorus or a bridge. I try to be very straight forward. I think I certainly wanted to make something very accessible at this point. Something that was as accessible as that song Boston we had. I didn’t want to recreate Boston, but I wanted to have something that 55-year-old dudes and 15-year-old girls could both appreciate and enjoy, both on record and in a live setting. And that’s a hard thing to do. It’s hard to walk that line and grab Tom Petty fans but also The Maine fans. It’s just difficult to do. But I was up to the challenge, and time will tell. I’ll probably fail, but time will tell.

I’m sure you saw the episode of Big Bang Theory where a character was singing your song Boston after a breakup. What did you feel when you saw that in the episode?

DL: That’s one of those weird moments where you kind of feel like you snuck into the party; you’re one of the nerdy kids who snuck into the cool kids’ party and nobody is noticing so don’t say anything. When you’re expressed in that kind of a social outlet, in something like a TV show, whether the song is being played during an important scene of Private Practice or the guy is singing the song, listening on his iPod, yeah, it’s an odd moment. It’s like, “That’s weird. I wrote that. That wouldn’t have happened unless I had written that song.” It’s kind of a weird moment, but it’s good.

In that context, is that something you saw your songs being used for, helping a 16-year-old kid go through a breakup?

DL: I love story songwriters like Bruce [Springsteen] and Tom [Petty] and Bob Dylan, but I try to keep it a bit story-oriented from my life, that first hand experience. Sometimes I like to keep it a bit vague so that, yeah, someone could listen to it when going through a break-up. Boston had nothing to do with that, but people attribute their own lives and whatever they’re in at that moment. I think that’s a good thing, cause I do that with like a Petty song. I’m like, “Yeah, it has to be about this.” But it’s probably not.

You’ve been doing this for a while now. What keeps you motivated to step out on stage almost every night?

DL: There’s a lot to enjoy about it like any job or whatever it is. There are things you wish could be better or things you wish you were better at, but I think the fact that people keep coming to shows and expecting to see something interesting on stage from us, it’s motivating. I enjoy that challenge. I especially enjoy opening for bands and trying to win over that crowd. It’s invigorating to me. I ask myself everyday—I think everybody asks themselves everyday—what keeps me going? Why am I doing this? Is it worth it? And all those things.

Do you have a favorite moment playing on stage as Augustana at this point?

DL: We did quite a few tours with Counting Crows the past few summers which was really fun. We would mix and match our songs with them. We would play with them. They would play on our stuff. We’d play on their stuff. That was really fun. I really loved opening for The Wallflowers. They’re all good moments. My favorite was Lucinda Williams. We played with her a couple months back. That was one of those cross-it-off-the-career-bucket-list sort of things.

Do you have any pre-show rituals? Anything you have to do before you step out on stage, otherwise the show feels off?

DL: It used be drinking. A lot. And I stopped, or I’ve certainly cut a lot of it out of my life, which has been a good thing. Nothing really. It’s nice, every once in a while, every couple years, I get to bring a bus out and get to bring my kids and my wife with me. Give them a little hug and a kiss before I go up there. Sing some songs and come back.

Do you think Augustana is surprising any fans on this tour? Is there anything they would see they wouldn’t expect from you guys?

DL: It’s hard. When you’re in the bubble, especially when you go town to town, you think people think a certain way about you or not. It’s hard to say, cause your perspective is so different in front of the microphone and with a crowd. I don’t know if we’ve surprised anybody. I think it goes back to that thing where hopefully we’re better live than on record, cause that always surprises people. A lot of the subtlety is what I think we bring to a show. We certainly pride ourselves on that.

What do you think we can expect from Augustana over the next few years?

DL: The goal for this is to make this our damn torpedoes, our born-to-run or whatever. That might not be the story. It might be five records in that something happens. It might be like Wilco where it takes imploding to explode onto the scene. There’s been a lot of road blocks and a lot of difficult times. A lot of good times too. Really, at this point, we’re day to day. We’re just trying to work our asses off and get to whatever that goal is.