Olivia Lane has shared another new song; the title track from her forthcoming full-length album - listen to ‘Heart Change’ here.

Co-written by Lane with previous collaborators Matt Nolen (Eric Paslay, Trace Atkins, Lindi Ortega) and Skip Black (Craig Morgan, Jana Kramer, LOCASH), ‘HEART CHANGE’ finds the artist addressing themes of division from her own perspective, and calling for unity in a troubled world, acknowledging “we can't rewrite the past but we can start a brand new page”.

Discussing the meaning and inspiration behind the track, Olivia said: “I wrote the title track smack dab in the middle of 2020, which is when EVERYONE was experiencing a challenging time. Writing this song was my realization that the best thing I can be in this divided world is a better version of myself.”

Today’s release accompanies the announcement of her brand new full-length album of the same name; HEART CHANGE will be released on September 17th 2021, and also features previous tracks ‘SWEET SISTER’, ‘WOMAN AT THE WELL’, ‘BOY’S STILL GOT IT’, ‘WHY DON’T WE’ and ‘I LET THE DEVIL IN’, which has been receiving airplay across the UK & Europe following its exclusive first play on BBC Radio 2 in February. Streams for the album tracks released to date have already totalled over 1.9 million, with 1.2m+ views for the official music videos, and features on high profile playlists including Wild Country & PopCo (Spotify), New In Country (Apple Music) and Country Waves (TIDAL).

“When thinking of what to name this body of work, I had to reflect on what I had experienced in my life over the last few years,” says Lane. “I’m learning heart changes lead to growth, maturity, heartbreak, heart mending and new ways to look at life. They are necessary in becoming our truest selves.”

ABOUT OLIVIA LANE:

A Houston native, Lane spent time in Los Angeles and graduated from the University of Southern California before settling in Nashville in 2013. Her sweet, soulful voice and insightful songwriting helped Lane earn an enthusiastic following, but all her hard work came to a screeching halt in 2017 when stress and anxiety caused her to lose her voice.

“Honestly, I was just so tired of carrying the weight of feeling like I was in control of everything,” she says. “It was just too much for me to bear being in control of my career. Being in control of so many outside factors was weighing me down so much and it infiltrated my whole life. I started to over think everything because that’s what you do when you are trying to strive for perfection and over singing, overcompensating, over sharing my feelings. Ironically I just got to this place where I felt very out of control striving to be in control and I just had to let go. It was letting go emotions in therapy, letting go of my voice in my vocal lessons, letting go of a toxic relationship, which I did during that time, and also letting go of control of my life. That led me to Jesus.”

During therapy, Lane’s therapist taught her that each life is made up of four spheres—spiritual, emotional, physical and logical. “Ideally you want all four of those balanced,” she says but admits she was caught off guard when her therapist asked about her spiritual life. “My spiritual was basically nonexistent. She said, ‘If you want more, you need to figure out what your connection is to the world. What is your purpose? What are you doing here? I was like, ‘That doesn’t sound fun. I don’t want to do that,’ but she gave me a couple of books and she gave me all the options from Buddhism to Christianity. I read this book by John Eldredge called ‘Walking With God’ and it was just so unbelievably clear to me that Jesus was the path. I was an atheist. I was not looking for God, and my path just led me to that. It was like I’d been living in the dark and dust. That’s truly what it felt like. Once I knew there was all this on the outside, it was like this two or three year period of just crushing, changing, shaping and stripping away and ripping people out of my life who weren’t good for me. It was not an easier path, but it’s a path that makes more sense to me.” 

Lane herself has been through a heart change and wants to share what she’s learned. “It was recognizing that there were a lot of things I needed to change and now this project is owning those changes, what has come from those changes and what I’ve learned from those changes,” she says. 

“My message is lean into those heart changes because there’s such greatness waiting on the other side, but you have to get there. You’ve got to walk through that door and make that choice and you have to own that heart change because that’s what leads you to your authentic self. I spent way too long not being my authentic self and it was destroying me. I mean physically and mentally it was destroying me and I had to say no more. I’m done.”

Lane’s music is so relatable and universal because everyone has experienced challenges. “We all have work to do. None of us are perfect,” Lane says. “We’re all broken, so let’s just do the best we can. Looking toward the future, Lane is excited about once again touring as soon as it’s safe to do so. In the wake of the pandemic, she plans to hit the road both in the U.S. and will head to Europe again where she’s developed a strong following. She is also working to grow her publishing company and telling her story through other artistic mediums. Though she’s a savvy businesswoman, at her essence Lane is a singer/songwriter and she’s excited for her audience to experience the songs on her new album. “I hope it will be a safe place to land for people right now who are in need of some heart medicine and some acknowledgement to take that next step to become their authentic self,” she smiles.

“So many people right now are searching for peace and hope and just a little bit of happiness, and it takes work to get there. It takes work to find peace. It takes work to maintain a sense of hope. It’s so easy to get consumed by fear and your own shame, and that’s not what we were designed to do. I just hope people are inspired to look into their deepest hearts and know that there is an option to heal their hearts and to have a heart change.”

‘HEART CHANGE’ is available to stream/download now. The album HEART CHANGE will be released on September 17th, 2021 - pre-order/pre-save details to follow.

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Watch the video premiere for 'Heart Change' below:

Author: Andrew Braithwaite

Andrew is the founder and Managing Director of Music Talkers. He's also a keen music enthusiast and plays the guitar.