Q&A with LANCO
By: Kaki Tzagournis – CMA of OSU
It’s a great night to be at the Bluestone to see LANCO’s sold out show. Standing in line to go down to the meet and greet, the excitement is evident. As each group goes up, LANCO embraces them and is extremely personable and energetic. Several people have met the band before and recall on how far LANCO has come. I was fortunate enough to sit down with the Brandon Lancaster (lead singer), Chandler Baldwin (bass guitar), Jared Hampton (keyboards), Tripp Howell (drums), and Eric Steedly (guitar) and ask a couple of fun questions before the show.
The Bluestone: With your recent successes of Hallelujah Nights and selling out the Bluestone, what has been the most rewarding part?
Brandon Lancaster: I think the most rewarding part is nights like tonight where you actually get to show up and fans show up… To have a record out and have fans come out and actually sing along with us, that’s kind of what you dream of is everyone being in the same room at the same time and having these experiences. So the fact that we get to do this and our careers allow us to be here with all of these fans is probably the most rewarding part.
TB: What song do you think is your favorite and was the most fun to make?
Eric Steedly: Oh man, there were so many… “Singin’ at the Stars” was fun to make because the process… starts out with such an interesting bed of this jam of music, it’s just real calm and then the beat is very intricate and blows up in the end, so it was just shaping that in the studio was a really fun process…
BL: For me it was “Born To Love You” just the difference between where it started as a demo… and where it ended and I think the process of how it starts subtle and then ends to this really loud rocking song…
TB: What is one-thing fans don’t know about you that would be surprising to them?
BL: Maybe that we’ve been together 5 years and that we’ve actually been touring together for 5 years. A lot of people are just now finding out who we are, but we about 3 years ago loaded up in a RV and have been touring full time ever since…
TB: You guys have a really interesting story; to other musicians what would your advice be for getting into the business?
BL: Move to a place where it’s happening… If you want to be in country music Nashville is probably the spot. Don’t try to follow any formula, just make music that is honest to you because at the end of the night you have to play it… Do what you love… and it will grab attention to people more than I think people realize.
Editor’s note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.