There’s been a new wave of Aussie country fans crossing over from unusual places.
Luke Pittman has enjoyed a surge of listeners in his career, thanks to an epidemic of country fever.
Stadiums have been selling out for country musicians over the summer, with stars like Luke Combs, Chris Stapleton and Tyler Childer as evidence of the fever.
Locally, Pittman has become a part of it too, going from his time on The Voice Australia (reaching the semi-finals) to touring with Luke Combs (who he covered in his blind audition). His Voice mentor was Keith Urban, who praised the fellow Australian for his authenticity.
Pittman has seen a 58 percent growth in his Spotify streams, with new listeners proving to come from nontraditional places. It’s becoming clear that country music has made its way into more typical households.
“It’s been incredible to see how the acceptance and desire for country music has grown over the last few years,” Pittman said. “The genre has historically been on the backburner for people who aren’t connected to the country lifestyle — particularly within Australian metropolitan areas.”
He expressed his excitement to “see what opportunities this will continue to unlock for new Aussie country artists”.
Spotify Australia verifies this urban stroke of obsession in a new report, where the data shows country’s popularity is “not being driven by regional Aussies, but by metropolitan Australians”. It further reported that country music grew by 73 percent in the past two years, ranking Australia fourth for the amount of listeners turning to country.
These statististics are part of why Pittman has been picked to support Luke Combs once again — but now on an Australian tour. “I’ll be touring with Luke Combs for his full Australian leg and I’m looking forward to hitting all the big cities and performing for this new wave of country fans,” Pittman said.
Lane Pittman talked to Rolling Stone’s Sarah Downs about his burgeoning career and his thoughts on the mainstream urban rise of country.
You’ve had some incredible milestones in your career at a young age, from reaching the semi-finals of The Voice to touring with Luke Combs. How do you reflect on your journey so far, and what has it taught you about the music industry, especially with mentors like Keith Urban?
Yeah, I kind of described the last few years as a whirlwind. I’ve been talking to a lot of people, especially over the last couple of weeks. I’ve been really retrospective just about how much me being where I’m at the moment kind of feels like statistically it shouldn’t make sense. In a weird way, I’m this anomaly that went from a nobody playing in pubs, to national TV, to an arena tour, to now being on one of the biggest country stadium tours in Australia. Well actually not one of, it’s the biggest, which is still mind boggling. So it’s been weird. Spotify Australia recently told me they recorded a 58 per cent growth in streams for my music alone the past year, so it’s been an unreal journey. And I think with the mentors, Keith, for the time I spent with him on The Voice, he was such a lovely guy. And there was one quote in particular, it was just after I’d got eliminated in the semifinals a it’s always kind of stuck with me. He said, “A lot of people in this industry, the thing is fake it till you make it”. But he said, “Lane, over this whole experience and the time I’ve spent with you, you decided to “face it until you made it. And I think you’re going to continue with that through your whole career”.
Your self-titled debut EP hit number one on the Australian Country Musics album chart, what does that achievement mean to you and how has it shaped your confidence as an emerging artist?
Yeah, that was an unreal day. I remember getting a text from my manager and he was like ‘we’ve gone number one’. And I went, there’s no way. It’s like for a first release, you always hope that it’ll
well and that you’ll get there. But obviously you’ve kind of got to be realistic in a way you’re like, you are a newcomer, relatively unknown. But to see that groundswell of support and I think it all just kind of circles back to how good of a spot country is becoming in Australia over the last few years. It was so unreal for me to just be up there and you see the people that I was surrounded with at the time, James Johnson, Brad Cox, Troy Cassar-Daley, The Whitlams Black Stump, so many amazing artists that were up there. And to be at that number one spot was a really cool thing for me.
You’ve got this really special connection with Luke Combs having opened for him now in 2023 and of course on this sold out 2025 stadium tour. What have you learned personally from him as an artist and how does it influence or manifest in your own performances?
