When Lanie Lane announced her retirement from the world of performance, it took many people by surprise.

Over four years, seven singles and two albums, she had charmed countless fans and even found herself recording alongside the likes of Jack White. But the constant pressure of life on the road, combined with the emotional sacrifices a life in music can demand, led to Lane bowing out from the spotlight indefinitely. Now she’s back, and much sooner than anticipated, thanks largely to the courtship of the Woodford Folk Festival. Between the festival and her Summer Gathering tour, we are on the cusp of seeing a vibrant new side of the rockabilly troubadour.

“I was doing heaps of festivals, but I’d never done Woodford. I kept asking, ‘Why haven’t I done Woodford? I want to do Woodford!’” she laughs. “It just never happened, and I never went on my own just to see it, either. When you’re a musician, so much of your life is spent at festivals that you don’t really go to them. You need a break sometimes from live music, from crowds. So I never got to go, and now it’s finally here! If I wasn’t doing Woodford, I wouldn’t be doing the [headline] shows. It just wouldn’t have happened at this point. But I think that’s good, because I didn’t overthink anything. It’s been happening very naturally.”

The last ten months have seen a tide of change come over Lane. Beyond additions to her personal life, she has been striving to expand the limits of her creativity, and while music remains a fundamental aspect of her day-to-day, she is just as likely to be found now focusing on visual art. For years it was an aspect of her art she felt reluctant to share, but now, having taken time to recharge and redirect her energy, the Victorian native feels it’s time to start exercising that side of herself.

“I think when you dramatically change the course of your life, lots of space opens up for new things. For me it’s been a new relationship, a new dog, and then there’s art practice, a new home, living in a different state that is the complete opposite of Victoria. Living in Queensland in this gorgeous, dry, tropical area, everything has changed so much, and so obviously to get here there have been so many adventures along the way. So many stories and unexpected turns of events. It’s been pretty epic, and I’ve had to continually adjust myself to keep up with the changes. Life is so unexpected, and you just can’t ever make logical sense of how things turn out. I think I’ve been learning to be OK with that, and how that can be the best place to be. To surrender to life. It doesn’t mean to not do anything, but to go with the flow.

“When Woodford came along and asked me to [play], it was an immediate feeling of ‘yes’. From there, these other shows kind of rolled out. I had to go through some internal checks that this was what I wanted to do, and it was. It’s going to be awesome, and one of the biggest gifts for me is going to be the chance to sell my art. That’s one of the biggest parts of it all for me, and I’ve been working really hard on that. It’s the first time I’m doing it – I’ve never had the guts to show my art before, or thought that I was good enough. This week I’m screen printing for the first time, standing around in 40-degree heat ironing 150 tea towels. It’s really cool. But also hot,” she laughs.

With a string of east coast tour dates ahead, Lane is truly on the cusp of a profound moment in her artistic career. While the shape of her musical persona is still somewhat ephemeral, there are nevertheless ample opportunities for fans to see how one of Australia’s most down-to-earth entertainers has grown in this period of introspection and renewal. There is new material to be heard, but Lane is just as excited to see audiences connect with this parallel aspect of her storytelling.

“I’ve been so much more visually creative this year, which is why it’s important for me to bring that on the road. If people are interested in my creative, artistic work, then I’m sure they’ll be interested or open to seeing me as a holistic artist, not just a musician. That’s been one of my biggest openings this year. Musically, I’ve written maybe four songs this year, and I’ll play those and that’ll be great, but it’s not like a huge new body of work.

“To me, it’s all connected. I was burned out from being industrial, in trying to make it with ambition. I can’t fathom anything like that. But I think it happens naturally, like it is at the moment. Doing small parts that I can manage. I’m literally doing everything for this tour. I have a booking agent, but everything else is me, all the way down to what kind of tags we’ll put on the artwork. That’s a battle I can handle. But I think my conception of music and visual art, everything that you’re creating comes from the same force, and so to me, it’s always colliding and merging and integrating, all coming from within. Those worlds are never separate.”

[Lanie Lane photo by Cybele Malinowski]

Lanie Lane playsDjango Bar on Thursday December 3 and Friday December 4; and also appears at Woodford Folk Festival 2015, Sunday December 27 – Friday January 1.

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