Blessed with powerful lyricism and uniquely stirring vocals, Suga Lane's sound is a hybrid of musical influences, from the classical dance and music training of her childhood to the underground dance clubs of Atlanta, Detroit and Miami. Suga has an unadulterated love for music... from jazz, disco, and gospel hymnals to 80s pop and progressive to hip-hop and electronic dance. She smoothly slips in and out of opposing genres, proving her flexibility and sexy charisma!
Born in Central Florida, as Alaina Williams, Suga Lane began dance classes at 6 years old. Avidly studying ballet first, then tap, and later jazz, Suga proved to be an enthusiastic and talented young dancer. She acted in her first professional stage production at age 8, playing "Moth" in a Midsummer Night's Dream. Her mother made sure she also had private piano lessons. While the young performer had lukewarm enthusiasm toward practicing the techniques and classical repertoire of the piano, she enjoyed the popular easy listening and love songs she studied. Her parents records and tapes were a source of awe. She loved all genres of music and enjoyed singing along to the radio on family road trips, sometimes to her family's dismay. She grew up as a child attending traditional Baptist and AME churches, then later as a teenager attending charismatic or non-denominational churches in Atlanta, Georgia.
When her family relocated to Georgia, Suga continued performing in school, being the MVP of her High School Drill team, choreographer for her chorus, and working in theatre. She recalls being a freshman in high school and her parents allowing her to go with an older girl, a senior, to a local teen night club. " I just remember the energy, the music was so great and i just got up there on one of those little dance stand things and danced my heart out - So much fun!" Later, when Suga was a senior with a driving license, she would enjoy going to a teen progressive club in Atlanta. "The music was maybe new wave progressive stuff and I would just dance on a mission - I loved it. Of course my curfew was 12...so I would leave the club at 12 and speed up 85 to get home."
After college, Suga focused on family life while infrequently writing lyrics for fun. Eventually the acting bug got her and she drifted back into acting in the theatre. After playing the lead "Lydia" in the Detroit theatre production of "Ambassador", she returned to Atlanta to do promotional modeling for major sponsors like Vaseline and Home Depot, dance performances - once being cast in a Ballethnic production, music videos, small acting gigs in both indie and major films - from "The Stepdaughter" to "Diary of a Mad Black Woman".
Suga knew she enjoyed writing lyrics and singing, but she didn't have a goal of becoming a recording artist. That was a mere distant fantasy or dream, nothing she took seriously. After a stint as a catastrophe insurance adjuster for Hurricane Katrina and Rita, working out in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida, she returned to Atlanta for a hiatus from her stressful and demanding job. While checking out the local music and dance scene in 2007, she rediscovered a love of progressive music and a new love for electronic dance music. The "brain massage" electro music became her favorite and she couldn't get enough. She found herself attempting to write lyrics to this mainly instrumental music genre. Some friends and family urged her to try R& B alone, but she knew she wanted to fuse several genres, in order to sincerely express herself. She first tried out tracks from some local producers, including Revolt Records' Van-Lo and Munir, and other local producers, then went on to shop around the international beats market, seeking tracks that inspired her. She spent a short time working at her brother's Atlanta label and studio Digital Dope. In Spring of 2009, Suga received a cd of inspiring tracks that subsequently were a catalyst for her to go on a songwriting binge. Many of the songs in her upcoming album were originally inspired by these tracks, though these tracks were later purchased by other artists. After Suga couldn't gain ownership of these tracks, she searched the globe for instrumentals that best matched her vision. Though Suga had sang all her life, her unique sound really emerged after she wrote melodies that expressed her true inner thought and experiences..Blessed with powerful lyricism and uniquely stirring vocals, Suga Lane's sound is a hybrid of musical influences, from the classical dance and music training of her childhood to the underground dance clubs of Atlanta, Detroit and Miami. Suga has an unadulterated love for music... from jazz, disco, and gospel hymnals to 80s pop and progressive to hip-hop and electronic dance. She smoothly slips in and out of opposing genres, proving her flexibility and sexy charisma.