There’s so much I’ve learned from Luke and more of an extension to that, his entire team. I saw it on the 2023 Arena tour. And especially on this stadium tour, they are who they are, they’re not
intimidated. Obviously Luke is one of the biggest acts in the world but he and his crew, they’re truly all about putting on the best show. Often they were just like, yeah, go out there. You want to start five minutes early to put an ext song on the set? Go right ahead. You want to use the entire catwalk and the thrust? Go right ahead. Their goal is to entertain the people that have paid their hard earned money. And you can see that with Luke. I’ve seen footage of him play a show with no voice and refund everybody who came to that show, because he didn’t feel like it was where it needed to be. So it’s stuff like that. Being a human first and foremost, And Luke’s just such a genuine guy. I caught up with him again on Saturday at Suncorp and he was just a legend. He walked straight over and I just let him know that we’d won the golden guitar and he kind of gave me a fist bump and dapped me up and said congrats, which was really cool. So just be around that sort of environment and ecosystem is really cool.
So country music in Australia is seeing this massive surge in popularity recently, especially in metropolitan areas. How does it feel to be part of this exciting new wave and what do you think is driving the growth of the genre in cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane?
Yeah, it is unreal to be a part of this growth. I’ve had people who I’ve known for the longest time who swore off country music, especially being in Tamworth, it was kind of taboo to like country music in Tamworth for a bit, which sounds really weird when you say it, but obviously being from the country music capital of Australia, it was cool for the youth to not like country music. But it’s been crazy. I saw people at Suncorp, who I knew swore black and blue against country, enjoying themselves in the front row of the pit, which was so hilarious to me. I was like, this is crazy. But I think it all stems from these international guys who have just gone absolutely insane. You look at the Morgan Wallens, Zach Bryan’s, these kind of people that have come down here and toured. I mean, Luke’s obviously on a stadium tour right now. Morgan played CMCA couple of years ago just outside of Brisbane. Zach Bryan came and did a one night off at Flemington last year.
The impact is that country has become cool, and its popularity is being driven by metro audiences. Spotify listener data highlighted that 92 per cent of total streams of country music over the past
two years are from listeners listening in cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. It’s been really, really amazing to be a part of that as a local artist. I think the stat is Australia is fourth in the world for listeners discovering country music for the first time in the past 12 months. So it is a great time for country music as a whole and the local scenes growing bigger than ever. You look at guys like Brad Cox, James Johnson, myself, there’s so many people who are at the forefront of this here. And to be in that crew is really amazing.
Expanding on that, with the explosion of country music’s popularity in Metro Australia, how do you think the genre will evolve in a few years? Where do you see yourself fitting into this larger cultural shift that’s happening?
Country’s one of those weird things to predict. It’s like if you would’ve told me three years ago even that there’d be a stadium tour being played by a country act, I probably would’ve thought it was a bit outrageous. So it’s one of those things that you really don’t know, but I think with the growth we’re just going to see country music become a part of everyday life. Country music streams on Spotify have grown 73 per cent in just two years. We’re seeing it now on commercial radio and with people like Spotify that are just driving country music because of how great it is. There was a time you’d listen to commercial radio and you’d never hear a country song. And now I turn it on, I’m like, oh, Morgan Wallen, Post Malone and Shaboozey. They’ll be like back to back and I’m like, this is crazy. This shouldn’t be happening. But it is. And I think people are finally starting to realise that country a little bit more than trucks, beer and my girlfriend broke up with me. There’s a little bit of substance to the genre, which has been really fun.
As someone who started your musical journey at such a young age, how do you stay grounded amidst all of the fast paced success and attention? What’s your secret to keeping a clear head in a whirlwind and ever-growing industry?
I think it’s all about the people you surround yourself with. Obviously I have a great, great team. I have a great band who keep me very humble. They love to throw some crap around with me and
keep me humble. My family, my partner, I have a lot of people, my pop in particular, he’s always said, I’ll let your head get big to a degree, especially around these cool announcements, like the tours and stuff. He’s like,”I’ll let you get big for a day or two and then he’ll bring me right back down to the ground”. He always says, “I’ve got a size 10 and a half boot and I’m not afraid to use it”. We’ll leave it at that.
And I think you mentioned in a previous interview, Lane, that you were dared to audition for The Voice. So looking back, how important was that moment in shaping the artist that you are today? And do you think you would’ve pursued music regardless if not for that dare all the way back then?
