How did you get your Artist name? I was born with it! My full name is Lainey Marissa Dionne, which means "star by the sea" with a French last name (haha).

How did you get into creating? Good question! I think I've always been a creator. I loved art and music as a kid and was very imaginative in the games I played on the playground. As I got older, music became more of an escape. As I got into my rebellious teenage years, I listened to a lot of screemo to deal with my angst (haha). I was even in a high school screemo band. Music is really cool because there is something out there for everyone, in every mood, with every sound. I wanted to create music for myself to deal with my life, but also to help people connect with their emotions and deal with stuff in their lives too.

Where are you from? I'm from a small town in the smallest state, Smithfield, Rhode Island. I love being from Rhode Island. Right now I live in the capital, Providence, Rhode Island, which is known as "The Creative Capital".

What did you do to advance your skills/knowledge? When I was 19, I went to Berklee College of Music and when I turned 21, I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Music Business with a minor in Audio Production and Engineering. I learned so much in my short time there and wish I could've taken more classes to explore more skills, but I am very lucky to have spent any time at Berklee. Majoring in business allows me to understand the ever changing industry standards and market and minoring in production allows me to know the ins and outs of how to record and make a good track. Both subject gave me priceless knowledge on how to hold my own in the music world. I was writing songs before my time at Berklee, but the skills I learned there really helped me take my songs to the next level and promote them independently. After that I was handpicked to join a songwriting retreat in France and saved up all my money to go. There I learned how to co-write and took that skill with me to Nashville. When I got back to the States, I had a meeting with Atlantic Records and they directed me to a team in Nashville where I was able to take my songwriting further than I ever thought I was capable of. My newest single "Hey London" was written in Nashville and I can't wait to show you the rest.

What does your current setup look like? When I play out live, I play with a TC Helicon Voice/Live/Play pedal which allows me to EQ, add reverb, loop, and harmonize with myself. I think it adds some extra spice to my solo performances. I mostly play solo, accompanying myself on guitar, but I've also toured the East Coast with my band backing me up.

Who inspires you? It changes day to day but I am mostly inspired to write by random playlists on Spotify. Some of the artists on those playlists are Sigrid, Gabrielle Aplin, Charlotte Lawrence, Phoebe Bridgers, Lennon Stella, Elohim and Raffaella. If you like my music- you will definitely like those artists, or if you already like those artists- you will definitely like my music.

What is your goal when you create? My goal is to release how I'm feeling. Sometimes I'm so happy or so in love that I can't contain it and its easiest to express with music. Sometimes I'm so depressed or so angry that I can't deal with it and writing music about it is like therapy. Whatever the emotion is, I set down and write to make a memory of that emotion and to process it. My goal is always to feel better.

What's your go-to song right now? In Vain by Sigrid or Boss B*tch by Doja Cat. In vain is super in my feels and breathes life into the broken pieces of my heart and Boss B*tch reminds me that I'm a boss and I don't have to take crap from anyone (haha).

What is your dream as an artist? I would love to do this for the rest of my life. I feel like that's a bland, boring answer- but I would love to be able to support myself creating. I want to spend all of my time meeting new people and talking about my music and their interpretations of my songs and how it relates to what they went through. I want to connect with people and make a living doing that for the rest of my life. That would be a dream.

What is some advice you would give to someone with a dream? Give it your all. Give it 100% of everything you have. Put in the work, believe in yourself, and treat yourself right. Do yourself the justice of really seriously going for it.

Tell us about your most recent release: “Hey London” is an empowering bop about a “foreign fling” I had. I stayed in England for a month with a British guy I was dating- we obviously broke up and when I got back to the States, I had London on the brain and wanted to write a song with London in the title. I used my real life experience to help write this song with my co-writers Gabe Simon and Nick Schwarz. I wasn’t being treated right in a couple of my relationships (two of them being with Europeans that I met online and saved all my money to fly over and meet for the first time) and took all of that anger and BS I felt from all of my relationship and used it for the narrative of this song. I am “over it”. I’m over being treated like poo and I know exactly what I want for myself in the future. Although this is a breakup song, it’s a happy bop about learning your self worth and knowing when to move on to better things. "Hey London" is available everywhere and I'd love to know what you think of it!

Share a link to your most recent release: https://open.spotify.com/track/5r7NkSl6c4asVw9W62jdnm?si=fwIPmVxuRL2EcCVajGZUBw

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Website: http://www.laineydionne.com