Q&A + Exclusive Performance with Natalie Layne
Twenty-one-year-old singer-songwriter Natalie Layne released her debut album 'Be Human' on July 3. She wasn't letting a pandemic stop her from touring (with social-distancing and precautions, of course). With nine dates on her summer tour, the Belmont University alum trekked from Tennessee to Missouri to her home state of Colorado. With a stop to her native Colorado Springs, albeit outdoors, and to smaller crowds, it was a bright spot in an otherwise dark summer for those who attended.
IndieWavves: "More Love" has garnered over 300,000 views on TikTok. There is a bounce and optimism to this song. Can you talk about writing this song with Phoebe and how it came to be?
Natalie Layne: So my friend Phoebe Scott and I write a lot together. She is an incredible lyricist, especially. We just got together to write one day, and I had this chorus kind of in my head, about kind of just the state of the world and where we are just needing less things that divide us and more things that unify us. And so, we wrote "More Love" out of that. She just said I think this song should just start with the line "I think we need a conversation," like we need to talk about this, so it was really fun to write that with her and to have continued to write a lot of songs about the current state of the world with Phoebe Scott as well.
Photos by Kenzie Leigh Photography
IW: "Waking Up" is a timely song about equality and Black Lives Matter. What have you learned most about yourself during this period in time, and what do you hope this song achieves?
NL: "Waking Up" is a song I wrote with my friends Leah Marlene and Emily Dini, and we got together shortly after the death of George Floyd. We were just talking about the ways that our friends, especially white people, are waking up to things that our black brothers and sisters have been talking about forever, and haven't felt heard, and haven't been heard and how we think, you know, this thing that's maybe uncomfortable for some people will bring about a lot of change. So we just started talking about what's that been like for us, to wake up to different aspects of it that we didn't realize what it's been like for some people to wake up for the first time. I feel very blessed to have had best friends who are black, my youth pastor was black, and I've had experiences that have brought it up for me a lot and so many people haven't had that or haven't put themselves in a place to have that, and so we just wanted to write from perspectives of people who are seeing it for the first time. I posted that song on TikTok, and it just got people's attention because that's what they're going through too. It was amazing to hear how impactful it was for people to just think of it in that way.
IW: You are working on more music in the studio right now, correct? What is coming up for Natalie Layne?
NL: I'm writing a lot these days. I just released an album called "Be Human" in July, which is an album that I made with all my friends, and I've gotten to bring in a lot of people on it. Fifty-one people helped make that project, which is insane. And now, I'm just writing a lot for the next project, and hopefully going to be releasing some new music next year. But just spending time really writing and digging in and making sure the sound is right and making sure the lyrics are right. Just spending the time on it, writing all the time.
IW: What are some things that might surprise your fans that you enjoy most in your free time when you are not playing the piano, singing, and songwriting?
NL: OK, I love to bake. Baking is my thing. I love to cook. I think that I've perfected the chocolate chip cookie recipe at this point. You can be the judge of that if you ever want to try my recipe. I love to read. In school I minored in theology, so I love to read anything on theology, anything on music as well - anything - I'll gobble it up, I love it. But I do spend most of my time making music, and I'm not mad about that at all.
IW: Please give us a brief intro on your timeless ballad “You.”
NL: This is my song "You" from the album ‘Be Human’ that I wrote about just us wanting to give God something and having nothing to offer and him coming in anyway and saying "I got you" - basically saying all I ever wanted is you. And this song has come out of a lot of my study of R&B and jazz and gospel, along with me loving to write Christian and gospel lyrics.
Written by Michael Menachem