Biography

Real One, the latest full-length record from Toronto outfit Sam Coffey & The Iron Lungs, is a work of loving, earnest maximalism. It’s proportions are ambitious and grand: blown-out gang vocals, sweeping piano, shimmering saxophone, romantic string arrangements, and thunderous guitars reign across 11 tracks. It’s a labour of love, but also of commitment, community, belief and progress. The band’s career to date has seen them develop from a rough and ready Burger Records-beloved punk band (the California label has two full-length releases from the band’s catalogue) to fine-tuned merchants of joyous guitar pop with arena-sized ambitions, earning praise along the way from outlets like Pitchfork, VICE, Billboard, Consequence of Sound, The AV Club and SPIN. The band has shared stages with Billie Joe Armstrong’s The Long Shot, The Dirty Nil and FIDLAR, and in an unlikely turn becoming commercial radio favorites in their native Canada. For Real One though, with the help of renowned producer Kevin Ratterman (White Reaper, My Morning Jacket, Strands of Oak), they have made an album that embraces the more theatrical elements of their dramatic live shows, and achieved a sound on a scale that their previous releases only hinted at.