Nashville-based COIN are currently on tour following the release of their latest album, Uncanny Valley, and its hit single “Chapstick.” During their visit to The Current, the four-piece band — comprising Chase Lawrence, Joe Memmel, Ryan Winnen and Matt Martin — spoke with host Ayisha Jaffer about the band’s origins at Belmont University in Nashville, as well as the themes that arose in their lives and manifested themselves on the album; in particular, themes of relevance and authenticity.

In addition, Lawrence spoke about how the pandemic brought the band closer together, and how community and connection have become so vital to COIN and their fans. One improbable indicator of that connection? The deep, personal significance that can be found in nonsensical lyrics. Watch the complete session above, and read a transcript of the interview below.

Interview Transcript

Edited for clarity.

Ayisha Jaffer: Hello, I'm Aisha Jaffer, the evening host here on The Current. And I'm joined in the studio by the amazing COIN.

Chase Lawrence: Wow, thank you so much for having us.

Ayisha Jaffer: Do you guys want to introduce each and like, or I can introduce you: we've got Chase, we've got Joe, Ryan, and Matt all here in the studio. And they just performed this amazing session here. I'm very excited. You guys have been stepping in; like, first steps into some places like the Ryman and all these beautiful venues. And we're here in real life. What does that feel like for you?

Chase Lawrence: Well, it's happened so gradually, you know? I think we've been a band for almost 10 years now, so there are some days you wake up and you're like, "This is, how is this happening?" And some days you're like, "Of course, this is happening," you know? And but it's, it's mostly "How is this happening now?" So honestly, it's just taking it one day at a time and just really being happy to be here. Every day, literally, someone's like, what's your favorite show and like this? We're so grateful for all of them. Yeah, truly.

Ayisha Jaffer: And that's true, like 10 years as a band. That's a long time, which I like to always rewind, because I know you guys came from all parts of the States like midwest, southeast, northeast, all together in Nashville. I know Belmont [University] is in the mix. And the hitmakers come from Belmont! So I wanted to rewind a second and get your origin story; like how did COIN get coined?

Joe Memmel: Yeah.

Chase Lawrence: Well, how far should we take it back?

Joe Memmel: Oh, baby, take it all the way.

Chase Lawrence: All right. So Joseph was in a high school band. And his band was traveling through my hometown, which no one plays in my hometown, in West Virginia, in case you want to know at all, and I heard his song on the local radio station on the way to college algebra. And I said, "I'm gonna go to that show." Never been to a show in my life in my hometown; still haven't been. And went to the show alone, and I met Joseph outside of the venue. And we talked for a brief second and about music or whatever. And that was that, and I never saw him again. And then two years later, we happened to sit beside each other in Belmont in Nashville, in music theory class on day one.

Joe Memmel: Serendipity.

Chase Lawrence: But, truly, that's like fate. And I knew who he was immediately; he didn't recognize me, but after a couple of weeks, I worked up the nerve to finally ask him to write a song with me.

Joe Memmel: And then, on the other side of us, was this, was this girl. And she was friends of ours. And she overheard us talking about starting a band. She's like, "Oh, I know, I know, the drummer, you need a drummer,

Chase Lawrence: "I know THE drummer."

Joe Memmel: "The drummer." And she was right! Ryan is the drummer. He's the perfect person!

Ryan Winnen:  I got volunteered.

Chase Lawrence: We didn't put up ads. We didn't do anything. We just happened to meet these people. And then Ryan and Matthew went, like knew each other in high school. And then somehow there was another person that went to Belmont, that Joseph knew Matthew before he knew Ryan; like this weird, tangled web.

Joe Memmel: Shit, man. Weird stuff.

Chase Lawrence: Yeah, so we're here. We're alive. And yeah, that pretty much fast forwards us to today.

Ayisha Jaffer: It's all connected. It's such proof that everything is connected in that way.

Chase Lawrence: Any time there's ever been a doubt about the band, or like what we're doing here, like, I just think about all the things that had to go right for us to be even standing in this room right now, talking to Ayisha.

