by Chandler Christopher
October 23, 2021
Lainey Gonzales is a 25 year old singer-songwriter based out of Austin, Texas. Making songs that are “easy on the ears and hard on the heart,” Lainey annotates stories directly from her heart, creating soothing, acoustic melodies behind her resounding voice. Check out Lainey Gonzales’ debut album, Don’t Make Me Worry, follow her on her socials, and check out our q&a interview below!
Q: How’d you get into music?
Lainey: I always wanted to do music, but I was just never really sure how to do it. I have been singing as long as I can remember and my dad played guitar and taught me a few chords. So, I grew up with music and even sang and played with a cover band growing up.
Q: What is your songwriting process like?
Lainey: At one point, writing seemed too hard. But when I got to college, I was able to explore things on my own for the first time. A big struggle for me was feeling like the indie rock space was extremely hard to make it in as a woman, as most artists in the space were men. So for a long time, this was discouraging. A big inspiration for me was going to see indie music from artists like Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers… Seeing them and others come in and trailblaze the way for independent, female artists was a huge push for me in realizing that I could do it too.
Q: What’s the Austin music scene been like for you?
Lainey: The music scene in Austin is so interconnected. Once I started playing live, I started getting asked to play more and more shows. It’s a really communal environment and everybody really just wants to be up on a stage. It’s incredible for up and coming artists.
Q: Has your place in the scene evolved?
Lainey: Yeah, I started off playing house shows and was involved in Young Life, and I was steadily playing those types of shows within that community. I started doing college radio at The University of Texas and that opened me up to the more alternative scene. And once I started playing with a band, that opened everything up for us. We played KVRX Fest and started getting involved in shows at Cheer Up Charlie’s.
Q: Tell me about your debut album, ‘Don’t Make Me Worry’…
Lainey: Some of the songs on the album are super, super old, but I wrote the majority of the record during the pandemic. We were holding recording/rehearsal sessions for 25-30 hours a week… It’s crazy to think that we had that kind of time as a result of the pandemic.
Q: Where does the title come from?
Lainey: The title came from the first time I asked my mom if I could go to therapy. The album is about confronting mental health and looking inwards… Learning how to cope, and all of the things that come with that. And on the flip side of that, it’s also about the bright sides and the things that help me cope. I’m a big fan of albums being full narratives, so that’s what I tried to do. The ages 17-22 were about learning how to deal with my mental health, and quarantine forced me to confront things, so you’ll hear that on the record.
