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Making a Scene Presents An Interview with Kyle LaLone

Kyle LaLone is a roots-rock journeyman whose music lives at the crossroads of classic country, Americana, and heartland rock & roll. A guitarist, songwriter, and performer with deep roots in American music, LaLone writes songs built on grit, melody, and hard-earned truth. His sound nods to the guitar-playing storytellers who came before him, from Hank Williams to Tom Petty, while steadily carving out a road of his own.

That road comes into sharper focus on Make My Own Way, an anthemic new record that finds LaLone stretching beyond the twang of his earlier releases and stepping into a tougher, more rock-driven sound. The album carries the honesty of country songwriting, the muscle of heartland rock, and the emotional weight of an artist who has lived through struggle and come out with something to say.

“When I started making records, they were very much inspired by country music,” Kyle says, pointing to influences like Buck Owens, Buddy Miller, and Chris Stapleton. “I spent years digging into that type of song craft and that kind of guitar playing, but I’ve always been a rocker at heart. That’s what I grew up listening to. For Make My Own Way, I wanted to bring that approach to rock music.”

LaLone’s wide musical range was shaped early. Growing up in Watertown, New York, he was a young guitarist already pushing himself across styles. He played in his high school jazz ensemble, sang in choirs, and opened for national acts while still a teenager. A scholarship later brought him to Berklee College of Music, where he expanded his instrumental vocabulary and studied songwriting with the same discipline he brought to the guitar.

After working as a session guitarist in New York City, LaLone moved to Los Angeles, where he became a first-call sideman across a wide range of scenes. He played rock clubs, country honky-tonks, blues festivals, and musical theater orchestra pits, building a reputation as a musician who could move comfortably through almost any room. But even as he helped bring other artists’ songs to life, he felt the pull to tell his own story.

That story first emerged through songs of recovery and resilience. Sober since 2018, LaLone filled early releases like the EP Somewhere in Between and the full-length Looking for the Good with autobiographical writing about addiction, survival, faith, and the long work of rebuilding a life. Those records introduced him as a songwriter willing to face the hard parts honestly.

With Make My Own Way, the lens widens. The album still includes deeply personal songs, including “Grateful,” where LaLone takes stock of his blessings over arpeggiated guitars and a shuffling groove, and “Slow Down,” a sweeping country-rock track rooted in reflection. But the record also looks outward, confronting the pressure, division, and frustration of the modern world. Songs like “Won’t Take This Lying Down,” “Another Man’s Shoes,” and “A Change Is Coming” take on social struggle and political disillusionment with fire, empathy, and urgency.

LaLone self-produced Make My Own Way at Station House Studio in Echo Park, Los Angeles, working with a tight group of musicians who share his ability to move between genres. The album features Brian Whelan, known for his work with Shania Twain and Dwight Yoakam; Adam Arcos of Whitey Morgan and the 78s and Leroy from the North; Matt Lesser, who has worked with Dasha and Richie Kotzen; and Grammy-winning engineer Mark Rains, whose credits include Tanya Tucker.

“I wanted to emphasize raw sounds and rock influences, without a lot of polish,” Kyle says. Inspired by the lean guitar arrangements of ’90s rock bands like Pearl Jam and Gin Blossoms, he chose to strip the songs down rather than bury them under layers. The result is a record built on restraint, punch, and purpose. Every guitar part earns its place. Every chorus lands with intent.

That “less is more” approach gives Make My Own Way its power. These songs are lean but full-bodied, melodic but muscular, personal but wide-reaching. Whether LaLone is singing about addiction on “Falling in the Forest,” the false shine of social media on “New Year’s Eve,” or the need for change in a broken world, he writes with the conviction of someone who has stopped hiding from the truth.

Make My Own Way is both a statement of independence and a declaration of purpose. It captures Kyle LaLone at a turning point: a seasoned player stepping fully into his own voice, a country-rooted songwriter embracing his rock & roll heart, and an artist using his past not as a weight, but as fuel for the road ahead.

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