Lara Landon Talks About Releasing Her New Album
“There Is Grace” After Losing Her Father
Lara Landon has had a full plate in the past couple months: a roller-coaster ride of emotions, including the joy and stress that comes with releasing a new album. The singer/songwriter will release There is Grace on September 9th (Fuel Music). Lara teamed with an all-star cast of producers — Otto Price, Michael Farren, and Evan Sieling — and together they helped shape her new fan-funded album.
But this is where the story takes a devastating turn. On August 12, Lara lost her father. The tragedy came just weeks prior to the release date. Yet, through the turmoil and stress, she is finding comfort in God and in the arms of her family.
There Is Grace, and the spiritual message it contains, seems to come at the perfect time for anyone facing great turmoil in their lives. There is grace enough in Christ to fill any loss, and that truth can be a deep comfort to anyone who is enduring difficult times. The album is loaded with everything from folksy tracks that feature the cello to driving power pop themes. It is heartfelt, genuine, and a reminder from the Man Upstairs to keep your head up and keep pressing through.
With all that is going on in your personal life, why did you decide to press on and keep your scheduled release date?
I had that date scheduled before things happened suddenly with my dad passing. That was totally unexpected, and my dad was my biggest supporter and he just loved this music, and it was shocking. I didn’t know if I could go ahead with it because I was so devastated. But everyone says stay busy when things like this happen. So I think staying busy is going to help and being able to talk about my dad and honor him because he inspired so much of it; it is really going to help me cope with it as I share about him with the whole world.
“I Want To Know You” is a really great song, and it is fitting, I might add, with your situation. Care to discuss it?
It is interesting because me and my dad were so close and I loved him so much because he was my best representation of what God’s love is like. He was always there for me: it was unconditional, it was generous, it was faithful, it was accepting. So my dad has always made it really easy for me to look at the Father God in a really beautiful way, and so I wrote that song about how much I love my dad and how I hope that I can even know God that intimately, and I think that through my dad’s passing I am going to have a chance to rely on God as Father more than I ever have. But I am grateful that my dad gave me such a great representation of God.
Do you think this album will resonate with people who are struggling as you are?
Yeah, well, I certainly wrote it like that. I wanted people to know that there was grace. I feel like I have always been a very sensitive person, and I have struggled with things in a very deep way, so I already had empathy for people that struggled with different issues. But now more than ever I have more empathy for people who have faced the hardest thing in life, which is staring death in the face, and I know that so many people do [face that]: from losing a child to losing their parents to losing their friends and there most loved ones. So now I can say I faced the hardest thing, and there is grace, and I want to encourage people in that real way.
You contributed to the new album Reverence. What made you decide to lend your talents to that project?
I love the concept of artists getting together. It allows more people to be exposed to your music. One part of society will get the album and love it and share their favorite song, and then my fans will get together and share their favorite song, which is just a really cool way to expose the music of different artists. I really respected everyone that was going to be on it and thought it was just a really well done compilation. I was honored to be a part of it.
