Meet the Lovely Lauren St.Jane

“I love to tell a story.” That’s how Lauren St.Jane summarizes her musical intentions. We first caught up with her at this year’s 30a Songwriter Festival and she just released a new EP called Hurricane earlier this month.

“Music has always been around me my whole life. My Grandmother was a singer/songwriter in Nashville, and her brother played for Elvis. So I grew up in a really musical family – although my parents never really sang and played outside of high school band.”

Lauren credits her Grandmother as her primary influence. “She and I were extremely close. She had a farm in Prattville Alabama and I would spend my Summers there. I really think that I was influenced by her music and I started singing in church when I was kid. I can remember being on the playground – I was nine years old making up my own songs.”

During her high school years, Lauren joined her sister’s band but she wasn’t sure if the pop-music style of that band was right for her. “I was still struggling. Was it something that I really wanted to do? Is it really me?”

It was her love of writing that brought her back to music and helped her find a genre to call home, “I love to tell stories in my songs and what better genre does that than Americana and country?”

From her new album, she calls the song ‘Falling’, “the most true song I have written. I was kind of nervous to throw it out there to everybody, but it is the song that I always get the biggest response from with people and I’m always shocked. Maybe they can tell that it is true – it is honest, and gravitate towards that.”

Although the Hurricane EP was officially released March 2^nd, Lauren is already working towards another release before the end of 2015.

So how does she manage to write so many original songs? Like most, she admits that writers block can sneak into the picture. “It is a hard thing to overcome. I have to do things that stir up creativity. In college I took a songwriting class and I remember her saying – and it always stuck with me – that you can’t just strike when the iron is hot. Meaning you can’t just write when you feel inspired because that is a fleeting feeling. You have to write every single day. And by writing every single day you get better at it and it keeps those creative juices flowing.”

Here’s to Lauren St.Jane and all of her creative endeavors. Learn more at: http://www.laurenstjane.com/