Subterranean Bleu Minds, the moniker of Charleston recording artist Michael Lane, is a nod to Jack Kerouac’s 1958 novel The Subterraneans. And while originally the moniker encapsulated a robust artistic collective with Lane at the center, the act’s new sophomore album Everything Bleu is a true solo project.
Lane told the Charleston City Paper he has been working on his craft for more than 25 years, but his musical journey began long before that.
“Music was a complete obsession from the moment I was born,” he said. “I started playing the alto sax in fourth grade and took some piano lessons in junior high, but I was always most interested in learning how to make music with machines.”Lane imagines that the resulting amalgamation of sound with which he now works would appeal to “anyone who might like things like Gorillaz, DJ Shadow, Nine Inch Nails, Cocorosie and Meat Beat Manifesto.” That doesn’t quite complete the picture for the uninitiated, however.
“I’m actually a big fan of a lot of pop music, so even though my roots are in the avante-garde, my music is often quite accessible,” Lane said. “I love Elliott Smith, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Karen O, Jack White and Jessica Lea Mayfield. There’s so much popular music I am influenced by.”Lyrically, Lane is all about “building a mythology” around his deeply personal thoughts and social commentaries that often come to him at odd hours, as they did during the four-year process of making Everything Bleu.
“I book-ended the album with a song called ‘The Edge of the Dawn’ because I would wake up early before work at like 4 a.m. and just make music in bed on the phone,” Lane said. “I really like that free feeling when everyone else is asleep, and it is quiet and dark, and I can be a ghost, unseen. There’s something holy about that moment when you wake up and have the first thoughts of the day.”
Perhaps what makes the new LP so special is that this particular collection of songs was completely constructed in those pre-dawn moments, Lane said. Whatever the immediate splash might be, he envisions ripples will go on indefinitely.
It was most important to me to release my music so that it can be preserved and so that it can tell my individual story in this moment in time.”
Michael Lane
“I measure success in terms of my lasting impact historically. It was most important to me to release my music so that it can be preserved and so that it can tell my individual story in this moment in time. Recordings are a way of time travel, and so I hope to speak to people long into the future.”
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