New England Country Music was lucky enough to get to sit down with Chris Lane before his recent show at Mohegan Sun. The ‘Broken Windshield View’ singer was an awesome guy to hang out with and put on an amazing high energy show later that night.
Growing up, Chris had his sights set on something other than music- sports. Growing up he dreamed of playing professional baseball or football. While playing college baseball he had some injuries that set him back so he took up a new hobby. “I had knee surgery and I asked my parents for a guitar for Christmas, I’d just sit there and learned how to play it.” And his twin brother, Cory, took up drums when he returned home from college. The two of them worked at it until they knew enough songs to book themselves at a local club. However, the club required that there be a full band to play there so Chris told management that he had a full band. The night before the show he told some buddies “I’ll give you $100 each if you just stand on stage and act like you’re playing” and that was how he got his start. From that night on he began to get a bigger and bigger following to the point where he ended up getting signed by Big Loud Mountain and moving to Nashville.
Just five years after that first gig, he spent last summer opening for Florida Georgia Line and Nelly at baseball stadiums all over the country. In addition to being able to play his music in baseball stadiums and take batting practice before the shows, Chris appreciated the opportunity to learn from the megastar duo that is Florida Georgia Line, “I learned a lot from those guys. They’re doing it at the highest level. So for a young artist, like myself, to be able to sit there and watch that every night, it helped me out with my performance. Kinda took what they did and did it my own way. It was just super helpful.” He also thought it was cool that Nelly, who he grew up listening to, would call him ‘Cat Daddy’ though he admits with a laugh, “I think he called everybody that so I probably shouldn’t feel too special.”
Chris has been in the studio writing and recording new music for an upcoming EP. His single ‘Broken Windshield View’ came out last summer and since then he says he’s grown as a writer and artist. Though he did not write ‘Broken Windshield View’ (a guy you may have heard of by the name of David Lee Murphy wrote it) he says “at the time, that was my style… But I think the new music that’s about to come out, I’m very excited about it, it’s going to be different than what most people expect.”
There is currently no date set for the EP but Chris says while they are shooting for this summer, they don’t want to rush it, “there’s a thing called perfect timing” he explained. He’s written some of the music on it, while other songs he has not. “Best song wins” he says adding that only recording your own music is “a good way to close yourself off.”
Chris is in great hands with Joey Moi producing the EP, who has also produced for artists such as Jake Owen and Florida Georgia Line. Chris remembers the first time he heard ‘Cruise’ being impressed with the production to the point where he looked up who it was. At the time Chris says he thought to himself, “man how you even get a hold of somebody like this, I wonder what it costs to have something sound this good produced.” Luckily for Chris, having Moi produce his music was part of the deal he signed with Big Loud Mountain. He pointed out the crazy road that led to that experience coming full circle, something he is clearly pleased to have had worked out.
Chris recently was a finalist for this year’s Macy’s iHeart Radio Rising Star contest. Though he did not ultimately come away with the win, he was wowed by all the support he received from fans; many taking time to cast the maximum 50 votes each day throughout the contest. He’s also been amazed by the love he gets from fans on the road “No matter where we go there’s plenty of people that show up just for us and that’s encouraging to see. I’m a young, young artist so to go in the middle of anywhere and for people to show up is a win for me.”
There is absolutely a reason that his fan base is big and growing, Chris is an extremely talented artist who puts on an awesome live show! If you want to learn a little more about Chris you can check out the transcript of the #NECMTalk he did with us recently here. We here at New England Country Music appreciate all of his support and can’t wait for his EP to come out! Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his burgeoning career.