Making of an Indie Artist, Part 3
More With Lindsey Kane
Up & coming indie artist Lindsey Kane has generously agreed to share her step by step musical/spiritual process for the benefit of those coming up after her on the path.
Click here to read the first parts of our “Making of an Indie” series with Lindsey Kane before moving onto this, Part 3.
Suite: Lindsey, the last part of our interview covered some important spiritual indicators. Let’s take things to a practical place for our readers. Once you know that the Lord is truly calling you, what’s the next step? Or, what was it for you?
Lindsey: To better communicate what I’m trying to say, I will attempt to formulate a rough outline of how things happened with my career.
- Summer before my freshman year in college: recorded my first CD. I found my producer through a contact that my physics teacher, of all people, told me about! So I called up the producer and we recorded 12 songs that I had written that year. It was an enlightening experience and I loved every minute of it. So that CD was released around October of 2000 during my freshman year in college. After that I continued to play shows here and there and lead worship for different retreats, conferences, and events. I continued writing songs and perfecting the craft of playing the guitar (which I started when I was 17, playing by ear… I still can’t read music!)
- Sometime during my sophomore year I went to Houston to record some new songs at a friend’s studio. It was a casual demo that I sold at shows for $5. It was just an acoustic CD of me and the guitar. Somehow the manager/promoter in North Carolina heard this demo and called me. We entered into a business relationship and he was my manager. He found me and I prayed about it and felt led to hire him officially as my manager.
- Summer after my sophomore year in college I went to North Carolina to record a new CD with my manager. This is when I was called into full-time ministry. The CD was released at the first of my junior year. Again, I sold it at shows and locally through my university ministries. I continued to write new songs and play shows and lead worship.
- Randomly during my junior year I decided to enter a song into a radio competition in Dallas with KLTY 94.9 (America’s #1 Christian radio station) and I didn’t think twice about it after I sent in my song, which I had recorded in North Carolina. Well, as God would have it, I ended up winning the entire competition. My song was chosen 1st out of over 600 entries and I performed it at a radio event, I won a recording contract with a studio in Dallas to record 3 songs and the newly recorded single would be featured and played in rotation on the radio station, which was almost unheard of for an indie artist like myself.
- I ended up loving the recording studio so much that I decided to record a full project with the studio in Dallas the summer before my senior year in college. The CD was recorded and released in the middle of my senior year. The radio station was playing the music, other stations had picked it up, my bookings were increasing and I was getting busier and busier. I was still with the manager from North Carolina and he was helping me balance life, music, and school. During my senior year I had some interests from labels but I didn’t feel right about those offers so I chose to stay independent. Towards the end of my senior year the Lord led me in a different direction and I decided to no longer work with the manager from North Carolina. So my senior year in college, I was traveling a ton, almost every weekend, touring the new record, enjoying the benefits of getting played on the radio, doing my own bookings, trying to graduate with a decent GPA, all at the same time! As you can imagine, it was difficult but God sustained me, as is His custom.
- December of 2004 I graduated from college and went out on the road full-time. I was booked up for the next 6 months so I knew I would be financially ok to do music full-time. I went out on my own without the financial help of my parents or anyone else and this scared me, but God totally provided! I always had exactly what I needed. While touring full-time, I continued to write new songs in anticipation of recording another CD. But since mine was recently released, I knew it would be some time before I recorded again.
- In October of 2005 I went on a Christian cruise to be a singer in a worship band. There I met my manager who is my manager now. He heard me sing and approached me about possibly working together. Again, after much prayer, I felt a peace about working with him. He became my manager and helped me a great deal with booking, promoting, and developing my career. He enabled me to focus on ministry because he took care of all the business and industry aspects of my career. And me and him have been working together ever since then. He continues to help me in amazing ways and the Lord has used him a great deal in my life.
- Currently, I am recording a new CD which I am so excited about! Again, God totally put me with the recording studio. It is a studio that my manager got me hooked up with. They are amazing and the recording process has been amazing! The CD is scheduled for release in January.
The copyright of the article Making of an Indie Artist, Part 3 in Christian Music is owned by Kevan Breitinger. Permission to republish Making of an Indie Artist, Part 3 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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