Alaura Lynne has had an unconventional journey that landed her a career in country music.
According to Lynne, she never knew she could sing until she sang karaoke at a wedding one night and received positive feedback. She had never thought about music as a career prior to that but quickly began pursuing opportunities that would further her career as a musician.
Soon after her karaoke experience, Lynne did her research and sought out the best vocal coach in Dallas, starting lessons the following week.
"I did not know I could even sing until I was in my 20s. I found out I could sing at karaoke at a wedding in East Texas, and the DJ actually pointed out he thought I had something. That was the first time I ever really thought music was something I should do," Lynne said. "I decided to just give it a try, and I'm so glad I did. I started doing vocal lessons and cover gigs, and I started doing a job doing ads for country radio, doing jingles and stuff."
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While recording the ads and jingles in recording studios, Lynne realized she didn’t want her career to end there. She wanted to record her own music.
Not long after deciding to start making her own music, she happened to run into one of the most sought-after music producers in the industry while out at a fast-food restaurant.
"Soon after, I met my producer, Michael Clute, who's a Grammy-winning producer, randomly at a burger joint in Dallas. We started talking, and I showed him just a video of me singing, and the rest is history," she explained. "We've been working together ever since. It's been an interesting journey getting to where I am now. It's exciting."
The video she showed Clute was not of the infamous karaoke session from the wedding. It was another video of her singing at church. She had begun singing as part of her church choir and thought a video of her singing a solo was a good way to show the producer what she was capable of.
"The video I showed him was actually at church. I was singing ‘A Holy Night,’ so it was nothing produced. It was just on stage at church, but it was a great way to show off my voice," Lynne explained.
After watching the video of her singing at church, Lynne says, Clute told her to "just contact (him)" so they can talk and they "quickly started working together." Lynne is amazed by the way everything worked out for her, saying she just happened to be "exactly where (she) was supposed to be."
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Lynne’s first single, "I Ain’t a Bitch," has been released and so has the song's video. She explained she didn’t initially plan on making this her first single, but after hearing that people were asking her producers if she was easy or difficult to work with, she decided to let people know exactly the kind of person she is through her music.
"It has to be the first release, because it's just like, right off the bat, answering that question: 'If anyone's wondering, no, I'm not a b----,'" Lynne said. "We jumped on it. We're like, ‘This is going to be the first one.’ We got to do the video and everything."
[WARNING: Video below contains graphic language]
It was exciting for Lynne to see her first music video come together. She explained that she went into the process with a clear idea of what she wanted the video to look like, and she is happy her ideas were accepted and loves the way the video turned out.
"It was really cool to see my ideas come to life," Lynne explained. "I think, for the first song, I really wanted people to just get to know my voice but also get to know me. That was kind of what we did with the video as we made every character me. It was just really cool to see it all come together, and I'm really proud of it."
There are no collaborations with other artists on Lynne’s debut record, mostly because she and her team, including Clute and songwriter and producer Bobby Huff, decided it would be better for Lynne to first "get known for (her)self" before working with other artists.
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If she does collaborate with other country artists in the future, she would want to do so with Morgan Wallen and potentially Miranda Lambert. Lynne also cites Shania Twain, Dolly Parton and Celine Dion as her biggest inspirations.
"I think I just, I've always gravitated to like powerful, strong female artists, and I think those few have shown me that just being yourself and doing your own thing, that makes you stand out," she explained.
"I want people to feel empowered, and I want them to feel positive about any situation" after listening to her music and learn to always "find the positive," Lynne said.
The second single from Lynne’s debut album is set to be released Nov. 4 with an album soon to follow.
