With over 550 million streams, double-platinum selling country band and Nashville hit makers LANCO return with a blast of rafter-shaking energy today, dropping fist-pumping outsiders anthem “Rival” as their next single. A rowdy, other-side-of-the-tracks tribute to forgetting the haters and standing your ground, “Rival” represents the next step in LANCO’s evolution… and the first taste of the chart-topping band’s upcoming second album.
Pounding beats and organic undertones create a unique, tough as nails sonic mix, while anthemic gang vocals join quirky electro-country flourishes, banjo and guitar shredding. Produced once again by Jay Joyce (Eric Church, Brothers Osborne), frontman Brandon Lancaster and drummer Tripp Howell teamed up for the co-write. It was built from an off-kilter groove that Howell took to Lancaster after a show one night. The two instantly wrote the track on the back of their tour bus and it continued to find life with the rest of the band as they worked it up during soundcheck in the following days.
Having made their first UK appearance with a number of explosive, stand-out sets at 2018’s Country To Country Festival, LANCO return to the UK for a headline tour in May which kicks off at London’s Islington O2 on 1st May, and they have recently been announced for The Long Road Festival in September this year.
UK Headline Tour Dates:
1st May – Islington O2, London
3rd May – O2 Institute, Birmingham
4th May – Manchester Academy
5th May – Oran Mor, Glasgow
6th May – The Fleece, Bristol
Check out latest single Rival below!
We managed to catch up with LANCO as they talked about their latest single and more!
How has the release of your latest single Rival gone down with fans?
First of all, it feels great to be able to release some new music again. We spent so long writing and recording Hallelujah Nights. A few of the songs on that record were recorded before we even had a record deal. But as soon as we were able to release that record, we were immediately ready to start working on new material. And the reaction of fans to Rival has been amazing… hearing more and more people singing along every night is really exciting. I think it’s just a message that everyone can relate to and rally behind.
Can you tell us something about the release no one else knows?
Our fans don’t know this, but they kind of helped us choose this song as the first single. We were trying to decide between a few different songs to lead off with, so we put them all in our live set to see how each one went over with our fans. The overwhelming response to Rival every night made it clear to us that we needed to release it as soon as possible.
What was your favourite moment making this single?
Whenever someone writes a new song, they will normally bring it to the rest of the guys, and we’ll try to work it out during soundcheck that day. When Brandon and Tripp brought this song to us, we immediately connected to the meaning behind the song and started jamming on it. The arrangement we came out of the studio with really reflects the hope, confidence, and camaraderie that the song speaks about.
Will be releasing an album this year, and can you tell us any more about it?
We’ve been in and out of the studio a lot this past year and plan on spending even more time there in the coming months. We’re not positive on a release date, but just know that we’re working as hard as we can on this next record and want to make sure it’s our best work possible. As a band, we’ve grown so much since the release of Hallelujah Nights, both personally and musically. I think that the fans will be able to hear that in the new music.
How pumped are you for your UK tour?
So pumped! We’ve only been to the UK once and spent all of our time in London for the C2C festival. I remember the five of us nervously sitting in the greenroom a few minutes before going on stage for our first show there last year. We were preparing ourselves to play for an empty room since we had never played there before. We walked out and were surprised by a sold-out theater packed with fans singing every word. It’s still pretty wild to me that so many people in the states come out to our shows, much less an entirely different country! All that to say, I can’t wait to get back over there and bring our music to more people who we haven’t had the chance to yet.
If you could play at any venue in the world, where would it be and why?
We’ve been lucky enough to have already had the chance to knock a few dream venues off of our bucket list. We played Madison Square Garden with Dierks Bentley last year, which was amazing. We also get to play a legendary outdoor venue called Red Rocks in Colorado the week we get back from the UK. When we played C2C in London last year, we got to take a tour of the O2 Arena and see some of the performances there, so it would be a dream come true to play there as well.
If you could work with any band on a new song, who would it be and why?
We’ve always talked about how amazing it would be to collaborate with Coldplay. They have never released anything less than stellar. I have always loved how they stretch themselves to do something different with each album while still keeping that “thing” that’s so undeniably Coldplay. We also watched their documentary together recently, and their creative process seems pretty similar to ours. I just think it would be a really enjoyable and rewarding process.
What do you all get up to in your spare time?
We have a great community back home that we get together with on a regular basis. We have a band boat, so sometimes we’ll have lake days, or we’ll all meet up for dinner and drinks somewhere. But for some reason, we normally just end up at Tripp’s house grilling out and drinking beers. Honestly, between writing, recording, and touring we don’t have too much spare time on our hands these days. But that’s ok – I think we prefer it that way.