Singer/songwriter Liam Horne recently released new single "All On Me," which he co-wrote with Robin Thicke and was produced by Rich Skillz.
The pop/soul artist was born in Scotland and grew up in a gypsy caravan where he first developed his love of music. He would later relocate to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of becoming a musician,
He started out as a,songwriter, including penning the Justin Bieber track "Out of Town Girl" before beginning to write for himself including recent singles "Loose" and "Bartender."
Rock Life got a chance to chat with Horne who was eager to talk.about his new music and what's next on his horizon.
Rock Life:What do you have coming up?
Liam Horne: Well, this new single is just one of many. I'm now going to be releasing a new single every three weeks. I already have the next one in the bag and filmed and ready to be released.
Rock Life: You wrote "All On Me" with Robin Thicke. What was that experience like and how did it all come together?
LH: Well, Robin was always a huge inspiration of mine even before I met him. I always loved his style and his groovy throwback Motown vibe with a modern feel. I just loved him as an artist.
My manager Rich Skillz, who I've been with for ten years, is a very, very close friend of Robin's. They go back years together and when Rich first started working with me I was lucky and blessed to be introduced to him and he thought my music was really good. He's really become a mentor and a guiding help. This was just one song of many that he has contributed to.
He basically heard this track that I was working on and he knew there was something there. He came into the studio with Rich and I and put his magic on it and it turned into the track that I have now. I'm obsessed with what he did on it and it just made the track so much better.
I love to learn and have new experiences. Being lucky enough to get in with artists like Robin is just a huge learning opportunity. I just took all that in and it was very surreal.
Rock Life: You bring in a lot of different influences in your music and that track with it's almost hip hop beat definitely brings a new sound for you. Is it important to you to stay open like that?
LH: I really appreciate you saying that because I love to hear that people are hearing that. I've been doing this for a long time. I started when I was twelve years old and was in the studio with really well known producers and contacts and I was told to stay in one lane. Basically, pick a lane and stick to it. They said don't take chances with your music because your fans won't understand you and will get confused. It really bothered me. That was the one thing that I didn't like about this whole music industry.
I didn't like that I was being caged in a box. For a long time, I went around trying to find a genre to stick to whether it was a hip hop vibe or a pop vibe or a R&B vibe. I tried everything and at the end of it I realized that I loved doing all of it. In the morning if I wanted to wake up and write a rock song I could and maybe tomorrow I'll want to write a R&B song or maybe put them both together and make a clash. It wasn't until recently with the Soundcloud and Spotify streaming era that things really opened up for artists to do their own thing from home with their laptops. You can post it and if the response is good, who cares what the genre is!
I really got excited and said I'm not going to box myself in anymore. I've been able to really just do the music that I love and was lucky enough to find a manager who let me be that free and didn't try to restrict me. Rich told me that there are no rules in the music industry, just someone else's blueprint that they want you to follow. I do feel like I definitely branch over a lot of genres and now I feel safe doing that.
There isn't an artist out there who has just one influence and if you like music as a fan, you listen to a broad spectrum of music.
Rock Life: How did the video come together and when you are working on music, do you already have visuals in mind?
LH: I do. I always write visually. As I write I can see the story playing out in my head and usually can envision the music video.
The video for "All On Me" came around recently. We met up with our partner. One of my best friends, basically my adoptive brother out here in L.A., is a producer and we work together and he's also the piano player in my band. His dad is my adoptive dad out here. I'm from Scotland and when he met me he said I needed someone to invite me over for dinner and that kind of stuff and he became that person for me.
After watching us for three years making music, he said, you know you've been in the same place and you're not gaining any momentum, what's going on? He asked if it was a money/budget thing and said he wanted to meet with my manager. He did and basically we basically said we've been building this thing for ten years and we messed up by hoarding some things that should have been released sooner. He said look, I love this kid and he's basically my own kid so whatever you need budget wise is yours, just get the music videos done and out there.
We put a whole game plan together and my manager got in contact with one of our video guys, an incredible creator named Matt Clark. He does music videos for everyone and concert videos and commercials as well. He's an amazing guy. We contacted him and he said I love working with you, I'll fly out next week and we'll shoot some videos.
We flew him out here and shot three videos in five days with a big budget and a big promotion team. "All On Me" was the third video we shot. Yeah, so it wasn't until I got my partner/daddio to help us start taking this seriously and provide some money behind it that things began to happen.
Rock Life: And do you have any plans to get on stage?
LH: I am on stage every month. I have a residency at Stagebush Cantina in Calabasis the last Wednesday of every month.
I'm also opening up for Robby Krieger and The Doors in October. That's going to be huge! What's going to be awesome about that is that they're playing a setlist that they've never played before. It's all of their best songs with features and they're going to be bringing out those feature guests to perform them on stage together.
I also just signed with a booking agency and I'm getting signed up to play shows all across Los Angeles.
Rock Life: And what can people expect from one of your sets?
LH: I finally have really worked my set up. It's over an hour long meaning longer than the drive there! [laughs] Too many times you get to the venue to see a new artist and they're on the stage for 20 minutes. I have a full hour and 10-12 minutes set in minus the talking in between.
It's a nice full show and I'm very interactive. I love to interact with my audience. I think if you're coming to a show, you better come to have fun. It's for everyone to have that big experience together. The more times I can get them to learn a vocal part to sing back to me or the more times I can get down and into the crowd, the better.
I just love that. My sets are very showy. It's not solely about the music, it's about the whole experience and having a good time. I have a full live band as well.
Rock Life: And the biggest goal moving forward?
LH: The biggest goal for me is to just release as much music as I can and to finally hear myself playing on the radio. I just want to be an established artist.
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