Josiah Rosen, lead guitar, vocals
Jared Palomar, bass, keyboards, vocals
Justin South, drums

Travel breaks down a kind of inner structure we have. Stripped of our props, deprived of our masks, we are completely on the surface of ourselves." – Albert Camus

Augustana’s debut All the Stars and Boulevards is a true rite of passage-an album full of airplanes and acclimation, of New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, and San Diego and, maybe most importantly, the moments of self-awareness in between. But first… Greenville, Illinois.

After growing up on the West Coast, lead singer Dan Layus landed at Greenville College in Illinois, where he majored in music. When Dan met Josiah Rosen, the two found a shared passion for bands like Counting Crows and Radiohead. They started playing together and christened themselves Augustana, a name suggested by Josiah, which is thought to be Latin for ‘a small glimpse of hope.’ (“We’re not 100% sure of this,” says Dan with a laugh. “We’ve tried researching it.”)

Then, after recruiting fellow undergrad Jared Palomar to play keyboards, Augustana recorded some songs that started winning them local acclaim. Disillusioned with school and full of the kind of adrenaline that gets things done no matter how impetuous, Dan and Josiah decided near the end of the fall 2004 semester that their future wasn’t in Greenville – they were going to move to California and try to make Augustana more than a college band.

“I wasn’t happy in my classes, I was failing and I just kept thinking, man, I know music is for me, just not this part of it,” says Dan. Jared was understandably wary about leaving school, but decided to join the duo six weeks later and jumped from the keys to bass. The one thing Augustana needed now was a drum player. When Josiah heard through some common friends that Justin South was a free agent, he e-mailed him to see if he wanted to come try out.

“I checked out their website and I was like ‘wow,’” Justin remembers. “I thought this sounds like a signed group who’d been playing together for years. When I found out it was all self-produced and they were doing their own thing, it completely blew me away.”

When Justin played with the band for the first time, it was clear things had fallen into place. “I ran through their songs with them,” Justin says. “And then we just kind of looked at each other and, I don’t know, it just felt right. There was no awkwardness, no one telling anyone what to do or how to play. It was just completely fluid.”

Justin e-mailed Augustana’s website to an old industry contact he had who was so impressed he called Justin immediately. ("I think the first words out of his mouth were: when do we start working?