CMAA The Academy of Country Music Australia (The Academy) alumni Beth Lucas and Mark Lavender have teamed up to release a rock charged country break-up anthem, Pieces.
Penned by Lucas’ long-time friend Mikey Adams, who is best known as bassist and songwriter in Boston-based pop punk band, A Loss For Words, Pieces shares both perspectives of a relationship breakdown. Adams, now based in Nashville and furthering his songwriting career recorded the song in the US with producer and multi-instrumentalist Chris Curran, with Australia’s Peter Eckel (Open Season Band) featuring on banjo.
Lucas & Lavender recorded both their vocal parts in Australia and called in James North to mix and master the track locally. This is the second track that Lucas and North have worked on together.
Known for his love of country music, Mark Lavender has tailored his path as a performing musician, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Born and raised in Bundaberg QLD, Lavender hit the stage at 12 years old, performing at country music festivals throughout Queensland, allowing him to build a strong following at an early age. Lavender is cemented in the Australian country music landscape, regularly performing for and with Brad Cox and Sammy White and graduating The Academy in 2023, alongside Lucas.
A regular fixture on the local alternative scene during the late 2010’s, Lucas’ country music career is relatively young, having only made the genre switch within the last few years. Although still considered an emerging artist within the country space, Lucas’ star is on the rise after winning the Ekka’s Country Music Showdown talent search (2023), being named the recipient of the Keith Urban scholarship to attend The Academy (2023) and opening for Australian country music heavyweights Adam Brand, Travis Collins and more.
When the song was initially offered to Lucas, it was to duet with Adams, however a joint decision was made to instead offer the male part to a local country artist and Lucas knew immediately that Lavender would be the best fit. Lucas says, “The song excited me from the get-go, probably because of my personal history with Mikey’s band, but also because it gives a fresh take on modern country rock/pop. I love the arrangement of the song, the back and forth between the two parts and the addition of the banjo obviously gives it that country twang. When Mikey gave me the green light to choose an Aussie counterpart, there was no question in my mind that Mark would nail it. He was on board from the start and his enthusiasm to be involved definitely confirmed that he was the right choice. We’re all so stoked with how it came out and that’s also thanks to our mixing engineer, James North who was working with multiple different file formats and vocal recording conditions, so to get the song to where it is now was no small feat on his part either.”
The subject matter of the song may be on the sadder side but the upbeat tempo and driving guitars will leave the listener tapping along before the first verse hits. For fans of Hardy, Casey Barnes and Josh Setterfield.