Brendan Lane – One Life | Sweet Brew

It is a pleasure listening to the song “One Life” by Annapolis, Maryland musician Brendan Lane featuring QuesMark. Recently, Brendan Lane and his band the Sugar Packets completed an east coast tour, where they toured from Massachusetts to Texas. This song is a great representation of the energy and talent that Brendan Lane expresses through his music. It’s a fun and energetic track that will surely get you moving. Together the duo brews a tasty delight.

This song is a perfect marriage of funk, 90s pop, R&B, hip-hop, blues rock, and jazz. It clocks in at three minutes and begins with a funky jazzy jangly guitar riff chord progression that immediately got me hooked. The beat then reminds one of 90s mainstream hip-hop influenced and New Jack Swing influenced music. In the verses, the beat is a funky guitar comping that really brings out the hip-hop influence of the track. Powerful vocals shine in the second verse and the guitar accompaniment reminds me of Cory Wong.

The production on the track is top-notch. Brendan Lane has a unique style that stands out which is quirky catchy, and powerful. The blend of genres makes for an interesting sound and is sure to please a variety of listeners. The guitar accompaniment is a highlight and adds the optimum touch. The energy in the track is undeniable and it is sure to get you grooving. The melody is catchy and will surely have you humming along.

“One Life” by Brendan Lane featuring QuesMark is a great track that combines a variety of musical influences to create something unique and enjoyable. I highly recommend giving it a listen and guarantee you’ll keep spinning it!

We get to speak with Brendan about the song!

Can you tell us a bit about your creative process for “One Life” and how the collaboration with Quesmark came about?
Ques and I worked together on a previous song, “Fame Falls Away”. So when I came up with the main riff, which eventually became “One Life”, it had this feel to it and I knew Quesmark would kill it over top. When I got to the studio however I didn’t really have much else to the song. I had an idea of what I wanted to say but no clue how to say it, let alone a chorus, or the bridge. So we worked day and night for two or three straight days. Piece by piece we put together a really awesome track and a message that holds meaning for me.
What inspired the lyrics of “One Life” and what message do you hope listeners take away from the song?
I had been forced to face the traumas of a loved one recently, and I looked to a lot of things for answers. Psychedelic drugs have always been linked to trauma, oftentimes as a treatment for traumas that manifest themselves in destructive habits. I was watching a documentary and this doctor explained how many of the traumas in patients they have treated over the decades existed in previous generations, and they were passed on from parent to child. The very awareness that you could be trapped in that kind of cycle can really make you submit. The one thing he would say to his patients was that you are always in control of your own will. That really hit me and reminded me of Viktor Frankl’s book “Man’s Search for Meaning” and his idea that our motivations in life come from the meaning we prescribe. There is always hope. Thats the idea behind the hook, you only have one go at this, that we know of, don’t waste it being a slave to what other people think you are or what you should be doing. Don’t take the bait.
Your dad was a jazz pianist and you have told that rock has influenced you, which artists and albums have most influenced you as a musician growing up?
The Beatles, Grateful Dead, and John Mayer frequently pop up on my spotify. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was a drug for me when I was six. My parents would give it to me to fall asleep. American Beauty opened my mind to the Grateful Dead, in many ways. And its still the background image on my phone. John Mayer’s Where the Light Is live album gave something to strive for as a guitar player. All three of those albums I think really shhaped my sound.
Really loved the funky guitars parts reminding one of Cory Wong. What was the most challenging aspect of recording and creating “One Life” and how did you overcome it?
Probably the fact that we didn’t have a song when we began. Trying to sift through the shit can be exceptionally draining. But Chris Jennings is a phenomenal producer with a fun, and easy feeling process, we didn’t mind the task because we knew the vibe was right. And Quesmark brought a lot of that vibe to the table with his innate skill to find the right words at the right time. It’s such a pleasure being able to work alongside them.
Your music blends funk, 90s pop, R&b, hip-hop, blues rock, and jazz to brew a tasty delight. How do you feel “One Life” represents your growth and evolution as an artist?
I don’t think I’ve grown at all, to be completely honest. I’ve always had a sense of direction with what I want my sound to be. I think this is a finer tuned version of that sound that songs I’ve written in the past but I have always tried to make feel something first and foremost. If it moves me, hopefully it’ll move somebody else.
There are so many cool elements in the song, where did you begin? For that matter, what does your songwriting process look like?
I originally only had the bass line that you hear in the verses. It took us an hour but then we came up with the intro and the chorus. Rrealizing there was something brewing, Quesmark steps in to do a scratch take and nails the final cut in one take. It gave us so much energy to pursue the song to the end. Larry Scoteen, Jr., came in to lay dowen some live drums to a hip-hop sample Chris had pulled togther. Which was super hard, so that gave Larry the direction to head and he nails it in two hours. So once we got going, we really started cooking. It was a blast working in that way with those guys. With respect to songwriting, I’m typically a notebook and voice note kinda guy. And i’ll let stuff s it for weeks or months before coming back to something I thought at the time meant something. “One Life” was a very different process and had its own challenges but it was still writing all the same.

Are there any other collaborations or projects you’re currently working on that fans can look forward to in the near future?
I’ve got some new music coming out soon! Follow me on Spotify!