MODERN LOVE CHILD Walks Us Through a Track-by-Track Overview of His Debut Record ‘MLC’

You have to admit, Modern Love Child is a pretty rad name for a musician, right? The stage alias for Jonny Shane, Modern Love Child is an rock/indie originally from Connecticut and now located in Venice Beach, California. Shane is a very competent and confident songwriter, who exudes both in his songwriting and by the way in which he treats those close to him. As a musician, today is perhaps the biggest day of Shane’s life and career as it marks the release of his debut record, MLC. It’s the day that made the journey all worth the while. and no part of said trek journey was easy in any sense of the imagination.

To explore his musical creativity, Shane decided to pack up his car in Connecticut and move all the way cross-country to California in search of making reality out of his grand musical aspirations. After settling in Venice Beach, he formed the band Blue Blazer which became a local favourite before calling it quits in 2015. Soon after Blue Blazer’s dissolution, Shane decided to explore his life and his past through music in an autobiographical sense, and Modern Love Child was born. In continuing to spread his musical wings, he moved to London, back to Connecticut, and then finally back to London to record his debut record far away from the sunny, beachy atmosphere in which it was written.

Over a few months time, Shane recorded MLC with producer Charlie Russell (Alt-J, Passenger, OK Go) and some other talented musicians. Upon recording’s completion, Shane was met with the terrible news that his father had suffered a stroke which required his return to Connecticut. He was able to play some of the songs from the album for his father, but tearfully, his father passed away soon thereafter. Thus, the release of MLC is both a very happy and sad time for Shane.

You don’t have to be “In a City” to appreciate this song and video:

Despite the bittersweetness of it all, we are celebrating today’s release of Modern Love Child’s MLC (order the album here) with a special track-by-track rundown of each and every song on the new recording. Read on as Jonny Shane gives you an inside look into how his debut record came to be.

01. “WEST”
– This song is about building up the courage to pack up my car, drive across the country to Los Angeles, and chase my dreams. I always dreamt of seeing the sun cascade behind the mountains in the desert which where the line, “I wanna go west, where the sun dies” comes from. Also, packing up and moving west was something I had been saying I would do since I was a little boy, I reference that with the line “You knew I would, drive my car to Hollywood.”

02. “Golden Brown”
– I was still thinking about a girl that I had been seeing when I was living back east. The song is about me trying to convince her to move out to L.A., opposed to staying on the east coast and bearing the cold unforgiving winters. “It’s 82 degrees in L.A., and you know you got a place to stay.”

03. “In a City”
– I made a trip back to NYC to visit my family over the holidays. When I was there I began to feel out place amongst my family and my friends. Everyone seemed to have it all figured out, good jobs, lots of money, significant others, etc. The song is about me feeling out of place, and realizing who I really am and how that’s exactly who I should be.

Check out the artwork for Modern Luck Child latest single, “Playing With Fire:”

04. “Just For Kids”
– I started dating a girl who I started to fall for very early on in the relationship. I wanted to do something special, and something neither of us would forget, so we drove up and down the coast of California. Stopping in strawberry and avocado farms to take in the scenery, even buying apple pie at a local farmers market somewhere in central California. All in all, it was a beautiful trip and made me fall deeper in love, which ultimately gave me the substance to write this song. I had the same feeling in my stomach as I did when I had a crush on a girl in the sandbox. So, basically, that feeling you have for someone never changes no matter how old you are.

05. “Greenwich Girl”
– I was dating a super expensive and mean girl who came from a lot of money and wasn’t afraid to remind me of that. This song just kind of came about when I was playing around on my guitar, painting a picture in my head of this girl. It’s basically me examining someone who can have it all, but still not be happy.

06. “Sweet Like Me”
– I had broken up with a girl I was seeing, and I had moved away to London. After a year, I came back to L.A. and reunited with that same girl in a “dark bar on a sunny day.” The song is ultimately about the questions you have floating around in your head when you re-connect with an ex-lover. Like a “who have they been seeing since me?” kind of thing.

Dear “Ali,” it’s complicated. So, here’s a song for you:

07. “Pictures of the Moon”
– I went on a trip to Austin Texas to go hang out with friends on Lake Austin. We had an awesome time drinking Lonestars, eating BBQ, listening to country music. At the end of the weekend, I met a local Texas girl that was so sweet and also drop-dead gorgeous, kinda like a beauty queen. When I got back to L.A. I wanted to write a song for her, but all the words I tried to piece together for a song, wouldn’t do her justice. I compared that to taking a picture of the moon… Every time you see a full moon and try to take a picture it never comes out the same, you have to see it in person. That was the same with this girl.

08. “Party for 2”
– I was helping move an old girlfriend into her new place in Brooklyn. Her new apartment had no furniture, no TV, no nothing. There was nothing to do, just a “Party for 2” (me and her). So we got drunk and gallivanted around the city.

09. “Ali”
– This song was written by my friend Greg when we were 15 years old. He was madly in love with a girl named “Ali” so he wrote her this song. After Greg took his own life at the age of 21, I packed up my things, moved to Los Angeles, and re-recorded this song “Ali,” as the original version needed a bit of a facelift. It’s a love song from Greg to Ali, and when I sing it, I sing it for Greg.

10. “Stay Young”
– I went on a surf trip down to Nicaragua to see my friends who own a bar down there in a little town called San Juan Del Sur. When I got back from the trip I felt 20 years older and was in a bit a funk (hungover). I started questioning everything I was doing, and all the miles that I had been traveling to chase my dreams. I ultimately came to the conclusion, that no matter how old you are, that won’t change the things you truly love and the dreams you hold in your heart. So while everyone else is growing old, “Stay Young.”