MICHAEL LAWSON RELEASES EMOTIONALLY CHARGED SINGLE “IT’S LOVE” FROM UPCOMING EP, VIBE TALKING
With roots in Seattle, Washington, and a creative home now in Hoover, Alabama, roots-rock artist Michael Lawson continues his extraordinary musical resurgence with the release of his heartfelt new single “It’s Love.” Out now on all streaming platforms, “It’s Love” is the lead single from Lawson’s upcoming seven-song EP Vibe Talking, a piano-forward collection of songs that showcases his melodic sensibilities and hard-earned perspective.
A former frontman of a pre-grunge Seattle thrash band in the 1980s, Lawson took a 25-year detour before re-emerging as a singer-songwriter in 2019. The road back began with open mics in Tuscaloosa and took a transformative turn when he began recording at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. That journey now reaches a new peak with “It’s Love,” a single that blends Lawson’s emotional depth with refined musicianship and studio magic.
“If you have a song, I’d like to sing along… Cuz I’m on your side.”
Written on Christmas Eve during a quiet moment of last-minute shopping, the song came to life in just a few hours. “The line popped into my head while driving,” Lawson shares. “From there, the rest just flowed. I rushed home and finished it that night.”
Produced by Jimbo Hart (Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit), “It’s Love” captures a sense of spiritual and emotional renewal. Lawson explains that the song explores how love can be both the force that breaks us and the one that heals. “Love is the one ingredient that can move us from hurt to healing, from disillusionment to truth. We’re all on the same team, and that realization is powerful.”
Joining Lawson on the track is a cast of seasoned musicians: Jimbo Hart on bass, Justin Holder (The Band Loula) on drums, Trevor McKay (Eric Gales Band) on guitars, and Brad Kuhn (Shenandoah) on piano and keyboards. The track was recorded and mixed by Wes Sheffield at FAME Studios and mastered by Randy Merrill, delivering a rich sonic palette that supports Lawson’s warm, earnest vocals and piano-driven arrangement.
“It’s Love” follows Lawson’s summer 2024 releases “Tennessee River Shakedown” and “Tears and Whiskey,” each of which drew praise for their blend of southern soul and introspective songwriting. With “It’s Love,” Lawson leans even further into what he calls the “emotive core” of his music—a sound that feels both classic and timely.
Though this marks his fifth studio release, Lawson feels the EP Vibe Talking represents a creative homecoming.
“I hadn’t played piano much in 25 years, but it came back like an old friend,” he says. “The piano allows me to tap into the melodic side of my songwriting in a way that feels natural and real.”
With each new release, Lawson adds new depth to his story—a story defined not by fame or flash, but by sincerity, craft, and connection. “It’s Love” offers all of that and more, an anthem for unity and healing in a time that sorely needs both.
“It’s Love” came to you during a quiet Christmas Eve—what do you think made that moment the spark for something so personal?
We had just recorded six of the seven songs for the EP about a week prior to Christmas. One of the songs we recorded in the first session—which is the second single off the record called “Better”—reminded Jimbo Hart (the producer) and Wes Sheffield (the engineer/mixer) of something that Paul McCartney might write. Quite the compliment, I must say!
Typically, when I leave the studio, I almost instantly start to worry that I don’t have any follow-up material. Like, ‘what if some record executive or publishing company calls and wants to hear more?” So, I always feel an urgent need to write for a couple of weeks after I record.
Anyhow, the McCartney compliment made me think I should be as Beatles-esque as possible in my songwriting approach as I think about my next batch of songs. So, I was driving around doing some last-minute Christmas Shopping, and the line “If you have a song, I’d like to sing along” came into my head, and I instantly sang it as it sounds on the track. About two blocks later, the melody for the pre-chorus “I’m on your side” came into my head. The song came together quickly from there once I got home to the piano.
But in regards to your question, the holidays for me is ideally a time for togetherness, a time for hope, healing, and possibility. And those elements of love unquestionably helped shape that song, its lyrics and melody, and underlying chord progressions.
You hadn’t touched a piano much in 25 years—what was it like to return to that instrument after so long?
Honestly, it felt really, really good—and also a bit like riding a bike. I was definitely a bit wobbly at first, but then the chords and feel of the instrument came back to me pretty quickly, and I honestly, it felt like I had become a better player by stepping away.
But the moment that I started to play, I felt like I was on a glide path to a whole lot of emotions. And that’s what I was looking for in this group of songs—to craft some vibes and melodies that had the potential to move people. Because for me, that’s always the most important thing—to help people feel things, and that can’t happen if I’m not feeling things as I write.
Your journey from Seattle thrash to Alabama roots-rock is unique—what stayed constant in you as a songwriter through all that change?
I first started writing songs—at least vocally—in my little thrash band. My approach at that time was to write as hooky of a “melody” as I possibly could, write the most ridiculous lyrics I could think of, and then scream both across three or four octaves with reckless abandon. But after that band, songwriting was always about finding ways to express what I was feeling; and to try to be at least somewhat intelligent about it. To that point, my lyrics often reflected my feelings at the time, but not always. The point of songwriting for me has always been to write music and melodies that expressed what my soul was feeling, because sometimes the mind and soul are not connected.
Anyhow, after things didn’t work out for me in Seattle with my band in the 1990s, I was so heartbroken, I took a long time off. Then, I got divorced in 2019 and returned to songwriting as a means of keeping things together as I tried to carve out a new life for myself in Alabama.
So, I started playing weekly open mics in Tuscaloosa on Sunday nights at a local brewery, and that forced me to write on a weekly basis, and it also provided me the opportunity to listen to the other singer-songwriters who showed up each week to play.
Listening to them and the songs that they covered gave me an insight into an aspect of artistry that I didn’t have in Seattle; and living in the South and hearing the music made here gave me a very different perspective on songwriting. And so, if you listen to my songs—and I hope you will—I think you’ll find that the quality of my tunes, at least with respect to the verses, choruses, and arrangements, is pretty consistent across records. Where I have improved the most, I think, is that I’m a much better artist and that translates both in terms of the quality and range of my tool kit as a musician, but also that I am much more inclined now to just “go for it” and not get caught up in the self-doubt that has always been limiting. And in that respect, I’ve kind of come full circle from the thrash metal days when I truly didn’t have a care in the world about how people might think about me, at least musically.
Recording at FAME Studios, a place steeped in musical history—how did that space shape the energy of “It’s Love”?
It shaped it a lot. The common denominators of all those great FAME records were the owner-engineer Rick Hall and his band of iconic studio musicians known as “The Swampers.” So, while there’s definitely a vibe and mystique to the place that endures the moment you walk in the building, it really is the quality of the musicians, the staff, and their commitment to songs and relationships that makes the place so special. Right now, Muscle Shoals is experiencing yet another Renaissance, and the people that I play with, Jimbo Hart, Justin Holder, Brad Kuhn, and engineer Wes Sheffield, are pretty much the Swampers 2.0. They’re the new giants of the place.
So, the swing you feel when the drums kick on that second verse is really the confluence of a few musicians who are just super locked in with each other and also the song. And that’s what enables them and us to track multiple songs in a day and a half—they never take more than 3 takes to track a song. And that’s a testament to their immense talent, their connection to each other, and their absolute love of music. For them, it’s love too.