The first thing singer, songwriter, guitarist, and recording artist Lainey Dionne said to me, in her droll fashion, was, “I’m a weirdo that does music.” But during my recent sit-down with the Rhode Island native, she, despite her proem, exhibited no signs of being “weird.” In fact, to the contrary, I found her to be sound, collected, professional, down to earth and highly intelligent. 

Over lunch at a local Asian eatery, Dionne touched upon a range of subjects including attending her dream college, the realities of today’s music business climate and her brush with a Grammy nomination. 

Dionne, (pronounced die-own), is a full-time working musician who currently performs as a solo artist as well as with a backup band. Her original music is eccentric and edgy, while simultaneously fetching and tranquil; her singing voice is stunning and hypnotic. With it she spins tales and casts spells while the listener, who at first fancies themselves a master, ultimately becomes a witness — one with no choice but to surrender to her pull. 

“I’m a pop musician from Rhode Island,” said Dionne. “I’m super, super determined, very much a go-getter and I’m trying my hardest to make it in the music industry. Music is all I do. Right now, I do cover gigs and original material at restaurants, clubs, festivals and private functions. I play solo, I have a band and I’m a recording artist writing my own songs as well as writing songs for other artists.” 

I wondered when Dionne first began to play, or even thought about a life of music?

“I used to sing Charlotte Church, which is operatic pop, in the shower when I was like five. Then my dad started teaching me guitar. The first song he taught me on the guitar was ‘Kiss Me’ by Six Pence None the Richer,” said Dionne. “From there my mom ‘forced’ me to take piano lessons,” she laughed. “But I really liked it. I am Irish and I picked up the Irish violin and learned the fiddle by ear and with some help from an instructor. When I became a teen, I started playing guitar in garage bands.”

“I played guitar and sang lead vocals. We played death metal music. I was a very angst, rebellious teenager. My hair was bright blue and I was goth, all in black. I quit that band when I was around 14 or 15,” said Dionne. “Then one night I played a song at my high school talent show and the whole crowd sang along with me. Right then and there I knew I wanted to do music.” 

When the audience sang along with Dionne, she said it was an epiphany of sorts. A specific feeling and a buzz came over her. One of belonging. One that she had never experienced before. 

“I was sixteen. It was a song called ‘If It Means a Lot to You’ by A Day to Remember. There are three parts to the song. I sang the lead, my partner on stage sang the second part. The audience had to sing the third part,” said Dionne. “I asked the crowd if they knew the song and they mostly said yes. They asked me for a cue for when they should start, so I said I would kick my leg out when they had to come in. I didn’t know if they were going to do it, so I kicked my leg out and they all started singing. It felt amazing. Like an emotional power.”

I wondered what she meant by emotional power. Did she feel like a leader? Maybe someone who could inspire or even influence the thoughts and actions of others? 

“No, nothing like that. It didn’t feel like power in the sense of me telling people what to do and they would do it,” said Dionne. “The power was in the feeling that we were all emotionally connected, like we were all part of something bigger than just the song and the performance.” 

“I had never felt anything like that before in my life. I was very much a shy kid in school. I had a difficult time in high school with bullies and other things so I was definitely not leading the pack. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even feel like I fit in or that I was accepted.”

I asked if music was helpful to escape her shyness and all the problems she encountered in school. 

“Well, I was listening to very angry music in school. It wasn’t that I was angry per se, but I felt like listening to angry music was like a shield of armor for me. I wasn’t a tough guy but I looked kind of tough and I listened to tough guy music, all to try to make myself feel stronger and appear stronger than I really was.”

“I would say it helped me get through high school but then I went to college which was a whole different thing. Everybody wanted to be different there instead of being in a clique like in high school. It was a music school. I really felt like I belonged there because almost everyone there was a musician who was bullied in high school just like me,” she said. 

Berklee, business savvy, and the road to independence

Dionne’s parents were willing to pay for a year at her dream college, but after that, if she wished to continue, they said it was going to be up to her. Dionne applied and was accepted at Berklee College of Music in Boston. She was happy with the prospect of one year at Berklee just for the experience but soon her mindset changed. Once there, Dionne was determined to continue and realize her degree at the famed music university. 

