Thank you for going on this journey with me! We’re all bombarded by so many messages that I feel honored you would go out of your way to hear from me about my journey as an artist.
I’m starting this journal as a way to tell the stories behind my music in a longer format. Why do this now? Well, over the past few years, I’ve been working on new music, and I’m finally at a point where I’m going to start releasing it! I can’t wait for you to hear my new stuff.
My first little 4 song EP that I released in 2019 was a collection of some of the first songs I ever wrote. I had just graduated from classical music school, gotten married, and experienced the passing of my father.
Music school left me feeling burnt out. When I graduated, I was no longer sure if I liked singing or performing. Soon after Luke and I were engaged, my father passed away. My dad was an amazing, complicated man. When I was a freshman in college, he became homeless. Our relationship hadn’t always been the best growing up, but a year or so after he became homeless, we started getting lunch every week where he worked (it happened to be on my college campus!).
One day, I showed up for lunch and he didn’t turn up. None of his coworkers had seen him for a few days, and so a search began. A few days later he was found in the woods next to his bike he used to ride to work. Cause of death unknown.
His passing left me feeling lost. I was angry at God, and confused at why and how my dad had been taken from me, right as I was really getting to know him. More than anything I was hurt, and afraid of forgetting the man who raised me.
As I processed my grief, I began to write. My writing became poetry, poetry became songs, and those songs became my first EP.
After he passed, while I was in the process of dealing with his estate, my siblings and I found a small retirement account that would be split between us. The money I received helped offset the cost of recording my EP. My dad was a musician, and this felt like such an amazing last gift. My dad would have loved to see me follow my love for music into writing and recording my first set of songs. I titled the EP in his memory: “Gifts From My Father.”
Over the years I’ve had the honor to continue to write, record, and perform. Songs have helped me continue to process the good and the bad that life throws at me.
This new set of songs is coming out after the birth of our first child, Estelle. Some of the songs were written before she was (as my parents would say) “a twinkle in our eyes,” some of them after she was born, some of them are still not quite finished. Parenthood has been an incredible and difficult journey. Even the songs written before Estelle have taken on new meanings for us as we step into this new world of parenthood. All the songs on this new album were recorded in our home with many talented friends pitching in to make them come to life. I’m extremely proud of each and every song.
The first song is out on streaming platforms. It’s called “When Will You See” and it’s a letter to those who take on other people’s burdens that aren’t theirs to carry (something I seem to perpetually struggle with HA!). It features the AMAZING talents of Justin Patton on guitar, Ben Crawford on bass, Pierce Johnston on mastering, and my sweet hubs on drums, production, and mixing.
A big thank you to Brian and Kristie Hansen for the amazing photography that you can see at the beginning of this newsletter and will be seeing a lot more of.
You can preview “When Will You See" with this link. You can also paste this URL into your search bar: https://song.link/us/i/1722624395
Happy listening!
- Lane Marie