Ayisha Jaffer: It's a perfect segue, honestly, because I was thinking about that. You guys, have, like any other band, like, having a history of 10 years, there's ebbs and flows, right? You've got, I know there were some things, like a wavering bassist; you lost your first record deal, and like the world was on fire around you, but you still prevailed through that. And I wonder, like, what, what kind of pushed you through or what was like the Northstar to get you through all of that?

Chase Lawrence: Man... I mean, it's, it's gotta be the people that have supported us. Honestly. I think these songs, I've just said this over and over on this tour, but these songs literally mean nothing if people don't sing them and give them their own meaning. So it's that. It's just knowing that getting on social media or showing up to whatever, Omaha, Nebraska, you know, on a Tuesday, and seeing how much this music means to people, and the kind of like, joy and escape that they're getting from it is like, it brings us so much purpose. So that's always been my guiding light is kind of the meaning that other people give it even beyond myself, because it's fun to kind of like, you know, have that catharsis by you know, public journal, but it's a whole other thing when people can like, can also like benefit from that and provide their own story to it. So, yeah, that's that's always been really, really great for us. But yeah, we've been so blessed to have people that believe in what we do. That's it.

Ayisha Jaffer: That's gotta be an amazing feeling too, to see many people sing those songs back to you.

Chase Lawrence: The most ambiguous songs people are just singing, it's great!

Ayisha Jaffer: Well, you know, so you know, you prevailed, you've come through, you're here now, and now you have a number one song, "Chapstick"; you played your first late-night show with Jimmy Kimmel; you've gotten the approval stamp from Sir Elton John. And so all these firsts, what is that experience like? I know we're kind of talking about this, these feelings and experiences, but I think they're important because they're, they're fresh.

Chase Lawrence: Yeah.

Joe Memmel: They finally came around.

Chase Lawrence: Like, it's about time.

Joe Memmel: Most cocky answer ever!

Ayisha Jaffer: I love it.

Chase Lawrence: No, I think we never stopped, we never stopped believing, and it's kind of... it is kind of luck that we kind of finally came around because we haven't changed. You know, we are. Somebody told me or I think this is just what we kind of believe, it's this idea of just knowing yourself and, and betting on yourself every time. And eventually, you'll either live long enough to be right or you die wrong. So I think that we've, we've just slowly adapted and haven't quit. I think Paul McCartney said, like, don't break the band up. That's it. You know, I think if you if you do this long enough, and you keep dreaming bigger, you find a way to dream bigger, even when the world is telling you like to scale back, roll back, do less production, write more niche songs, be true to yourself, be honest, like, whatever it may be, like, we found a way to like dream bigger and want to do more every single time. So I think that's, that's always been it for me.

Joe Memmel: Yeah. We also internally have such a healthy competitive nature. And also, on top of that want to be so understood. And when people are like accepting, it's like, oh, my god, we're finally understood. Like, ah, they get it. You know, it's like, ahh, sweet.

Chase Lawrence: But it was just time. That was the variable. I think it was time. Yeah, I think I think this is exactly how it's supposed to happen.

Joe Memmel: Like a relationship or conversation.

Chase Lawrence: But also, I don't think it's never "It happens." You know what I mean? So I think we'll have you having this conversation in probably 10 years, like, "Can you believe, oh, you know, you guys played on Mars for the first time?" And then we'll be like, "Yeah, of course. Like it was gonna happen. Yeah, it just took time."

Ayisha Jaffer: Yeah, it just takes time to get there. You know, Persistence is key. I think.

Chase Lawrence: The casino on the moon was amazing. How can you believe?

Ayisha Jaffer: We stayed at the hotel!

Chase Lawrence: Yeah.

Ayisha Jaffer: Well, that is, you know, you're kind of just setting me up here. Because in the pandemic, you guys made 200 songs,

Chase Lawrence: Basically.

Ayisha Jaffer: So you were like using this creative outlet, right? You were getting it all out there. Do you feel like that experience, like all that creation together, like, made you more authentic to your sound than ever with this new album?

