Driving down Tennessee roads with rolling green fields, a big blue sky, and beautiful 19th-century homes, I wasn’t sure what to expect from my interview with Lakelin Lemmings, but I couldn’t wait to find out. Three years ago, the rising star became the first 17-year-old to sign on with Quartz Hill Records. Just days before the release of her debut album, the Gen Z singer spoke with me about her music, passion for God, goals of motherhood, and mission to “remain country.”
Lakelin arrived at the recording studio in a boot-cut denim jumpsuit and red paisley scarf around her neck, and I knew right away this girl wasn’t someone who takes herself too seriously. When I told her that we share the same birth year and I couldn’t wait to hear from a woman who’s dealing with the same issues as other Gen Z girls our age, she smiled. With Lakelin’s first album coming out on Friday, she is excited.
“I’m feeling like all the hard work and stuff is about to pay off, and that hopefully everybody loves it as much as I do,” Lakelin said. “I think one of the earliest songs in the album I wrote was when I was freshly 16 and the last one when I turned 20. It’s finally gonna be introduced into the world.”
Many of the songs in the album tackle the topics of young love, relationships, and heartbreak. As someone who loves “How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days” and any good rom-com, Lakelin said she sometimes pulled inspiration from shows she watched, but she has also dealt with a series of her own relationship struggles.
Like other young women her age, Lakelin has had her share of situationships — a term Gen Z uses to describe a romantic relationship without commitment labels. Lakelin’s song “What Are We Doing” is trying to figure out just that. In “Get Around Boy,” the song lists the places Lakelin hopes to travel to and describes a young man who stays behind in Tennessee as she chases her dreams. Eventually, Lakelin did travel to nearly all the places she mentions, and now says she has a boy “in the back of my mind.”
As the title “19 & Single” suggests, the song touches on the pressure to get married with lyrics like, “I’m all for a Friday night with the girls / ‘Cause 19 and single ain’t the end of the world.” Lakelin said she feels pressure when friends get engaged, married, and start having babies. With earnest hopes for marriage and motherhood, Lakelin said she has made sacrifices to be where she is, but still wants to perform her music and pursue her dreams.
Not all of Lakelin’s lyrics were inspired by what you’d expect. After singing along in the car to Lakelin’s “He Ain’t Coming Back,” I had to get the scoop behind this earworm. Another smile.
“Yeah, so everybody thinks that, you know, ‘He Ain’t Coming Back’ is about some boy that did me wrong and something like that,” Lakelin said. “But the story of it is actually — I was finishing up writing the album and we needed an up-tempo song.”
Just days before it was time to record the album, Lakelin texted her two favorite co-writers to tell them the emergency: They had to come up with one more track. They convened on a Friday, but the co-writers had to cancel another appointment to make the timing work.
“We get there, and we’re writing, and we hadn’t really gotten a title or anything yet, and — a knock on the door. It’s the guy that they were supposed to write with,” Lakelin said.
After the co-writers explained the rescheduling and the man’s confusion passed, he left. But the situation was “just really awkward,” Lakelin said.
“My co-writer, after he leaves, is like, ‘Man, I hope he comes back,’ and I just look at him, and I go, ‘Oh, he ain’t coming back.’ And a light bulb and a flip switched, and we were like, ‘We’re writing that.’”
Throughout Lakelin’s journey, her faith in God has been central. There have been difficult moments, Lakelin said, but she believes “God’s called me to country music.” Lakelin describes herself as a Christian who writes country music, not as a Christian country artist.
“I feel like there’s a need in country music for somebody that loves country music and can talk about those types of things, but also is rooted in her faith and is genuinely someone who’s only after God’s will,” Lakelin said, noting that Christian country singers often sing traditional Christian songs that feel less “country.”
“I love Christian music, and I’m sure I’ll dabble in it,” she said. “And I have a little bit to keep the faith life of mine, but I’m always going to remain country.”
As someone who stays with her family whenever she’s not on the road, Lakelin loves seeing her two little sisters — aged one and three — who know her as “Lae Lae.” Lakelin said she’s like their second mother, with a large age gap between them and the three oldest siblings. Lemmings was the middle child for years with her now 23-year-old sister, whom she would compete with in singing, and a 17-year-old brother. However, after the first daughter left the nest, Lemmings said her parents wanted more kids, dreaming of having a family of eight.
Lakelin’s family couldn’t be more supportive of her burgeoning music career. Since she was little, Lakelin has performed in competitions, and her extended family still recalls when she was performing at their barbecue singing competition. Lakelin said she does wonder what they think watching her grow from small performances to standing on grand stages.
How does she stay grounded in some sort of routine with a life that is always moving from writing and recording sessions to performances and tours? She named only two things: her coffee in the morning and her Bible in the evening.
“After a long week or a long day in the music world, I like to just go home and have a cup of coffee, read my Bible, maybe tan a little bit, and just spend time with family and friends,” she said.
Lakelin has a message to other girls who are dreamers with a desire from God but see too many roadblocks.
“If you’re gonna be a dreamer, you got to be a doer. And I think that if you have a dream, then chase it,” Lakelin said. “If it’s God’s will and his plan, then it’s going to work out just the way it’s supposed to. It’s going to be hard at times to trust that and trust in Him, but you just got to keep the faith.”
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