The LA-based alt-rock trio OUT IN FRONT are living up to their name. Formed in 2024, the band has already embarked on multiple tours in their short time together, and they’re relentless in maintaining that forward momentum. Allston Pudding caught up with Ryen Wagner, Madie Renner, and Isaiah Volk in the brief interim between the end of their tour with Charlotte Sands and the start of their tour with LEAP.
OUT IN FRONT formed under serendipitous and surprisingly athletic circumstances. Vocalist Madie Renner–performing solo at the time as just Renner–realized that her fellow tennis coach coworker Isaiah Volk shared her passion for music. The band was complete when Volk’s former college teammate Ryen Wagner also started coaching tennis and the three began jamming together. The jam sessions quickly turned into gigging, and they did their first live performance together as Renner before they officially adopted the name OUT IN FRONT.
From early shows to the studio, the three artists moved quickly. “I had some songs in the back pocket and we started recording together,” Madie recounted of the time following their first gig. “It’s way more fun being in a band than being a solo artist, in my opinion,” she added. “I had to learn to collaborate way more. At the beginning I was still kind of stuck in my like, pop singer-songwriter [mode], but [Isaiah and Ryen], they grew up like punk, rock, metal, and so it didn’t take until we found our dream producer Joel [Ferber] and he was able to blend all of our ideas together. Thankfully it only took us like a year to find Joel, so we were very lucky. I feel like we’ve really locked in on our sound.”
Collaboration in the studio resulted in the release of a couple singles, and before long OUT IN FRONT were invited to join Keep Flying on tour. Madie marveled, “we put out ‘Golden State’ and then we put out ‘Happy Graduation Day’ and then all of a sudden we’re doing like a half United States tour with two songs out!” They did not allow their small discography to discourage them from putting themselves out on a limb. “We went a little crazy. I was DMing every local band in the city that we wanted to play and set up shows with them,” Madie noted. “We took tour by storm from the get go.” Additionally, the radio play and attention garnered from their early single “fLoAT” provided the band with opportunities to perform on the same stages as Wet Leg, The All-American Rejects, and Yellowcard.
Their dogged work ethic has paid off so far, and OUT IN FRONT has steadily accumulated fans across their tours in support of Keep Flying, Bryce Vine, and Charlotte Sands. Their latest single “Medicine” highlights the double-edged blade that is touring life, however. Madie described the guilt of forgetting her dad’s birthday amid the bustle of being on the road, and how that motivated her to begin writing. “I wrote this chorus in my head and a verse, but I was just gonna put it away, because I was like ‘I don’t really want to talk about this.’ I was just feeling like really shitty, but then we were in the studio.” Ryen played a bass riff that coincidentally fit well with the scraps that Madie had written the previous night, and that catalyzed the creation of the song within three hours.
“Medicine” is just a taste of things to come for OUT IN FRONT, who recently signed with AWAL and are currently working on an LP. While Ryen teased that their next single is titled “Fly Away,” due for an October 23 release, Madie explained “right now we have like a bank, like we have maybe seven or eight songs that are pretty much almost done, and when we’re finally back from tour in November, we’re gonna finish. We’ve gotta clock back into the studio.” The three still have their coaching jobs to contend with though, at least in theory. Madie reflected, “we haven’t been back to work in over 60-70 days now, so we’ll see if they’ll take us back, but they’ve been so supportive.” Ryen added, “It’s about to be another 30.”
Neither Madie, Ryen, nor Isaiah are worried about keeping up the pace. Isaiah brushed off any concerns with pragmatism, “I think we know what we have to do to continue to grow and continue to make this a full-time project or endeavor for us. So that’s kind of the mindset that we take.” Ryen reinforced the sentiment, “Yeah we’ve come to terms with the tired thing. Like I don’t think being tired is much of a worry for us anymore. It’s more of like, don’t get sick, don’t get injured.”
At the end of the day, OUT IN FRONT are laser focused on their strategy of connecting with audiences in a live setting, where they’ve attracted their most loyal fans. “It’s because the one-to-one connection is pretty important to us,” Isaiah stated, “building that connection in every city is more important to us than getting numbers online.” Once again Ryen supported, “It’s also why we like going on the road so much. We’ve come to learn that the numbers on things don’t matter as much… We know that what’s gonna get somebody to come back to a show is if we give them a good show in front of them when they can go out and see it live. So that’s our favorite thing for sure.”