US artist Two Lane talks about fiddling with Yelawolf, the beauty in anger and the unique spirit of the American South
By Katharina Moser
Hip hop is arguably the most stereotyped genre in music history. This notwithstanding, countless hip hop artists have been swimming against the comforting current of the mainstream, crafting a lyricism that would make Shakespeare jealous and beats and melodies that could put Elvis in the shade. The upcoming rapper Two Lane is a walking and talking embodiment of the potential for surprise, the stylistic diversity that can be found in the genre – and of the emotional complexity it is able to carry.
It is three o clock in the afternoon in the States, and Two Lane casually sits in his car, yellow sun glasses against the grey autumn sky. “I´m doing great”, he says, and flashes a wide grin. The versatile musician, his real name being James Gallagher, has been a professional violin player and tour performer for artists such as Yelawolf and Struggle Jennings over the past years, but he also is a hip hop original himself: After his first rap album “Anger is a Gift” in 2022, Two Lane is now working on his sophomore album, and aims to bring out some more great rap tunes.
To get to this, Two Lane has quite the journey behind him which spans all the way from his hometown New York City to Nashville and abroad. His upcoming as a musician, Two Lane makes clear, is a pretty crazy story – one that testifies to the power of a dream, of taking opportunities, and having people that support you. As the musician recalls, he started his professional career as a fiddle player, which got kickstarted when his long-term friend and rapper Yelawolf gave him the opportunity to perform on his tour with Kid Rock, later followed by a tour with Struggle Jennings in 2021. Last year, Two Lane officially opened Yelawolf´s shows on his New Zealand tour “Never Say Never”. “When I was young, I always thought that to be a professional musician you had to be so extraordinary that it was pretty much impossible. It´s just not gonna happen”, Two Lane recalls. Although coming from a classical music background, he always felt home in the New York punk rock scene, celebrating bands such as Metallica, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine or Slipknot. “I wasn’t encouraged to pursue music as a career, except in conventional ways, like playing in an orchestra. I was always a punk rock kid, though, and thought how cool it would be to play music like this – but these guys are special, there is no way I´m ever gonna do something like it, I thought”, Two Lane says. Over the years, however, he realized that the dream of being a professional music performer actually was within reach: “I realized, you don’t have to be the greatest musician that has ever lived to be great. I´m the biggest fan of encouraging people to follow their dreams. And if you tell me you want to do it, I ask you how you want to make it happen. It might not happen now, it might not happen the way you think, it´s gonna take some time and some effort. But dreams like these are possible.”
Working with renowned hip hop, country and rock artists, he is convinced, has opened his eyes for everything that can be possible if one just welcomes opportunities with open arms. “All this networking gave me the confidence to really step up on my own. Seeing all these people pursue what they really want to do independently, I decided to make my own album, and I am really proud of it”, Two Lane says. This was the birth of “Anger is a Gift”. “The album is really special to me. Your first album gives you the luxury of anonymity. You can do what you want. People don’t have any expectations yet, so I had a lot of artistic liberty.” The unusual style between high energy sound rays, spitting verses, yelling and heavy 808 is what Two Lane calls “Rage Against the Machine meets Three 6ix Mafia”.
With his first solo album, Two Lane had the chance to craft his very own style, manifest his sound from scratch. “I have been a fan of music since I have memory, and a lot of musical influences have found their way into my style. I´m all about hardcore, aggressive vocals, and a high energy live performance. Those are things I saw myself excelling at as a solo artist. So I asked myself, how can I create a sound around those feelings?”, Two Lane tells us. “A lot of times these things just find you. One important part of my writing process is just walking around the city with headphones on and either listening to a beat or some music that is inspiring me.” In that sense, the title of the album carries particular significance: “At that point I didn’t have a name for the album yet. I was listening to a song by Rage Against the Machine called Freedom, and there is a moment when Zack de la Rocha whispers, anger is a gift.” At that moment, Two Lane says, it almost felt like de la Rocha was speaking to him, offering him advice – an epiphanic moment, the rapper is sure. “From one moment to the next, it completely manifested the energy and the visual I wanted my first album to be. I still tend to look for those moments organically, in the music I listen to, in my experiences, in the people I spend time with.” Two Lane always keeps in mind what legendary producer Rick Rubin once said: “The universe is constantly giving you information and it´s up to you to turn it into something magical”, as the rapper paraphrases.
