Lila McCann

By Alex Teitz

Lila McCann became a big name in country music in a very short time. Her debut CD Lila went Gold. Her song “With You” on her newest CD, Something In The Air has been charted in the top. If that weren’t enough, McCann has also done some acting and appeared on Walker Texas Ranger. Lila is from Washington state.

FEMMUSIC: You’re from Washington. How did you get into country music?

LM: My dad actually has a country band. They’ve been together since he was in service in Germany and he’s been playing country music for almost twenty years.

FEMMUSIC: How has your family influenced your musical development?

LM: They’ve been great. I think if anything they’ve been more of a wonderful support system because they let me choose on if I wanted to sing or didn’t want to, and being younger that’s a big decision because I had the choice to stay in school or make music and they kind of let me choose my own path and they’ve supported everything. They’ve also helped me choosing the music that I do like to sing.  It’s kind of a big group decision as far as choosing the music goes.

FEMMUSIC: You’re co-writing material now. Do you see yourself writing your own material at some point?

LM: Hopefully when I have more time. Right now it’s a lot easier to just meet up with somebody and get some ideas going and get a song than it is to do by myself ’cause I just don’t have a lot of time. So it’s been easier to co-write. I’d love to write more of my music.

FEMMUSIC: Do you already have some songs that are in development?

LM: A couple maybe. (laugh)

FEMMUSIC: Which do you enjoy more: studio work or live performances? Why?

LM: I don’t know. It depends. For me they’re two completely different things because when you’re live on stage there’s so much energy and excitement, which there is that in the studio too, but in the studio magic happens too with recording the music. I don’t know if I would choose one that I like better but I enjoy a lot. I enjoy a lot being in the studio but I also like the part of being out with the fans and meeting so people when we’re playing live.

FEMMUSIC: What was your favorite experience in making Something in the Air?

LM: Probably being able to work with Vince Gill and Bryan White and Steve Warner all at the same time. We got to do a song together called “You’re Gone” that Steve Warner and Bryan White co-wrote together. They all came in the studio, and we were all in there singing at one time. Just eating pizza and hanging out, it was pretty cool.

FEMMUSIC: How long a session was that?

LM: It was a couple hours.

FEMMUSIC: How has having such a strong response to your music changed your life?

LM: I think it leaves me wanting to do more. Especially with a new record. We can’t wait to get a new record out. Start working on it, and making it better than the last one. I think it just puts more excitement around everybody else to get things done, to make things better than they were the time before. You know, just keep moving up a little bit every time.

FEMMUSIC: What are your plans for the future? I see you finish high school very soon?

LM: I do. I’m done in like a month. Which excites me way too much because I’ve got senioritus bad already. I’m already like not ready to go to school in the morning. So funny because all the seniors show up late to school every day now. It’s pretty bad.

I’m excited. The day after graduation I leave to go on the road. For me I’ll be busy all summer long and eventually in September or October I’ll be moving to California and in that process, we’re working on a new record also. I’ve got a lot of stuff going on after I graduate so I’ll be pretty busy for a while.

FEMMUSIC: Do you see any more of your own acting or photography in the future?

LM:  I would like to, to do both actually. Once I’m in Los Angeles it will be easier to work with those kinds of people to do acting or whatever. That should be easier to work out, but from Seattle that’s pretty hard because you always have to fly to LA. (laugh)

FEMMUSIC: What advice would you give to an emerging artist?

LM: I think the best advice would just be to stick with it. So people are so talented and they just give up. Mostly there’s a lot of people with talent, but really, it’s just being at the right place at the right time and I think that if you’re out there enough doing what you like to do the right person’s going to find you.