Chase Lawrence: I love that question. I think that's exactly what happened. And the time, I think that in 2020, we were kind of like, reborn as a band, as individuals, we got to like, make up for so much lost time that we haven't had a home and together. Even though we've been physically together, like we weren't emotionally together, you know? And kind of getting back to that mindset of what was it like at Belmont in that dorm room, dorm room? And what's it like, What do I want to say? Why do I care about what I want to say? What do I care about these people? What do I care about my family? You know, what do I care about the world and collective crisis? And just like all these, like, questions that I've maybe kind of ignored because of the machine just couldn't stop, you know? And think it took that year, specifically, writing all the songs, we just looked and we said, "What's the only things that have ever, like, pushed our band forward and like, reached more people and brought us purpose?" We're like, it's not music videos; it's like, those are fun. Those are like fun accessories to the equation, but the only two things that have ever, like, pushed us forward and given us purpose are playing live music, and writing songs.

And so we said, we can't do one of those things. So we're going to write as many songs as we can possibly make. And maybe we're just trying to pretend we had any control over anything for that year. But we did it. And we, the byproduct was, we were just trying to stay busy, you know, just try not to go insane. But we actually became so much closer, and like we understood ourselves so much more. And there's specifically this, like, EP series called Rainbow Mixtape where we like, experimented with all different kinds of genres and sounds. It's stuff that was like pent up inspiration over the years, stuff that would have worked its way into music, COIN music, over time, that, in places it shouldn't have been, you know what I mean? But being like, what if we made like a fully like, like, a Joy Division song? Or like, we could, but it just, it would end up like these little pixels into places that just didn't belong. So we were able to, like fully get to work these things out and kind of like, try on these clothes fully. And that really allowed us to figure out who we are, but mostly important, most importantly, think who we're not. And so coming forward to Uncanny Valley, we were starting that November 2020, we were really able to have this like rubric of like, we know exactly who we're not. We don't know exactly who we are. And I think that's like the undying question for the rest of our lives. But it was, it was a really, really valuable tool to know exactly where we're comfortable going and where we're comfortable not going.

Ayisha Jaffer: Right and "who we are" is many things, so you got to explore that, which is awesome. And in a way that's kind of something of a benefit for that time to kind of focus and explore which is great.

Chase Lawrence: Yeah.

Ayisha Jaffer: So Uncanny Valley is out now.

Chase Lawrence: It is.

Ayisha Jaffer: And I heard that there's like kind of a documentary aspect that kind of started this idea of looking at what is realness? What is human-ness? Through like an AI perspective? That's kind of all where it started with AlphaGo

Chase Lawrence: Yeah.

Ayisha Jaffer: And the documentary. So what would you say is the thesis statement of Uncanny Valley?

Chase Lawrence: I think it's a question. Because I don't think that we set out to say anything, because I don't think it's our business to answer these questions. So it's not like "the dangers of artificial intelligence." I think it's just, it's more so, "What is anything?" You know, what, what does it mean to be human, mostly? And that question is, again, an undying one; I feel like something will spend the rest of our lives kind of calculating. But this idea that like, if science or technology wanted to mimic human chemistry at the highest level, of course, we will, you know, it will get to that. So then it becomes, what is that X factor? What is that variable, that that intangible that we know; we can feel what it means to be human, but eventually, I think those lines will be so blurry, that we won't know. So I think it's kind of this beautiful idea of like, it gave us this cool viewpoint and this objective way to write from. Like, what was it like, to like, hold someone's hand for the first time? Or what was it like to experience all these real-life experiences for the first time: heartbreak loss, love, or you know, the lack thereof.

Whatever it may be, it kind of gave us this kind of literary device to be able to write from a more objective standpoint, but ultimately, all we are is a collection of our own experiences. So the album just became like, we thought we were writing from this, like, really sci fi, ex machina standpoint. And then by the end of it, we're like, "Oh, this is just about me." Like, we literally just wrote about ourselves for like, 75 minutes! So yeah, it was a great experience, and I wouldn't trade this album for literally anything. I think it's the most COIN thing we've ever done, regardless of anybody saying, like, I wish they didn't make,  I wish they made music that sounded like this, or whatever. It's like, this is the most COIN thing we could have done, because we've never been satisfied with being static. We've always wanted to push forward. So I think that's us.

