The Great Imposter Steve Lane

• 1 Certainty 03:30
• 2 Ocean That Is Red 03:21
• 3 Don't Be Afraid of Reaching Out 03:13
• 4 Deeper Than Everest Is High 03:38
• 5 So Sorry Now 03:13
• 6 Don't Forget to Breathe 03:31
• 7 Right Here Now 03:58
• 8 Just One Name 03:45
• 9 No Need to Run No More 03:13
• 10 You Were Done 05:04
• Total Runtime 36:26

Info for The Great Imposter

On his fourth album, The Great Imposter, we hear Steve Lane at the peak of his songwriting powers, grappling with the world as he encounters it in 10 warm, honest, heartfelt pop songs – richly imbued with the sound of indie rock, jangle pop, Americana and melodic rock.

Infectious opener ‘Certainty’ could be an anthem for this era. As coastlines erode and pandemics re-shape our ideas of the future – even the near future – Lane celebrates things that endure. Its beautiful refrain is driven by a rock piano line that would make Ben Folds envious.

In ‘Ocean That Is Red’, Lane – who has many long-standing friendships forged in Top End indigenous communities – marvels at ‘the law and patterns that sustain everything’. A sparse laidback drum track and an adventurous bassline lead the listener into a desert that is not barren, but luminescent and brimming with stories, spirit and relationships.

Just as ‘Certainty’ accepts that we have no choice but to live with ambiguity (‘knowing it’s not knowing what comes next’), ‘Ocean That Is Red’ also acknowledges paradox (‘past is present is past’). Lane grabs the baton from the likes of Shane Howard, Peter Garrett and Neil Murray and says it afresh in 2021: Australia still has so much to learn from its Aboriginal brothers and sisters.

A jangling guitar turns angry on ‘So Sorry Now’ – a lament about the futility of war and humans’ apparent inability to learn from the past. Anger turns to grace in ‘Don’t Forget To Breathe’, which swings gently, urges us not to be too hard on ourselves because ‘all that is… will be’. If Wilco were Australian, they might sound like this.

"The Great Imposter is a delightful slice of shimmering antipodean guitar pop, unless of course, you're reading this on the other side of the world, in which case it's a glorious slab of homegrown genius!" (Ian Smith, Last Night From Glasgow)

"On his fourth album, The Great Imposter, we hear Steve Lane at the peak of his songwriting powers, grappling with the world as he encounters it in ten warm, honest, heartfelt pop songs" (Josh Meadows, Maine FM)

Steve Lane, guitar, vocals
Neneh Lane U’Ren, piano
Cally Bartlett, cello
Kai Lane U’Ren, bass
Peter Slater, guitars
David Williams, drums

Steve Lane
In 2009, Steve Lane set about committing a bunch of his songs to tape, enlisting good mates Darren Seltmann (Ripe, The Avalanches), Jimmy Williams (The Shedshakers, Paul Kelly and the Dots) and Pete Slater (Dalriada) to add their considerable talents to the project.

“Working as a community musician, songwriter and sound engineer, I’ve always thought it important to get the balance right… If I’m telling my own stories through music, I’m far more effective helping others tell theirs” With the addition of Augie March’s revered rhythm section (David Williams and Edmondo Ammendola) Steve Lane and The Autocrats were born and a debut album recorded at Melbourne’s Newmarket Studios under the careful direction of producer/engineer, Ben Hurt.

In 2011, ‘The Romance of Communication’ was released through ABC Music/Universal and was listed for the Australian Music Prize, as well as scoring the coveted album of the week on ABC JJ/DIG MUSIC

“Steve Lane & The Autocrats release and album that has all the tell-tale signs of an Australian band bound for longevity” - Isabella Tolhurst (FasterLouder)

“Honestly, the album is a genuine all-killer affair” - Tony McMahon (Inpress)

“If more pop-rock was this unfussy yet smart (not to mention well-read and funny), we would all have easier lives. … There are moments of '70s rock, twangin' instrumentals and open-hearted ballads that sit somewhere between the Go-Betweens and Tim Freedman. “- Bernard Zuel (Sydney Morning Herald) First single ‘Ghost Trains’ impressed.

“It’s a pretty special thing to find new music that takes you back, but I’ve found it in Steve Lane and The Autocrats’ new single ‘Ghost Trains.’ It’s got that lovely Paul Kelly storytelling quality about it, with a splash of Weddings Parties Anything thrown in. Its good honest Aussie pub rock, melodic but heartfelt. Can you believe that something that sounds so seasoned comes from a debut?” -Lauren Katulka. (Sounds Of Oz.)

Steve Lane and The Autocrats were also featured on The Wiggles tribute album ‘Rewiggled’ alongside the likes of Sarah Blasko, The Living End and Spiderbait.

Steve Lane and The Autocrats’ sophomore album ‘Birds Taking Flight’ was released in 2013 and the lead single ‘Thirteen’ shone brightly, receiving overwhelming praise from media and punters alike reaching the finals of the International Song writing Competition in 2014 and 2015.

Rolling Stone’s Darren Levin wrote that “Birds Taking Flight is a bunch of mates writing tightly honed songs with their blinkers on… Lane’s heart is in the right place when he pays tribute to Pakistani activist Malala Youssafzai on ‘Thirteen’.”

‘Birds Taking Flight’ again featured the sublime playing of Jim Williams, Ammendola and David Williams and introduced Steve’s son Kai, who eventually replaced Ammendola on bass.

2015 saw Steve showcase at Canadian Music Week in Toronto and make the kind of connections that will see his career traverse both Australia and Canada in the future.

Moving on from The Autocrats in 2017, Steve Lane’s third album ‘The Revenge of the Lawn’ is a culmination of some great and some “shit” life experiences shared with band mates and long-time collaborators. The last few years have challenged Steve to the core with the loss of both his parents. This loss has informed the heart of the songs on The Revenge of the Lawn but has not left them without hope.

There’s a vulnerability and an intimacy heard on record that is undeniable" - The AU Review


"The start of a new and exciting chapter in the life of one of Australia’s most loved songwriters" - Rhythms

"Revenge Of The Lawn is going to be one of those albums that all Australian Music fans really connect with, Steve's managed to take his head out of the equation and just use his heart" - Graham Ashton Footstomp Music Steve’s songs come from the great Australian tradition of lyricists like Paul Kelly and Courtney Barnett.  These songs have been co-written with acclaimed Australian poet John Holton and recorded with David Williams on drums, Jacob McGuffie and Steve on guitars and Kai Lane-Uren playing bass. The album was lusciously mixed by underrated Rangemaster engineer David Carr, recently lauded for his work on Russell Morris’s award-winning album ‘Sharkmouth’.

"Steve Lane’s songs aren’t ripped from the headlines, they’re torn out of your diaries, overhead from your friend’s stories and about as real and Australian as dual citizenship and marrying who you love" - Bernard Zuel

“The connective tissue of love embraces the planet as it draws us into ourselves in 'Dot Point', while the mood is leavened with a jaunty look at the world from the perspective of Russia's first cosmonaut in 'Motherland', another view if you like to the 'core' of the world to which we are all drawn, the 'inner' space of the final track 'Cocoon; all 'angry' chorus guitars counterpointing sparsely-backed musings on the inevitability of loss, fading out into unsettling ambience. There's slow groove Tex Mex Mystery in the mix for 'Monsoon Heartbreak, contrasting the easy lope of opening cut 'Camber', two views of love's possibilities” - Michael Smith (Rhythms)

Camber was semi-finalist in the International Song Writing Contest 2016, 2017 and 2018

This album contains no booklet.