The trio only started posting music online in early 2014, but the tracks quickly gained traction. He writes journal-like newsletters for his fans, which has hundreds of thousands of subscribers and saw an 85 percent click-rate at one point. In addition to playing manning vocals and keys (Jake Goss is on drums and Les Priest is on guitar and backup vocals), he helps creative-direct art and merch based off of the thousands of posts he’s saved from Tumblr. “Anyone who listens to us and follows us knows that I will be speaking to them directly,” explains Klein, who’s extremely hands-on with the group. The lyric video-not even the official music video-for their hit “ILYSB” has 44 million views on YouTube. The band boasts over 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify, 263,000 followers on Twitter, and over 375,000 on Instagram at the time of writing. Fans around the world collaborated to write Klein a joint birthday card on Tumblr. They’ve sold out stadium shows in Asia and played the main stage at Coachella. Girls cry in the front rows of their concerts. LANY isn’t a Top 40 act or a household name, but the trio already has a rockstar fanbase. “We know what we're good at, but we just got so much better and you're gonna hear it,” he adds. But this time, they’ve upgraded to an actual studio and worked with producer Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks, The 1975) to help elevate their sound. LANY "made everything in a kitchen on the first album," Klein recalls. The hook evokes the same broken-but-optimistic perspective Klein carries through our conversation: “In the end I’m gonna be alright / but it might take a hundred sleepless nights / to make the memories of you disappear / but right now I can’t see nothing through these tears.” It's more upbeat, earworm-y, and at times borderline rock, but it’s still LANY. The track, co-written by Sasha Sloan, has the band’s signature alternative-meets-synth-pop sound, coupled with Klein’s ambient vocals and tweet-worthy lyrics. “Thru These Tears” is the first piece of work he has to show from his cathartic creative period. “I think that morning I woke up and my heart for the first time didn't hurt worse than it did the day before.” “I lifted my head up for the first time in 50 days and I was like, ‘Holy sh*t, we just wrote album two,’” Klein explains. In fact, he wasn’t even aware he was making an album until he was done composing it.
Klein says he wrote LANY’s entire sophomore album, Malibu Nights, within the first few weeks of 2018. The solution? Writing music as a release.
I think that was the first time I've ever been in love, and I never felt anything like that in my life,” he tells. (Klein doesn’t name names, but he reportedly split from pop starlet Dua Lipa at the end of 2017 after a few months together.) At the start of the new year, Klein was reeling from what he calls his first real heartbreak, and he wasn't himself. Rolling Stone crowned the group’s Governors Ball performance as “The Best Stage Presence,” and lauded LANY’s star power as “out-of-this-world.” The band most recently released their sophomore album, Malibu Nights, on October 5 via Interscope Records the record is filled with euphoric, epic anthems, a captivating coming together of joyous pop hooks and tender ballads, true to their distinguishing musical style.If we had spoken four months earlier, the whole tone of our conversation might’ve been different. festivals – including Coachella, Governors Ball and Bonnaroo – to critical acclaim.
LANY spent the beginning of 2018 crafting their second album, followed by another headline tour and playing Main Stage at multiple major U.S. LANY’s music has been streamed over 1.5+ billion times as they continue to sell out venues across the world. The band released their self-titled debut album in 2017, which tied for the highest-charting debut album on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart that year. LANY has since built an incredible following touring across the world and have played over 350 live shows. LANY is a Los Angeles-based trio comprised of Paul Klein (piano, guitar), Les Priest (keyboards, guitar), Jake Goss (drums.) The band formed in Nashville in 2014 and after relocating to LA shortly thereafter, they released their first set of songs by the end of that year.