Ayisha Jaffer: Yeah. And you can hear that in the album, too. But I do have to point out, you use some AI right in the album?

Chase Lawrence: Absolutely. Yeah. So write some lyrics, "Chapstick"? Oh, boy. That is a word salad! And then, yeah, there's some other parts, like we used some some really fun, like Google tools to write some poetry, and then some really cool stuff in a few songs to just create a really fun, some soundscapes that there's no way we could have ever created on our own, probably.

Joe Memmel: Yeah.

Ayisha Jaffer: Well, "Chapstick" you mentioned. And that's like this stream of consciousness. And it's, you know, you kind of took that idea. How did you use algorithms of intuition on that song?

Chase Lawrence: Exactly. That was the first song. Ryan sent me that documentary, AlphaGo. Watched it on YouTube, on my drive; my car drove itself. It was like, the most like, it was setting me up. You know what I mean? Like, it was all setting me up for this moment where I was watching this documentary about AI while my car was driving itself. And then I got to this, our producer's house, who, I just met that day, and he mentioned he had just seen the documentary too the night before. Like, again, more cosmic coincidences. And we kind of just bonded over it and talked about how weird and strange but inspiring it all is. And we're like, "Well, what would it be like if, you know, a robot or AI, like had a first kiss?" Which, because inevitably, you know, that'll be something, I feel like that will happen. If you're watching in the future, hello. And he just kind of left, it just left. And he's like, "This guy's crazy."

And so then I just got on the mic, and I was like, what would it be like if we inputted... you know, those like, those, those bots on Twitter that they feed like hours of Law and Order and then ask it to make its own scripts? Have you seen this? Well, okay, you give it hours and hours of anything, and it creates its own script of whatever; you know, a new episode of Seinfeld or something. And so we thought like, what if we were the engine you know? What if we fed ourselves so much Rolling Stones, so much Gorillaz, so much Beck, so much Cake, and just all this music that we loved and just said these are the parameters, we're gonna make music out of out of this and like, maximal influence and just like minimal output. And then I just got on the microphone and just pretended like I was just putting words together that were like contrasting and is all just stream of consciousness, especially the first verse and first chorus are completely one take; just like, window inside of my brain.

Ayisha Jaffer: And you hear people singing that back.

Chase Lawrence: It's bizarre and disorienting.

Ryan Winnen:  No one knows what he's talking about.

Chase Lawrence: Not even me. And that's the beauty of it all.

Ayisha Jaffer: But someone takes an interpretation, right? And they feel that.

Chase Lawrence: Yeah!

Ayisha Jaffer: And they bring it back, which is really special.

Chase Lawrence: It really is. I know. Thank you for reminding me of that. Now when I'm singing those lyrics. I'm like, "Yeah, these means something." I'm like, no, they don't. But that's the beauty is that they don't mean anything. We're all in there. The meaning is that we're together.

Ayisha Jaffer: Yeah, I love that because togetherness is so important right now.

Chase Lawrence: Right now, especially.

Ayisha Jaffer: We got to talk about "Brad Pitt" real quick as well, because I heard a secondary option was Tom Brady, but Brad Pitt, you know, he's a beaut; I mean, of course, they're both beauts. Why Brad Pitt? I know, you've been asked this before, but I'm curious.

Ryan Winnen:  I mean, he, he sort of encapsulates youth and also longevity. So eternal youth.

Chase Lawrence: Wanna go for it Ryan?

Ayisha Jaffer: Yeah.

Ryan Winnen:  If you put those thoughts together. And he's stayed relevant, and eternal relevance is something that we talked about; we we had an eternal relevance contract that we made for a photoshoot one time. You couldn't even see what it said. But we somehow, we knew it was there and Chase was signing it.

