What do you get when you combine three tennis coaches with alt-rock? Meet Out In Front.
Formed in Los Angeles after bonding on the court, the trio — made up of frontwoman Madie Renner, drummer Isaiah Volk, and bassist Ryen Wagner — traded tennis serves for serving up hits. If Warped Tour and 2016 Tumblr had a love child, Out In Front would be the result.
They’ve already opened up for artists like Yellowcard, The All-American Rejects, and Joyce Manor, and now they’re touring with Charlotte Sands starting next week.
We got to sit down with the band recently to discuss their creative process, what success looks like to them, and what it means to be part of the Out In Front family.
MSM: So, let's talk about "Medicine." You wrote that in about three hours? That's amazing!
Madie: Yeah. It came together so fast, which is awesome.
Do you think you write best when you have inspiration like that, or is it when you sit down with an idea and put a lot of thought into it?
Madie: For me, I feel like it was just like emotions were flowing because I wrote it about forgetting my dad's birthday one day and just feeling so bad about it, and so it just came out. I didn't really overthink it. I find that I write better when I'm living in it, like when this happened to me.
So what did you want the music video to communicate that maybe the lyrics didn't or just build upon that, I guess?
Madie: Yeah, his sister, Noa, she was our tour manager, and she helped us sell merch at the time, but she also had a little VHS camera. And so she wanted to record "Medicine" at every single show, but she also shot tons of behind-the-scenes stuff, like us traveling around the city. I think people think people who see us only get to see us for a 30- to 40-minute timeframe on stage, but they don't get to see the hours spent loading in us exhausted after loading out. So showing not just the glamorous side, but also it's actually a lot of work being on the road as well.
The reality of it all. Is that something that surprised you as you got into it?
Isaiah: Yeah. I mean, I don't think we had any idea of what we were getting into and everything. Didn't expect to be here in Iowa for two weeks waiting for the next tour, but it's just kind of what happened.
Wow. That's a random place to end up with.
Isaiah: This is where Madie is from, the house where she grew up. But yes, it was kind of random in how we ended up here on this run.
Madie: I guess I feel like people really romanticize touring, but then we've brought some friends of ours out, and they're like, "I don't know how you guys do this. This is exhausting." But then to us, it's kind of like a drug in a way. It's the best thing in the world, but it can also be the worst thing in the world.
So, when you first moved to LA, what did you have in mind that making it would look like compared to now? Has success changed to you?
Madie: Yeah, I feel like when I first moved to LA, I had no clue what I was doing. I knew I wanted to be a songwriter and do music full time. For me, it was just financial success, I guess, and being able to be independent financially. But I didn't really know how to do any of that before I met these two guys. They've definitely been, especially him and his family; they've been in the music industry for a long time, and they're like, "You're not working hard enough. If you really want it, you need to learn, you need to go on tour, you need to lose money, and you need to put yourself out there way more than you're doing." So to me, I didn't even really know that I would ever be capable of anything that we're doing. So it's pretty surreal that we've been able to get this far and in such a short amount of time too.
Yeah. And just think, the more you put yourself out there and experience and put yourself through hardship, the more songs you get out of it. Inspiration.
Madie: Yeah, 100%.
And I have to ask a full band question since we have all of you here. What was the first show each of you ever attended?
Ryen: First show I ever saw, I was in 10th grade, so that'd be 2016. I saw Craftwork at the Hollywood Bowl, and they're like the OG; they're a German techno band, but techno from the '60s. So that was insane. I still have a shirt from that show still.
Does it still fit?
Ryen: Fuck no. Medium.
Madie: I think one of my first shows I can remember was going to see the Miley Cyrus 'Can't Be Tamed' tour with my grandma when I was 14 years old, but she was expecting Hannah Montana and the sweet Miley. But this was when Miley was going through her angsty phase, and she was swinging on a wrecking ball, and my grandma was, "Oh my God, what did I take my granddaughter to?" But I remember it being a great show, in my opinion.
Isaiah: For me, probably, I can remember this one, but I was a lot younger. I think it was Yellowcard or something when I was seven years old. I think that's the first concert memory I have, but I don't know if that's the first one I've been to, but that's the first one I could consistently remember.
All right, that works. That sounds like a good one.
Isaiah: Yeah, Yellowcard's great.
Yeah. So what is something about Out In Front that you're determined to keep at the heart of the band? Like, no matter how much you grow, what is something you never want to change?
Madie: I think for me it would be the connection to the fans. I think it's really cool. We have a Discord channel now, and the family that we're growing and creating is really special, and so I never want to lose that feeling of connection to them even as we grow, because now that some of them feel like our friends, we go out to dinner with some of them after we play. So just not losing touch with the 'day one fans' at the very least. Yeah.
Yeah. Do you guys have anything to add on that? Anything you don't want to change about the band?
Isaiah: Internally, I think we're all just really close. As much as it's becoming more of a business that we try to do things with each other to keep the camaraderie together that we don't necessarily talk about with others, but we do make that a pride focus. That's why I think that we can go on back-to-back tours like this because it is a straight festival no matter where you do or where you go, but just trying to find ways to just, okay, what can we do to just be here as a group and do things together? And then it makes the show itself better too, so that's something we pride ourselves on.
