Nashville is typically known for its country music and lifestyle, but with emerging talents like COIN, that’s becoming more of a false stereotype.
Formed at Belmont University, the indie-pop quartet COIN has been writing, recording and performing since 2013. It consists of Chase Lawrence with lead vocals and synths, Ryan Winnen on drums, Joe Memmel playing guitar and singing backup and Zachary Dyke on bass.
Last year, the band was on tour opening for the band Bad Suns, performing songs from its 2015 self-titled debut album produced by Jay Joyce. Billboard described it as “new wave crash-course survivors,” while some fans coined it an American version of The 1975 with fuller instrumentation. Lawrence, the lead singer, names bands like The Cure as “huge influencers.”
The band released its second album, “How Will You Know If You Never Try,” in April and announced American and European tour dates. The new album has received praise from internet music authorities like Soundfiction and Riff Magazine.
Riff Magazine went as far as to say COIN’s new album is “a force to be reckoned with; a band whose infectious party anthems will be uttered in the same breath as those by bands like Grouplove, Passion Pit or Walk the Moon.”
COIN released one of those anthems, “Talk Too Much,” as a single before the second album’s debut, and it took off with more than a million YouTube views on the music video and 27 million listens on Spotify. It is arguably the band’s most successful hit, scooping up the eighth spot on the Alternative Songs chart and No. 28 on the Hot Rock Songs chart, the first time COIN has made it on either list.
Luckily for Oxford, COIN will be performing at The Lyric Oxford just after making its appearance at the Austin City Limits Music Festival this weekend, and Ole Miss students are looking forward to it.
“I’m excited to see how they alter their style in concert versus just listening to their discography on Spotify,” junior physics major Anna Laura Stevens, who has been listening to COIN for the past year, said. “They are pretty much featured on most of my playlists. And I have over 300 over those.”
Sophomore integrated marketing communications major Nancy Manroe said COIN has held on to its energetic style while growing more popular.
“I have been listening to COIN since high school, and they only had one album and a couple of singles out when I listened to them for the first time,” Manroe said. “They keep getting better. Their new album is very fun, high-energy and current.”
Manroe, who has seen COIN live before in its hometown of Nashville, is excited to see the band in her own city of Oxford, especially to hear the newest album live.
“COIN was amazing,” Manroe said. “The lead singer is very active on stage and gets close with the audience.”
The Lyric will open the doors at 8 p.m. tonight, while the band should be hitting the stage at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15 to $30 on The Lyric’s website and will be available at the door.