“There was no one in my high school that I knew that wanted to do music seriously for the rest of their lives like I did. I was the only one that thought that way,” said Dionne. “Most kids I knew wanted to be doctors, engineers or other things, which is great, but it wasn’t for me. I felt at home at Berklee. Obviously, everyone there wanted to do music as a profession.” 

“At Berklee, as time went on, I thought to myself I’ve got to get my degree so I took out a loan for another year. I took 24 credits a semester. Fall, spring and summer, fall, spring and summer and I got my four-year degree in two years. It was a lot of work but it was worth it.”

“I think Berklee is one of the coolest schools because they don’t just have professors as we know them. They have people who are in the industry. For instance, I took my management classes with Maria Carey’s manager, my contract law classes with the lawyer for New Kids on the Block and songwriting class with songwriters for Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson. And John Mayer inspired me to write because he went there.” 

Dionne graduated Berklee with a Bachelors in music business and a minor in sound engineering. 

“I’m a musician and a songwriter but I wanted to learn about the music business and sound engineering so I knew what I was talking about with music execs and with the engineers in the studios,” said Dionne. “Also, the music business is fickle. I want to make it in it, but if I don’t, I can do A & R, (artist and repertoire), engineering or maybe management and be on that side of the music business.”

After college, Dionne signed an artist development deal with a record label in Nashville. She recorded in Music City with Nick Schwarz productions who was assigned to her project. Eventually Dionne became an independent artist but continued to work with Schwarz.

“When I was signed in Nashville, Nick Schwartz was my producer and I’m very lucky that he still works with me after I went independent. He’s super accredited. He’s received Dove awards and Grammy nominations. He’s just a huge talent,” said Dionne. “I don’t fly down there all the time anymore. I record my vocals here in Rhode Island at True Music Studios and they send the vocals to Nashville and Nick produces the whole thing out. He has the instruments and he’ll send me demos. I’ll then send it back with suggestions, kind of a little back-and-forth thing. So, he produces, arranges and engineers, but I have the final say. It’s the way things are done these days.” 

Dionne’s original song "I Love You to Death" was pitched to Selena Gomez for her newest album. Gomez held it for a year, deliberating and considering the song, but ultimately gave it back. Another Dionne original, “Broke & Lonely,” was recorded by signed artist Alexa Cappelli. Cappelli’s version is pushing 4 million streams on Spotify. “I’m trying and getting closer,” said Dionne. 

“I’ve also been working with a different producer with a very different project. He is Kevin Rockhill who works out of New York. We write together for the Sync industry which is music for television shows. We’ve written music for the Real Housewives, Paris Hilton, TLC, Disney+, and Hulu.”

Dionne has received national recognition for the television Sync work she’s doing, and because of that, she was invited to be an Academy member for the Grammys. She now has the opportunity to vote in the Grammys and attend Grammy-related events. 

“I was going to go to the Grammys at one point but it’s expensive to get out there and there were wildfires at the time so I didn’t go,” said Dionne. “I’ve had two songs that were Grammy considered. Two different things happen in the Grammy nomination process. Your song gets considered by a member who believes in the song. That accounts for hundreds of applicants and is the first round of voting. The second round of voting is nominations. It goes from being considered which is hundreds of applicants to nominations which is six then to one which is the winner. I got into the hundreds but not into the six.” 

Dionne said that a starving artist’s life is real but fortunately she’s very good at saving and making sound business decisions thanks to her music business degree. The pandemic years were rough but things have leveled off and now she’s doing well for herself due to songwriting royalties, TV Sync residuals, CD sales and live gigs. 

“The main reason I do solo cover gigs is because it’s a steady income for me right now. If you hire me for a gig, I will play covers from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, to today. I have over 300 songs in my catalog. One thing that sets me apart is that I call myself a human jukebox. Whatever song the crowd shouts out I will play it on the spot.”

I asked Dionne if she had any advice for artists coming up in the business today. 

“It gets easier to write your own songs if you’re an experienced artist but it can be difficult to play the game. Be open to criticism and be humble no matter how good you think you are,” said Dionne. “Try to help others out that are struggling if you can. Don’t act like you’re the best thing in the room. No one wants to work or be around musicians like that. In the end, it will work against you.” 

Lainey Dionne can be found at laineydionne.com and on Instagram, Spotify, YouTube and Facebook 

Michael Khouri is a Barrington resident writing occasionally about the Rhode Island music scene. Reach him at mkhouri@cox.net.