So I read a little bit about your story of meeting each other. Do you ever play tennis anymore?
Ryen: We're wondering if our tennis jobs still exist when we end up back home, whenever that is. We are curious.
Madie: As of a month ago, we were all planning on coming back to LA. We didn't have any tours booked at all, and we were like, "Yeah, we're going to be back at the end of August." But then we got booked on the Charlotte Sands tour, and then we got booked on a few leap dates in October. So we had to call them, and we're like, "I'm really sorry. I don't think we're going to be back in LA, at least for the next couple months." But we all do coach tennis when we are back in Las Vegas. Yeah.
And when you come back, everyone's going to be so excited.
Madie: Yeah, no, we definitely miss them. I know that they miss us as well.
Isaiah: Yeah, I mean, we've been doing tennis for. I have been for my whole life, so it feels weird because it's the first time where it's just the extended break of not, which is a good thing. But I definitely miss that for sure, myself.
Are you on the Charlotte Sands tour right now, or is that still further out?
Madie: I think next week, September 9th.
Oh, wow. So what are you most excited about about that tour? Is there a place you get to go that you haven't been yet, or anything like that?
Madie: We get to play in Canada, in Toronto. So, first show out of the country, which is super exciting. And then we also love going to Seattle. Are we planning? No, we're not. We're not going to Seattle; we're going to Charlotte. I'm sorry. Leave. Yeah, we're going in October. Yeah, we're going there with Leap. See, I can't keep my day straight here.
So, when people see you on that tour, how do you want them to feel after they see you play? What do you want them to be going through mentally?
Madie: Oh man, that's a good question.
Isaiah: I would say I did not expect that, especially from the comments that we're getting on YouTube. It's just like AI band, AI band. I want people to be really surprised. And obviously, wow, everybody wants a wow factor, but definitely, oh wow, they could actually do it. Sounds funny to say.
Ryen: Our favorite thing to do is to play live. So when it's, to be fair, a crowd that kind of gets handed to us, like with Charlotte, being a direct support for somebody who's in our genre, this is kind of the first time that we get that. So it's really exciting to go in front of people who are hopefully excited to see a new group that might be in the genre of music that they may not have heard before.
Madie: Yeah, and I think it's so cool that she's taking two female-fronted bands out. I think that's so awesome. I just think that is so badass. Because I feel like some women can be wanting to have the spotlight to have her take on one, but two, opening bands with other female acts is just so cool.
What do you hope the next era of Out in Front sounds like? Are you thinking of, I don't know, anything you might experiment with or anything coming up?
Madie: I'm trying to think, because we have most of our next project almost done, and I would say it's a little heavier in terms of even the lyrical direction of it. Definitely focuses more on mental health, anxiety, and OCD, whereas I didn't really touch on that a lot in the first EP. It was mostly about relationships, but I'm trying really hard to dive more into mental health topics in music. But then there are also a few more pop-sounding songs that are a little bit more hybrid as well. But yeah, I don't know. Anything else to add there?
Ryen: I mean, some of my favorite songs are on there because I get my experience in listening to music as a consumer: that a song that really grabs me, but then when I pay attention more to the lyrics, has a much deeper meaning. Some of these songs that are coming, the rhythm and the vibe of the song are very upbeat, but then when you pay attention to what Maddie's singing and the lyrics, it's like it has a much deeper meaning to an individual that might be listening to the song, which you can connect to really well.
Yeah, I love that there's going to be more of a mental health theme. It really helps a listener to be like, "I'm not crazy."
Madie: Yeah. I was really challenging myself in these next batch of songs, so yeah.
Yeah. Now that you're putting more stuff out, you're like, "They like it. Okay, now I can experiment."
Madie: Especially with medicine, I was pretty scared to put that one out only because it's mostly about my family, but I tried to write it in a way that first listening to people would think it's maybe about me and not because I get nervous putting them in the spotlight so much. But now everyone kind of knows that it's about my family, and they're totally fine with it. But when it was really fresh, I was like, "Ooh, I'm a little scared." But the response has been really awesome.
And did your family like it?
Madie: Yeah. When they first heard it, they were bawling. I mean, but it's a pretty heavy song. I mean, it's really hard being so far away from them. So I'm also really grateful to have this time in Iowa. I feel like it's a privilege and kind of a dream in itself. We have two weeks off between tours, and we're just hanging out in my hometown. I feel like there's a lot of privilege there. So yeah, but it's really hard to be so far away from them at the same time.
Is there anything else you might want to share with anyone that may check this out? Why should they check you out? Hype up Out In Front.
Madie: Oh my gosh. Well, I feel like we accept everyone here from any genre, whether it's metal or if a metal band would like Out In Front or like a pop artist. If you like pop, you'll like Out In Front. If you like punk, you'll like Out In Front. I feel like we really blend a lot of genres, but I want that to also showcase that we blend a lot of different people as well. So, all are welcome here in the Out In Front community.
