Indie-pop trio COIN has seen success with infectious hits like “Talk Too Much” and “Crash My Car,” and fresh off the release of their fifth studio album, I’m Not Afraid of Music Anymore, many more ballads have joined the repertoire. Alongside vocalist Chase Lawrence and guitarist Joseph Memmel is drummer Ryan Winnen, a South Euclid native raised on the city’s pop-punk scene of the early 2000s. On Oct. 11, COIN returns to Cleveland to play their first show at the Agora Theatre, a venue that housed many of Winnen’s most memorable concerts. As the band prepares to take the historic stage, we ask Winnen about all things music and Northeast Ohio.
Cleveland Magazine: How did Ohio’s music scene inspire your drumming career?
Ryan Winnen: When I was 12 or 13, I started getting into punk, hardcore, pop punk, metal and all of those adjacent genres because that music was super popular when I was growing up. My dad started taking me to shows when I was around that age; the community was really robust. When I was in high school, I started playing in metal bands. I think you want to play kind of aggressive music when you're a kid, and it takes off at a certain point. I played a bunch of shows locally, and I did a few out-of-state things, which was really fun because it was always a dream of mine to tour.
CM: Once you joined COIN, what was that shift from metal to indie-pop music like?
RW: My dad put me on to a lot of new-wave music growing up, so that stuff was always in my wheelhouse, but I just wasn't performing those types of songs. I think the instinct as a drummer is to play music and just serve the song, whereas in metal, you have more of a presence, and the music is more complicated. So when we started the band in 2012, each of us had very different influences. There's definitely a sonic and sort of melodic quality to each of us that you can hear throughout certain records, so it's cool to throw each of our instincts into a blender. I can definitely hear that now when I listen.
CM: How does it feel to come back to Cleveland and play the Agora Theatre for the first time?
RW: I get to see so many of the people who were encouraging me that music was even possible as a dream to fulfill. [The Agora Theatre] is a place that I've spent a lot of time and can remember very special shows there growing up. It's just going to be one of those ‘Let's soak it in’ moments, appreciating where I come from, how I got into music and those shows that were paramount to me becoming a musician. I always get a little bit sentimental when we play things like that.
CM: What makes COIN’s new album different from previous ones?
RW: The title embodies what we did in the studio, which is kind of unshackling or untethering from any idea that we had of what a fully-produced song is supposed to sound like. This record was about stripping ourselves of the things that we knew were comfortable tactics to make things sound good or competitive, and get back to listening to the bands that we loved growing up and think about how those records were made. There’s a human quality of this record, embracing mistakes and embracing the truest expression of each of us individually.
CM: Do you think that approach made this album easier or harder to create?
RW: The difference between this record and other records is that we've kind of collected everything we love about making music and stripped everything down to us just playing, which actually has made this record easier for us to perform live. The simplistic nature of it is often harder, though, because you want to be able to say less and have it mean just as much. I think that once we started turning the knobs and distilling this palate, it was really obvious where the record needed to go. Getting over the initial fear of stripping it down was the hardest part, and that's why the album title rings true.
CM: What songs from the new record are you most excited to perform?
RW: “It's Hard to Care About Everything” is a slow burn. We’ve felt like we always had to write a perfectly constructive 3-minute pop song, but this one was cool because we let it hang for a long time. “Slack” is like throwing the history of COIN into one song. The writing style just reminds us of some of the stuff that we wrote when we first got together, as well as “Asking For a Friend.” It's very up-tempo and kind of bombastic. All three songs don't necessarily represent the album as a whole, but they represent a lot of songs that we tried to write previous to this record. It's almost like there's artifacts from previous records in these, like the DNA.
CM: What are some of your favorite spots around Cleveland?
RW: Superior Pho is really cozy in the winter. And summers in Cleveland are so idyllic; I’m super active and like going to Edgewater Park. I’ll do a search for antique malls like Attenson’s when I’m in town, and I’ll do Flower Child and Sweet Lorain for clothing. I love poking around Loganberry Books as well. I’ve collected a lot of art books and photography over the years, so there’s a lot of little bits of Cleveland in my current home. I look forward to going to Severance Hall and appreciating those parts of Cleveland that have been tried and true throughout its existence.
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