“That’s what I think about [when I write],” says the Thornbury-based Lane, reached on the road travelling between different promotional obligations on a particularly busy day. “I don’t use listening to music as my main source of inspiration when writing music. I use the experiences that I’ve had. That’s why I do my best to get out there. Growing up in the suburbs and having the yearning to get out and see the land, that was important too.”
After multiple tours of Australia, Lane couldn’t deny his urge to tour abroad any longer. “My mum has told me this nearly everyday since I started playing music, she says, ‘Get out while you can. Get out while you’re young. Australia’s so small and there’s a whole world out there.’”
Lane set his sights on the birthplace of country and folk music, two genres he feels particularly comfortable being associated with. As he attempted to connect the dots between his music and his musical influences, Lane was able to attain perspective on his abilities as an artist.
“I’ve been [to the United States] half a dozen times in the last few years, and the reason I’d always wanted to go was because it’s the birthplace of some incredible music. But the first place I went in the States was Joshua Tree, the desert just outside of Los Angeles. I wanted to be in and around the place where Gram Parsons died,” he continues. “There was this feeling in being there that I could do anything I wanted and that I could take on the world. There was a feeling throughout my first trip there that I was standing in the place where so much great music was created. That didn’t ever leave me.”
In fact, Lane’s respect and aspirations for gigging in the northern hemisphere only have specific limitations. “The only thing I’ll say I’ll never do is play a gig with Nickelback,” he quips.
Already ripe with experience having shared the stage with Cat Power, The Moody Blues, Gotye, the Weakerthans and Billy Bragg, it’s hard to imagine Lane fretting about not getting a call from the loathed Canadian foursome. Gigging with the aforementioned Bragg however, as he did on a recent Australian tour, did have a profound effect on Lane. “He’s an amazing storyteller. It was really inspiring. I tried to take what I could from those shows and learn how I’m going to be able to do that for the rest of my life as well.”
The next step for Lane is launching his single Fool For Love from his yet to be named upcoming album. Moving away from the traditional singer-songwriter approach, Lane instead favours a more fleshed out sound. It’s part of a process that Lane doesn’t see himself finishing anytime soon.
“I really want to have a good crack at creating a sound that I can call my own. I’m having a lot of fun trying to pinpoint exactly what that is. Lyrically, things are branching out and things, sonically at least, are sounding very different.”
BY JOSHUA KLOKE
