Rising country star Chris Lane is excited to be back on the road with Florida Georgia Line on their cross Canadian tour, which stops by the Enmax Centre, Nov. 9.
“ I want to say I’ve played there before with Florida Georgia Line. I’ve toured with them a couple of times. I did a similar tour of Canada with them and toured with them before when I didn’t have any music out. So it will be nice to be back with a number one record under my belt,” rumbled Chris Lane, from Nashville, calling early to begin a busy day of CMA activities.
“I’m doing all of the red carpet things for it,” he said.
He has had an exciting year, getting a number one hit with “Fix,” the first single from his new CD “Girl Problems.” He is getting ready to release the next single “ For Her” and created a video featuring an actual marriage proposal. And on the darker side of the spectrum, suffered a tour bus fire last week returning from a gig in New York.
“We heard a bang, and all of the sudden everybody was screaming, trying to get off the bus. I lost all my stuff, but nobody was hurt. It could have been a lot worse if we were sleeping at the time,” Lane said.
“ I have to get all new stuff,” he said adding they didn’t have to cancel any tour dates because of the incident.
“No. It was a Sunday and we were coming back from New York. So we’re just glad to be alive,” he said.
He is pleased the new single “Fix,” has been a hit with audiences.
“I’m just excited people like it. I spend so much time on the road with this music, it feels good to see people supporting something I’ve put so much hard work into. And people come to the show and they sing along with the song and they‘re starting to sing along with the whole album. It’s happening more and more,” he said.
He tracked down a real life couple to propose in the video.
“We thought it would be fun to have a real proposal. I didn’t know them. I never met them until that day. But it was so far out of character for him, I was afraid she’d think it was a joke. Fortunately she said yes. That’s the first marriage proposal I’ve been part of. I even got an invitation to their wedding,” he said, noting now he is always getting requests from couples who want to propose.
“I get dozens of requests every day and I try to accommodate as many of them as I can. It’s just very cool they want me to be part of them,” he said.
The new CD has aura of a pop sound to it thanks to Lane discovering a new skill in the studio — singing falsetto.
“I was singing a falsetto run in the studio and the producer heard it and said ‘ That’s what we should be working on.’ So we found songs that used falsetto,” he said.
He wrote a lot of songs for his CD, but only two made the cut.
“ When you’re just starting out, you don’t necessarily get the best songs,” he said.
“I did a lot of co-writing too, but I didn’t take credit for it because I just changed a few things on the songs and you have to get the songwriters’ permission to do that,” he said.
Lane is influenced by a variety of music.
“I love country music. I listen to pop music, but I love ’80s rock too,” he said.
Lane has had the opportunity to write with some high profile songwriters.
“ I wrote with Craig Wiseman who wrote like 25 number one hits , which is just crazy,” he said.
“ But just working with these guys just shows I have a long way to go,” he said.
He is excited to spend most of 2017 touring with Florida Georgia Line.
“ I’m very excited about it. 2016 has been a strong year for me , but I’m going the extra mile in 2017.”
Florida Georgia Line’s Dig Your Roots Tour with Granger Smith and Chris Lane, comes to the Enmax Centre, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $63.50-$89.50.
