AUGUSTANA

Changing direction in the studio put this band on the right path

No one can accuse Augustana frontman Dan Layus of lacking ambition. When the band stepped into the studio to make its self-titled new album, Layus was determined to capture the classic sound of 1970s Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. “We wanted to make the kind of album we grew up with,” he says. “Something along the lines of Damn the Torpedoes or Darkness on the Edge of Town. Springsteen and Petty hit their stride with their third albums. I tried to take a cue from that.”

Augustana first gained notice with “Boston,” a beautiful ballad featured prominently in an episode of Scrubs in 2006. Sales of the band’s debut album, All the Stars and Boulevards, soared after the song aired—but Layus now looks back on Augustana’s early efforts with mixed feelings. “Those albums set us up for what we do,” says Layus. “But we were very young. I sometimes envy people who were allowed to get the kinks out before they made their first album.”

Recording for the new album began in late 2009, with Grammy-winning Jacquire King at the production helm. The sessions yielded an album’s worth of material, but the group’s label was unenthusiastic about the results. Layus agreed to work up some new songs—and one of them, “Steal Your Heart,” proved a breakthrough. “I thought, ‘OK, this is what we should have been doing all along,’” he says. “In the first sessions,

I wanted everything done in one take, live, no bells and whistles. There’s a place for the live-in-the-studio approach in our future, but this time around we had to revise that point of view.”

The results exceeded the group’s goals: “Wrong Side of Love” is a heartland rocker that recalls Petty in his prime; “Someone’s Baby Now” boasts a cinematic scope worthy of Grant-Lee Phillips’ best work; and “Borrowed Time” is a prayerful, mandolin-driven acoustic tune that Layus wrote with Jeff Trott. “Our demo ended up being the album track,” he notes.

Given the false starts, Layus gives his bandmates credit for seeing the album through. “We experienced some turbulent times, and yet they didn’t jump ship,” he says. “I commend them for that.” He’s already looking ahead to the next Augustana project. “There are specific people I would like to work with,” he hints. “I’m hopeful there will be a time and place to do that in the near future.”

–Russell Hall

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