COIN is back!

Nashville-born-and-made indie pop band COIN is back and stronger than ever, bringing with them a new album, aptly titled, I’m Not Afraid Of Music Anymore set for a September 13 release. Two singles have been released: summer-sweet Strawberry Jam and windows-down Take It Or Leave It.

Since originally forming in 2012, COIN–made up of Chase Lawrence, Ryan Winnen, Joe Memmel–has released two EPs and five full length albums, each feeling more personal and perfectly made-for-me as time went on. After finishing their last studio album, Uncanny Valley, the band wrote in an Instagram post made on June 3 that they “didn’t write a song for about a year.” At the end of this post, they shared that, “in the end, things started to feel simple and free again… we couldn’t stop writing songs about it. So many songs, really, that we could’ve made a double album. COIN is back.”

And then they gave me approximately four business days to prepare for Strawberry Jam, their first single released on June 7. The song comes out swinging with the opening line:

“I think there’s something I’m running from,” and then adds an extra uppercut with, “or is it just who I am?” There is a beautiful, old fashioned COIN sound to this one, with a harmonica and synchronized whistles. It sounds like they might’ve played around with toy instruments just for fun. In spite of the funky beat and the dancy-fast tempo, the song fades out with the lyrics, “Why’re you leavin’ me?” that resembles a chant. The song doesn’t cut off; rather, it echoes out. He’s running the entire time–always running away from something. But it makes us wonder, what from?”

This one is undoubtedly my favorite of the singles thus far. My favorite lyrics are: “She likes it better, she likes it better with my / Head down, lately / Mindless talking in the backseat.”

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A bonus, and because COIN always knows how to perfectly hurt and heal my heart: “She said it right to my face: she likes me better when I’m taking my time.” Lead vocalist Chase spoke about this upcoming album as “a coming home for us,” and that the creative process was “not fun to talk about.” In these lyrics, even buried under a beat that makes me want to get up and do a little jig, you can almost hear the brutality of the truth in the conversation that happened when this song was born.

Just a few weeks later, on July 12, COIN released their second single: Take It Or Leave It, and announced it with a music video and a caption that read, “Take It Or Leave It, this is COIN.” The band reverts back to their indie roots with this one: they bring in bright guitar tones and a tambourine to add a little pizazz and sparkle. Once again, despite its upbeat rhythm, the chorus is everything but:

“Don’t go breaking my heart / Just tear me apart / If you’re gonna leave me.” There is no easy way to describe the way it feels to love someone so much you would prefer they continue to tear you apart rather than leave you. Just before the outro, he even asks the question, “where did all the time go? / And when did I turn psycho?”

COIN has always been honest and vulnerable in their music, even if it’s masked under bells, fun guitar riffs, and Chase’s sweetheart indie-singer voice. There is something so valuable in an artist that writes straight from the heart and creates a space for both transparency and connection for the listener. After twelve years of making music, COIN blew up and then blew up even harder immediately after that, only to be slammed to a halt with COVID and then thrusted back out into the world and simultaneously expected to continue as you were, despite the reality of a changed world.

I’m Not Afraid Of Music Anymore is going to be one hell of an album, that’s for sure. What does it mean to not be afraid of music anymore? What does it mean to no longer fear what you’ve been creating for over a decade? There is always a lesson to be learned in a new COIN album, for me, and I can’t wait to see how this one changes me fundamentally as a human being. Again.