Amidst the aggressive style and furious screams in Two Lane´s solo works, people who don´t know him will likely assume him to be an angry person. But that, it becomes clear when talking to the cheerful, kind rapper, is not the case at all. “It´s completely the opposite. I´m a positive, very happy person”, Two Lane says and laughs. “I grew up in the hardcore punk scene where going to a hardcore show means people flying off the stage and killing each other in the moshpit. I think most people that come from a background of aggressive music are actually kind, warm people because they have a constructive outlet for that inner rage which I think everyone has. And it´s okay to have it”, Two Lane explains. “There are healthy outlets for negativity, and there is positive aggression that can be turned into something productive, for example through exercise.” Two Lane experiences the importance of this, particularly during his live performances. “I think if you saw me on stage, you´d think I am a totally different person than the second I get off. When you get on stage, the switch flips, and it´s about getting all this negativity out in the world. And as soon as you get off, it’s a cold beer with friends and big smiles.” For Two Lane, the anger he lets out in his music and the energy he builds up live on stage is nothing less than cathartic. “And it´s important to practice that regularly, because bottling that up is no good. Music, especially live music, has always been where I thrive and the best of me comes out.”
With aggressive punk rap on the one hand and his melodic, even classical violin play on the other, Two Lane seems to be practicing two very oppositional types of music. But this apparent contrast, the artist ponders, might not be so antagonistic at all. “The style of the violin that I enjoy playing is very emotional. I come from a classical background, and the music that I most enjoyed playing when I was younger was romantic, with lots of vibrato, and often very sad”, Two Lane explains. He is convinced that the most beautiful song ever created in the history of music is the Intermezzo of the play La Cavalleria Rusticana, which he has been playing as long as he can remember. “To be honest, I don’t think these emotions are too far from each other. The high energy screaming, yelling, backflips of the stage, and the sadness, the weeping – it is the polarity of emotion that manifests itself differently”, Two Lane ponders. He sees the beauty of art in the complexity and variety of the human emotional landscape. “Being angry, being sad, being happy – I don’t think you need to be only one insular thing. It´s crazy to be able to dial into all of those emotions.”
The catharsis of angry music, Two Lane thinks, lies exactly in this emotional paradox: “I don’t feel sad when I listen to sad music. I don’t feel angry when I listen to angry music. I feel happy. Every time. It is about the acknowledgement of the emotions that are there.” He hopes that whoever listens to his music feels better than before, that the anger has somehow had a cleansing, relieving effect – the liberating feeling of sitting in your car and screaming at your steering wheel after a hard day, and feeling better after it.
Two Lane, it seems, is a musician full of contrasts, and he is thriving in them. The artistic coming-of-age, from a violin player and punk rock fan in New York to a self-made rapper and support act for the world´s most famous country rappers in the American South, surely takes some open-mindedness. Two Lane was only introduced to country music after meeting Yelawolf: “As a New Yorker, it was never on my radar. Wolf introduced me to cowboy boots, the culture of it. Being in Nashville, you absorb a different kind of personality. I think it is more than the music. You kind of need to be engulfed in the south to understand it”, Two Lane thinks. “New Yorkers are the most open-minded closed-minded people in the world. We think we know everything because we are from New York, and everybody comes to us. We don’t have to go anywhere. The whole world comes to New York City”, the rapper says and laughs. He still thinks New York is the best city in the world – “but New Yorkers don’t really get out to see and feel the world. I thought I knew every single nuance of hip hop because I´m from New York. And then you get to the South. It’s a whole different feel, a whole different energy that one can´t really put his finger on without going there.” Two Lane stops to think for a moment. “Eat Nashville hot chicken, go and see the places. There is something there in the South which is not tangible and you have to experience it yourself.”
Two Lane is convinced that seeing and feeling the way of life in the American South has not only changed his outlook on hip hop, but also his personality and self-understanding as an artist. “I think anywhere I go changes me as a person. I try to be conscious of those things, try to be cognisant of the people, the environment, the culture that I´m privileged enough to be in.” But the South, he emphasizes, is something special. “If you want to know what the South is really like, go to a waffle house in Tennessee. Stay there for an hour and you´ll get more education in this hour than in a weekend somewhere else.”
So who is Two Lane, this artist full of contrasts who can fiddle as well as he can spit rap verses, who can turn anger into energy and energy into happiness? “I think, in short, I am a loud, happy New Yorker that loves to travel the world and scream into a microphone”, Two Lane says and laughs. He is looking forward to the release of his next album, which, he says, will hopefully be a little more refined than the first one, but still maintain its authenticity and the energy. “I don’t ever take anything for granted and I feel very fortunate for what I´ve done”, Two Lane concludes. “I am proud of what I have accomplished as musician and as a person – and now I am really looking forward to next chapter.”
The Wrapper 