Augustana finds an adopted home base in North County

By JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:18 PM PDT ∞

LIke many a Midwestern ex-pat, the men of North County-based alt-rock band Augustana ended up in Southern California seeking something better than they'd had back home. But bassist Jared Palomar said it wasn't weather that drew the band's founders from southern Illinois, but opportunity.

"We all moved out there in 2004," he said by phone last week. "We were doing the whole college thing, and we really needed to be someplace closer to the music industry. It was difficult where we were. San Diego has a really good music scene, and we had some friends out here who were really helping us. It was closer to Los Angeles ---- a home base to start working from. It was the logical place."

Founded in 2002 at Greenville College in Illinois (about a half-hour east of St. Louis), the band has now been based in San Diego longer than it was in the Midwest. And yet, Palomar admitted that the band has never had the kind of presence on the local scene it would have liked ---- due mostly to its success in getting signed to Epic Records shortly after relocating.

"We tried to get to SOMA and stuff, but we couldn't get in there until we get signed," he said of Augustana's attempts to crack into San Diego's music scene. "We didn't get to play as much as we would have liked to."

As for landing that major label deal, the brass ring many bands are aiming for, Palomar said it happened so quickly he doesn't really remember how it all felt at the time.

"It was really, really fast. We were really fortunate to have that. We got our drummer after we moved to San Diego, about four months after we moved out here. He knew these guys who ended up being our managers for a little bit. They ended up shopping us, and a few months later we were really fortunate to be signed.

"It was really exciting and amazing. Our A&R guy at the label has been one of our biggest fans and supporters and advocates at the company, and that's been amazing to have."

The band's lineup has been pretty stable since its relocation, with only original guitarist Josiah Rosen leaving a couple of years ago to go solo. Founding singer/keyboardist Dan Layus remains from Illinois, along with Palomar (who replaced original bassist Simeon Lohrmann before the move). Justin South is the drummer, John Vincent Fredericks is lead keyboardist, and Chris Sachtleben is now the lead guitarist.

Augustana's newest CD, "Can't Love, Can't Hurt," came out on Epic in April, and Palomar said the band is happy with the result ---- although he said that being on a major label entails giving up some creative control.

"Everything's a compromise. With this one, it was definitely a lot of us and our producer's decisions. We had the songs a certain way, and he was pretty good about challenging us to make sure it's as good as it can be."

On the other hand, "The album cover was a little bit of a battle," he said, laughing.

Success has also brought other challenges ---- such as learning to play on larger stages.

"It usually ends up sounding better on the bigger stages because obviously you're working with better people. There's something about being in a club, though, where you're a lot closer to people. That's the thing I like the least about the bigger stages ---- you're farther away from people. Even on this tour, when we're headlining and we have as much room as we need, we still tend to set up closer to each other, because there's a lot of songs where we're just feeding off each other musically. I think that helps us out a lot, and helps us hear each other really well."

Although the band is from the Midwest, Palomar said the members are now fully adapted to San Diego living. For instance, he said, they now find that when they're on tour in most of the country, the Mexican restaurants aren't as good as what they're used to here at home.

Still, being on that major label pays some not-insignificant benefits ---- like having a tour bus with a large refrigerator, which means that before they head out on tour next week, they've got one last stop to make.

"We're going to pull the bus up to to one of our favorite burrito places and just stock it with our favorite stuff," he said, laughing again.

Augustana, with Wild Sweet Orange and Patrick Park

When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday

Where: House of Blues San Diego, 1055 Fifth Ave., San Diego

Tickets: $17

Info: (619) 525-1900

Web: augustanamusic.com

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