Chris Lane has been on quite the ride this past year, being a Top 5 finalist in Macy’s iHeartRadio Rising Star contest, being named of the 10 New Country Artists You Know by Rolling Stone, and spending the summer traveling the country on radio tour. New England Country Music was fortunate enough to catch up with the artist to talk about his new single, EP, and more.
Lane’s brand new single, ‘Fix,’ released October 30th, sets the tone for his debut EP, which was released a couple weeks later on November 13th. ‘Fix’ is undeniably catchy. It’s one of those songs that you can’t help but dance to, which is exactly what Lane loved about it. As he was putting the record together, Chris explained how he already had about five or six songs recorded prior to ‘Fix’ and how the single essentially changed everything. “It wasn’t until the very end, when I was finishing up on it, ‘Fix’ came along and, I don’t know, there was just something really different about the song and I loved it a lot,” he said. He added, “When I was choosing songs for this record, I was always attracted to songs that made me want to move and made me want to dance and songs that just felt great. ‘Fix’ kind of embodies that.” Lane loved the song so much that it inspired him to take the EP in a new direction. “Once I got into the vocal booth, it was just a song that I really took to and it just felt right. At the end of that we felt like this created a sound and a niche for me. That was exciting to find and we really just wiped the rest of the songs out and basically started over,” he said. But in spite of all the hard work and extra effort it took to recreate the EP, Lane stands by the decision to start fresh. “As hard as it was in the moment, I’m really glad now that we did that because I had songs that I loved then, but I have songs that I really really love a lot now,” he said.
For Lane, ‘Fix’ was an obvious choice for the EP, but he had to decide which other songs would make the cut. Although Chris has done his fair share of songwriting and collaborating with other songwriters, he wasn’t stubborn about exclusively recording his own work for this project. “I’m not one of those guys that has to write every single song that I record and for me it was really best song wins,” he said explaining his song selection process. “I wanted songs that just felt good and a lot of these songs make me want to roll my window down and, you know, jam out.”
Last time NECM spoke with Chris Lane, he expressed enthusiasm about having the opportunity to work with producer, Joey Moi, who has had great success with artists like Florida Georgia Line and Jake Owen. Lane has always been impressed with Moi’s sound and working together on this project did not fall short of the singer’s expectations. Chris had nothing but praises for Moi as he described what it was like working alongside the producer. “I’ve always loved what he does. He always knows how to make it sound big, and as far as the vocals go for these songs, he really pushed me to be the best that I can be, pushed me until I couldn’t be pushed anymore. You know, my dad was always the same way so it wasn’t really anything new for me, but I really loved that about him. It just really forced me to not give in and settle on anything, but to make it the best that I could make it. That’s what he’s great at,” Lane said.
As an artist, especially a new one, it’s a bold move to explore a fresh direction sonically; a move that would leave many singers shaking in their boots. But for Lane, there’s more excitement than anything. As mentioned, Chris has spent the past few months sharing some of his new material on radio tour at stations around the country and he’s been blowing everyone away. “It’s been great! I usually do three or four songs and play a couple songs off the record just so they can hear production and stuff like that. But the reaction has been great, actually even better than I’d even hoped for. That only gets me that much more pumped up,” he said with exuberance.
Speaking of reasons to be pumped up, not only has Lane been named one of the 10 New Country Artists You Need To Know by Rolling Stone, he’s topped numerous 2015 Artist to Watch lists including Spotify, TheBoot.com, and TasteOfCountry.com. Surprisingly, Lane is not feeling too much added pressure from these accolades. “I would have never imagined four or five years ago when I was playing some of my old music that I had written that I would ever be named to anything like that. So it’s just very exciting and I can’t believe people are saying stuff like that,” he said modestly. “I obviously don’t want to let anybody down, but at the same time I believe in the music and I love the music I recorded. I’m going to have fun playing these songs every single night and hopefully that comes across to everybody who buys the music and who comes out to the shows.”
Chris has a busy schedule ahead of him. The singer is taking his new music on the road this fall and winter as he accompanies Dustin Lynch on his Hell of a Night Tour, making over 35 stops around the country. “This will be the first tour that I’ve been on where I’ll have music out, so it’s an exciting time,” said the singer, who loves the high of performing live shows. “I do a majority of my songs, but I like fun cover songs that I can get people to sing along to,” he said, specifically mentioning how he loves to perform throwbacks. “That’s just a fun part to me, just to be able to interact with the crowd and then after the show just meeting so many new people.” Generally at Lane’s shows, there will be an official meet and greet before the concert, but for the fans who don’t get the chance to be a part of that, Chris typically hangs out at the merchandise table after he’s finished with his set. “I just go out there and hang out,” Lane said casually. “If there’s anybody who wants to come back there and say hello, I love it.”
“There’s a lot of great stuff to look forward to going for the rest of this year,” Lane said, which holds true for Chris himself, but also for his fans. With the release of his EP and the tour with Dustin Lynch, we’re sure to be hearing a lot more from the singer as he continues to make a bigger name for himself taking country music by storm.