Yeah, I kind of always had dreamed of doing music as a job. From the time I joined the school choir in primary school, I was just like, yeah, music’s a cool thing to do, wouldn’t it be cool to do this for a job and to get paid for it? And I’d started doing some gigs in 2020 and then obviously Covid came and shut the world down. A lot of my mates would listen to me sing and especially after I’d hit puberty and my voice had dropped, they’re like, oh, Lane’s actually not half bad at this. He can actually sing. So I think music one way or another, I would’ve done my best to be involved in the
industry, even if it was still only singing at the local pub every Friday, Saturday night, just as a thing on the side. But to have my mates who really push me into that role, they absolutely love it. Granted, they also do rag on the fact that if it wasn’t for them, I probably wouldn’t be as big as I am, they love to hold that on me. “If we didn’t make you apply for the voice, this wouldn’t have happened”. I’m like, “They’re not wrong.” I think having a supportive friend group who really want you to pursue and achieve your goals has been a really fun thing. It’s cool to bring them along for the ride.
Switching back to this incredible tour with Luke Combs, how do you personally prepare mentally and physically for a show of the magnitude that you have coming up when we are looking at something as incredible as a sold out stadium?
Yeah, our approach with the band has been a really fun one. It’s just been, look, it’s the same once but it’s a different view. We’ve got 25 minutes, let’s just go out there. Let’s show ’em what the local
country music scene is all about. A lot of these people who are coming to these shows might not be as well versed in the local scene. They might only know the international guys. So its been sort of a responsibility to show them that Australian country music is alive and healthy and that we can compete with those international guys. But on the actual side of preparing, they had some ice baths in Brisbane. So pre-show, get a bit of mental clarity. I was going in and doing an ice bath, which were ridiculously cold, there’s footage floating around of me in one of those. As cold as they were, they were the best things. It was just in focus on your breathing. I had a couple of the boys come in and do ’em with me and it was just, let’s get in the zone and then let’s go out and do our job and have some fun.
You are known for having a captivating live presence. What’s your go-to strategy for connecting with an audience, especially when performing for a crowd who may not be familiar with your music yet?
I kind of just try and be myself. Anybody who knows me personally knows I am a bit of a dickhead. So I love to just be an idiot and I try and bring the same energy on stage. I take myself so unseriously on stage. My best dance moves are the Russell Coight, so I’ll pop a Russell Coight on stage and people just froth it. So I think it’s not taking yourself too seriously and honestly a lot of people are there the same as me, they just want to have a good time. So if you are bringing the vibe, they’ll bring the vibe back. We have “Amen for the Weekend”, our current radio single, and we get the crowd involved in that. We get ’em clapping and dancing and we’re seeing it translate now. There’s people in the front rows singing the songs, dancing, having a good time. Or you look at unreleased songs I’m playing like “Man I’m Turning Out to Be”, where I get vulnerable and open up about losing my dad. And that sort of brings its own moment. We’ve had people in tears and
crying to that in the front row, which has been a surreal experience for me to see that my words and my story are connecting and obviously relating to people in that way.
How has your approach to music and songwriting evolved as you’ve moved into adulthood? Do you feel a stronger sense of purpose or different perspectives on the stories you want to tell through music, which is quite fitting I think, just given your last response as well?
Yeah, I’ve only recently gotten into songwriting. I’d done a little bit a few years ago, but the songwriting has always been a difficult thing for me. And we did a trip to Nashville last month and
love the craft. I’m super excited to be involved in it. And I think it happens with anyone. You look at guys like Troy Cassar-Daley and the local scene, the older you get, the more stories you have and you take a more mature outlook on life. I mean, you can even see it in this early stage with the discography. You go look at, Love in a Country Town, which is with the first single I released off t
last ep, it’s very pop country,’Hey, I’m here’ sort of thing. And you move into stuff that I’ve written now like Man I’m Turning Out to Be, which I’ve touched on which are real emotional and vulnerable kind of stories. So I think it’s finding more and more ways to tell my personal stories, which in turn, guess brings the audience into my life.
