LANCO consists of Brandon Lancaster (lead singer), Tripp Howell (drummer), Eric Steedly (guitarist), Jared Hampton (multi-instrumentalist), and Chandler Baldwin (bassist).

Brandon’s from Smyrna, TN; Tripp is from Dalton, GA; Eric is from Lawrenceburg, KY;  Jared is from Peachtree City, GA;  Chandler is from Snellville, GA.

The band’s name is short for “Lancaster and Company”

Brandon was working at a hotdog stand during an event at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN when he noticed producer Jay Joyce walking by…Brandon jumped out from behind the counter to introduce himself to Jay. The conversation that followed led Brandon and the other guys in LANCO playing for and eventually working with Jay as their producer.

LANCO’s first number-one song is “Greatest Love Story”

  Brandon from LANCO explains the band’s name. (:21)
“The name of the band stands for ‘Lancaster and Company.’ My name is Brandon Lancaster and so when I start putting the band together, I didn’t necessarily want to be a solo thing, I wanted to be a band. So, we kind of started going under the name ‘Lancaster and Company’ and then our friends started calling it LANCO, and we started calling it LANCO, and it rolls off the tongue a little easier. So, we just went with LANCO.”

  Brandon from LANCO explains the benefits of being in a band. (:39)
“There’s definitely a dynamic to being in a band that you can’t get anywhere else. You wouldn’t be able to get being a solo artist. Just in the fact that you influence each other, you’re a support system for each other. You know it can get tough on the road if you are going through a hard time, or if someone is going through a hard time. It’s not all up to you, the whole weight of the world isn’t on your shoulders you are sharing it with your best friends. When days may be hard you have guys to lean on. When something good happens we can all celebrate together. You have a group of guys to go through life with and go this experience and this adventure. It really is an adventure and you have a family to go through it with.”

  Tripp from LANCO shares the story of first meeting band mate Brandon. (:44)
TRIPP: “We were actually both playing in different bands at this festival in Tennessee, close to Chattanooga. We had just rolled up in our van and trailers, getting ready to unload, and his time slot was right as we pulled up. I heard this guy go, ‘THETAPALOOZA!!’ Just loud, just like monstrous.”
BRANDON: “Because that was the name of the festival.”
TRIPP: “And I looked out (laughed) and there were probably like four people there and I was like, ‘Dang that’s awesome, he’s going for it.’ And you know, we just started hanging out after that. I was moving to Nashville the same time he was so we became friends and talked about music a lot. And then one day he was like, ‘Why don’t we just… I’ve got these songs, I’ve been wanting to put a band together. Let’s start working on this.’ And I was like, ‘alright!’”

  Jared from LANCO explains how he got into the band with the help of a musical instrument he didn’t have, or couldn’t play. (:43)
Jared: “He (Eric Steedly) knew that I played music, and he’s like, ‘hey man, one of my friends needs a guy that plays pedal steel.’ I was like, ‘you know what, I don’t play pedal steel but I think I could weasel my way in there.’”
Brandon: “That’s what he said in his mind.”
Jared: “Yeah, I didn’t say that actually.”
Brandon: “To us he said, ‘yeah, I play pedal steel’”
Jared: “And then I was like, you know what, maybe I’ll just play keys. (laugh) And it worked!”
Tripp: “He showed up the very first day with every instrument but the pedal steel. And we were like, ‘where is that, man? I thought you played pedal steel?’”
Jared: “Famous line is ‘it’s in my mom’s basement.’”
Tripp: “Yeah, ‘it’s in my parent’s basement’”
Jared: “Parent’s basement”
Tripp: “And we’ve been to that basement, and there ain’t no pedal steel.”
Chandler: “I searched pretty hard for it when we went there and I saw no pedal steel.”
Jared: “Yeah, there is no pedal steel”

  Brandon from LANCO says he knew there was something unique about the mix of guys in the band from their very first practice session. (:33)
“One of the special things to me the first time we practiced was I had always been in bands where you come you, you have an agenda you get in you get out, everyone high fives but this particular case I remember we…we like kind of played a song for a half hour and then after that we hung out until like 2 in the morning and everyone exchanged numbers and was like ‘you guys want to hang out tomorrow? Should we bring our instruments?’ Then from that is an easy foundation to build on, it’s like well if anything we like hanging out so if the music goes terrible we can still be friends. (laugh)”

  Brandon from LANCO shares the story of how a chance meeting with producer Jay Joyce, led to getting a record deal. (1:30)
“I was working in arena in downtown Nashville selling hotdogs at a concession stand, and I was working my register when I noticed a guy walk who I recognized by the name of Jay Joyce, who is a producer Nashville. He had worked on all kinds of acts that I love from Eric Church, to Little Big Town, to even Cage The Elephant. When I saw him walk by, I closed down my register, and introduced myself, really just as a fan more than anything. And we kind of just started talking about music and he asked me ‘so you’re an artist, a writer, what are you doing?’ I was like ‘yeah, I’m in a band, and I write.’ He was like  ‘you guys should come by and play me some music some time.’ So, a few weeks later the band went in there and set up there in a circle, and started playing him some music. We got about four songs in before he just said ‘all right, let’s cut a record. Let’s just do it, let’s cut a record.’ So, we cut a record a couple months later, and then we had this record, and didn’t really know what to do with it, we didn’t have a label or anything like that, we just had this music. So, we got ourselves an RV and hit the road, and just start playing to anyone is willing to listen, and then we just kinda built this underground following and this fanbase. We had a show in Nashville that was going to be an independent single release and some people from Sony came out, the President, and some A&R people, and after the show, we walked off stage and in our green room they’re hanging out there, and said they were paying attention and loved what we did, and want to be a part of it, so they offered us a deal after that. The rest is history.”

  Chandler from LANCO talks about the band’s number-one song “Greatest Love Story.” (:47)
“One thing I think is really cool about the song ‘Greatest Love Story’ is that from the years of us being a band, we’ve learned a bunch of songs, written a bunch of songs, recorded those, thrown some out, changed them in the studio, but one things that’s pretty cool about this song is that it’s . . .  for the years of us playing it  and recording it, it’s pretty much the same as when we play it that first night of rehearsal. I just think that’s a testament to the song itself. It’s kind of taken a life on its own. We get comments on social media all the time of people saying ‘That’s my story! That’s mine and my boyfriend’s story or my girlfriend’s story, my wife’s story’ So that’s really special to us to know that it’s resonating with so many people. People are using it for their wedding songs, which is awesome. So, I’m just excited for even more people to hear it, if it were to reach more people.”

  Eric from LANCO shares that the guys make music so it can be performed live. (:16)
“I think that it kind of starts with the way that we create our music. When we write our music, we write it as a band, and then it becomes this arranged in a certain way that really communicates how we are live. We’re always thinking about that, ‘how will this translate live? How will this work?”

  Brandon from LANCO talks about the importance of their relationship with their fans. (:36)
“I think from day one we never really set out to have fans, we more just thought of having these people that come to our shows that we connect with, that we have a relationship with, so, that’s been really cool. It’s really cool when you see some of the same faces at different shows because you do have a relationship with them you know. We understand our music obviously we create our music, but if there’s anyone that understands our music as much as we do it’s the people that you see in multiple times and listen to a lot and have really connected to it enough to see multiple shows…so that’s really fun for us because it’s a, there’s just a loyalty there, and it feels like we have a relationship with that person.”