Chase Lawrence: Yeah, yeah. I think that's something that we're all kind of, in the weeds about, like, I feel like millennials, especially; like, we're obsessed with this idea. It seems like I see so many TikTok videos about like, "What do I wear? How do I stay relevant? How do I stay normal?" And it's like, like, I think true relevance and true youth is found... It's like a mindset, you know? I don't think that just because you miss the details doesn't mean that you don't own youth. And I think that's this interesting idea about somebody like Brad Pitt is like, or James Dean, you know, it could be anyone like that. It's just a cultural trope to kind of almost brush it all under together, like this person that's effortlessly, gracefully aging, you know? Not worried about relevance; they're creating culture rather than trying to move with it, you know? They are, they are it. So, I don't know.

Ayisha Jaffer: Authenticity, right?

Chase Lawrence: Yeah, that's timeless, right. That's a good way to say it, yeah.

Ryan Winnen:  You risk like the, you risk the tactility of identity for optimization, you know? That's, that's where we're at. It's like, we just, we want to get better, but it's like, what about right now?

Ayisha Jaffer: Yeah.

Chase Lawrence: Whoa, that's so true.

Ayisha Jaffer: I like that. That's great. That's a great thing to chew on. I think everybody needs to hear that.

Chase Lawrence: And the whole album explores that idea of like, optimization is the end of individuality as well. So that's good, Ryan. I like that. Tactility.

Ayisha Jaffer: I have a silly question to kind of wrap up. I heard something about COIN tattoos popping up. What's the best one you've seen?

Chase Lawrence: You know, there's so many beautiful meaningful ones. And but the other night, in Salt Lake, which is such a beautiful place and with such amazing people, someone had been to their first COIN show ever, and they stayed after the show pretty late. And I eventually came outside of the bus, and they were there. And they handed me a pickleball paddle.  Which I appreciated. It gave us hours of entertainment. But they asked me to write on their arm, which I never do, like I never do. I just on principle. It's just like, "You know what? No, like, if you have a piece of paper, it's fine." But I did. I don't know why I did; I just felt like this person was so pure and loving and, and I wrote my name, and then wrote, he said, "Write your name and write the date. Because this is the best day of my life, and I want to remember it for the rest of my life." And I don't even know, maybe it was just the first thing that popped in my mind. But I was like, "I don't even care; this isn't even a COIN tattoo. This is a life tattoo." So I think...

Ayisha Jaffer: All right.

Joe Memmel: This is a Chase tattoo...

Chase Lawrence: No, it's not about me! It's about this person. I just happen to be the catalyst. I love it, though. It made me, it made me so happy to think that like somebody, we were, like, the thing that gave someone such a cool experience that they want to remember it forever.

Joe Memmel: Joy.

Chase Lawrence: Yeah! Thank you.

Ayisha Jaffer: Is there anything else you guys want to share before I let you go here?

Chase Lawrence: No, this is so amazing.

Joe Memmel: Five more albums coming out next month! Just kidding.

Ayisha Jaffer: Yeah!

Chase Lawrence: No, this station is so great. I can't thank you guys enough for playing our music. We've heard about The Current since we were literally, like, children. And I think it's the coolest thing that we're standing here right now. Thank you.

Joe Memmel: Thank you.

Ryan Winnen:  Thank you.

Ayisha Jaffer: Thank you, guys, so much for being here. Again COIN in the studio. Their new album, Uncanny Valley, is out now.

Video segments

0:00:00 “Chapstick”
0:03:26 “Getting Older”
0:05:42 “Brad Pitt”
0:07:58 Interview with host Ayisha Jaffer

COIN band members

Chase Lawrence - vocals, keys
Joe Memmel - guitar
Ryan Winnen - drums
Matt Martin - bass

Credits

Host – Ayisha Jaffer
Guests – COIN
Technical director – Erik Stromstad
Audio – Evan Clark
Camera Operators – Erik Stromstad, Peter Ecklund, Thor Cramer Bornemann
Video Editor – Eric Xu Romani
Producers – Derrick Stevens, Jesse Wiza
Digital producer – Luke Taylor 

External Links

COIN - official site

Belmont University - official site