Premiere: Mark Lane, ‘Something New’

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Songwriter Mark Lane doesn’t mean to imply he’s re-inventing the wheel with the title of his forthcoming album, “Something New.” Instead, it’s all about perspective. “The title track is about looking at all stuff you have in your life, the things you might take for granted or think are mundane, and fabricating something new from them,” he says.

It’s a mindset Lane employed during the making of the album, which was written as he fastidiously recorded it in his Echo Park home studio, playing all the instruments himself (except for the strings on one song). “Something New,” which Lane hopes to release by autumn, is an ornate pop record with its roots in the ’60s and its limbs swaying in the fickle breezes of emotions – and an album that ended up taking on a life of its own.

||| Download: “Something New”

“For me this was truly a labor of love,” he says, pointing out, too, that it was somewhat of a revelatory experience. “Afterward it felt prophetic to me because it seemed like I had written about things that hadn’t happened to me yet.”

A lot has happened to Lane since his last release, the highly regarded “Golden State of Mind” in 2003. He’s continued to write; he’s played with myriad other artists including Jason Falkner, Rusty Anderson, Buva and Loch & Key; and he’s wrestled with some family issues. What he hasn’t done, though, is rush the release of his new work.

“The album has been done a little while, and I’ve been sitting on it until I put together a band and was in a position to do a release properly,” he says. “It’s not like I’m chasing any sound or trend – the songs weren’t going to get any less relevant if I waited.”

||| Live: Mark Lane performs a solo set on Tuesday at Lot 1 Cafe in Echo Park as part of Buzz Bands LA’s monthly SecondTuesday songwriter night.