Daily Inspiration: Meet Max Lane

Today we’d like to introduce you to Max Lane.

Hi Max, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I grew up a Navy brat, traveled the world at a very young age. When my dad retired from the Navy we ended up in Baton Rouge Louisiana. I was a pretty quiet kid but I loved to sing. I started playing guitar around the age of 9. I’ve always sang and made up songs and would write for fun. I would sing gospel/worship songs with my Momma and she would teach me how to pick out and sing harmony. My Papaw introduced me to all of the country and gospel greats. He would teach me to play country and southern baptist hymns on the guitar. He still is the best guitar player I know.

I was groomed from a young age for ministry. I played music in my local church youth group and church bands throughout childhood and highschool. The church I grew up in wasn’t like the southern baptist churches my grandparents and cousins went to. I grew up in the assemblies of god. My parents had gotten saved in the late 80s-early 90s and the traditional style of church service was lost on them. When people ask how church was growing up I like to say the church I grew up in was “two steps away from shaking snakes”. Nothing was off the table. Rolling around on the ground, hootin’ and hollering, scream crying and confessing your sins, being delivered from demons at the altar, you name it. And during all of that, I was providing the soundtrack.

So music/worship services were wild. The pastor encouraged us to “rock out”. So me and my band would bring all of our musical influences into our “worship” service and would have hours long jam sessions where we riffed and played as folks got wild with the lord.

It was a unique way to cut my teeth musically. There were elements of country, gospel, blues, soul and rock all that informed my sound today.

I went into the ministry at 19, I would work for churches playing music, taking part time gigs, doing whatever I needed to survive and keep playing music. Churches notoriously underpay and take advantage of their talent and eventually I reached my breaking point and walked away in 2016.

After leaving the church, I felt my music career was essentially over, I went into a deep depression. I started abusing alcohol and eventually was hospitalized for my mental health.

As of today I am 3+ years sober from alcohol and in that time of healing I began to write music again. I had always written but it was for church music. I had written songs for myself that no one had heard because it wasn’t appropriate for church.

I began writing again for myself, not for god, for a church or for a job. Just for me, and the songs that started coming out were really honest and brutal.

My relationship with spirituality is much different now. I don’t go to church or really even practice religion. But the lessons have stuck with me and its reflected in a lot of my songs as I write a lot about my past and religious trauma.

Since I came back to making music again in earnest about 2 years ago, I have released an EP, a handful of singles and have played a lot of shows.

The highlight of my music career thus far was getting to open for my songwriting hero John Moreland in my adopted hometown of Hillsborough NC

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I probably touched on this in the first section.

Struggles for me have been with my past trauma with religion, my substance abuse and mental health struggles that came along with that and of course the ever present neurodivergence with being severely ADHD.

It hasn’t been a smooth road, I’m turning 35 this year and in a lot of ways feel like I have just started because of how drastically different my life looks outside of ministry and the time wasted chasing a career and community that I was never supposed to be a part of.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I play what I would refer to as country/folk music. I use those terms loosely. My writing style is more folk than country but there is an underlying “southerness” to everything I write.

I take pride in my vocal range and using my voice like an instrument. When I need to I can sing pretty high but I also other the last few years have developed a baritone sound I use for a lot of my newer songs.

Guitar wise I am all self taught and do everything wrong but I think it works for what I do. I go from fingerpicking songs like “oblivion” to loudly strummed songs like “ghost towns”.

I am used to being on stage by myself and filling up the space with just my voice and a guitar, that’s where I feel most at home musically. I love playing with a live band but my songs are made to be played acoustic in front of a listening audience. Its about the words and the emotional message I am trying to convey with my stripped down performance.

I am most proud of the fact I have no idea what I am doing lol. I come from church music background, no experience playing in bars and with being in “the music business”. I am a baby when it comes to this shit. But I am trying to have fun with it and not take it too seriously. The attention and love I’ve received in the short amount of time I’ve been playing out has been really encouraging and validating.

What sets me apart? Im not sure necessarily. I know my voice is unique to the genre I play, but I hope what people notice is that I don’t put out a song unless I feel like I believe in it. And I guess what I mean by that is I don’t release songs to release songs, I want to feel the emotions of what I am writing and singing and I want that to translate to whoever is listening. I do my best to speak my own language, I’m not worried about the song making sense to the listener. I like It when things are left open ended and the listener has to ascribe their own emotional meaning to the song. I think the best songs do that and that’s what I try to do with my music.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Honesty and vulnerability.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxlaneofficial/