![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/AUGUSTANA-SPOTLIGHT-May-2011.jpg\" "\\"AUGUSTANA-SPOTLIGHT-May-2011\\"")
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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. \u201cWe wanted to make the kind of album we grew up with,\u201d he says. \u201cSomething along the lines of Damn the Torpedoes <\/em>or Darkness on the Edge of Town<\/em>. Springsteen and Petty hit their stride with their third albums. I tried to take a cue from that.\u201d<\/p>\n Augustana first gained notice with \u201cBoston,\u201d a beautiful ballad featured prominently in an episode of Scrubs in 2006. Sales of the band\u2019s debut album,\u00a0All the Stars and Boulevards<\/em>, soared after the song aired\u2014but Layus now looks back on Augustana\u2019s early efforts with mixed feelings. \u201cThose albums set us up for what we do,\u201d says Layus. \u201cBut we were very young.\u00a0I sometimes envy people who were allowed to get the kinks out before they made\u00a0their first album.\u201d<\/p>\n Recording for the new album began in late 2009, with Grammy-winning Jacquire King at the production helm. The sessions yielded an album\u2019s worth of material, but the group\u2019s label was unenthusiastic about the results. Layus agreed to work up some new songs\u2014and one of them, \u201cSteal Your Heart,\u201d proved a breakthrough. \u201cI thought, \u2018OK, this is what we should have been doing all along,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cIn the first sessions,<\/p>\n I wanted everything done in one take, live, no bells and whistles. There\u2019s a place for the live-in-the-studio approach in our future, but this time around we had to revise that point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n The results exceeded the group\u2019s goals: \u201cWrong Side of Love\u201d is a heartland rocker that recalls Petty in his prime; \u201cSomeone\u2019s Baby Now\u201d boasts a cinematic scope worthy of Grant-Lee Phillips\u2019 best work; and \u201cBorrowed Time\u201d is a prayerful, mandolin-driven acoustic tune that Layus wrote with Jeff Trott. \u201cOur demo ended up being the album track,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n Given the false starts, Layus gives his bandmates credit for seeing the album through. \u201cWe experienced some turbulent times, and yet they didn\u2019t jump ship,\u201d he says. \u201cI commend them for that.\u201d He\u2019s already looking ahead to the next Augustana project. \u201cThere are specific people I would like to work with,\u201d he hints. \u201cI\u2019m hopeful there will be a time and place to do that in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2013Russell Hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. \u201cWe wanted to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2426,1634,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3508,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506\/revisions\/3508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}