D’Lanee Fields on her start in music, upcoming singles and learning when to be happy with her music

ACM alumni D’Lanee Fields is an indie musician who graduated from ACM in the Spring of 2024. 

Fields describes her music as indie folk or indie pop. She said it is a mesh between a lot of indie techniques and indie styles with elements of folk and pop music mixed into it.

She said the production styles of Julia Jacklin, Generationals and Gotye inspire her own music. Growing up Taylor Swift was a big inspiration to her, she said. 

Fields started in classical music. Growing up, she said she was trained as a choral singer and a classical singer. Then when she moved to ACM she switched to contemporary music. 

Fields said music has always been there for her and she even has videos of her as a three year-old trying to play the piano and singing. She started writing songs when she was about 12-years-old.

Fields said her writing has always been about what she is thinking about and it is the way she processes the world. Now she is able to write her own instrumentals at the same time as the lyrics. 

Fields said her dad helped her along the way. She said growing up she saw him writing songs and playing guitar. At one point she got to see him perform on stage. She said he definitely inspired her to not let go of music and even bought her first guitar for her. 

Fields was not always sure that she could be an artist. She said during Covid in her senior year of high school, she was deciding what career she wanted to pursue. Nothing captured her enough to make her want to pursue that career path. “I just asked myself If I don’t do this thing. If I don’t try to do it. Will I be okay with it? Can I live the rest of my life not having known where I would have gone,” she Fields. She said the answer for her was no, so she decided to pursue music. 

She came out with an EP “The Words I’ve Never Said Before” in December of 2023 and realized at the time that she was not happy with it. She felt like it was a little premature. She worked on it and re-released it in April of 2024. Fields said her biggest take away was realizing the need to go at her own pace and making sure she gives herself enough time so that she has a product that she is fully happy with. The hardest part for her is knowing the balance between when she needs to stop and when she is not going to be proud of her music.

Fields is currently working on an album and wants to release a couple singles in possibly April or June of this year. One of the singles is called “Caroline” and she describes it as a fun pop adjacent/rock adjacent song that has sapphic love vibes. The second single is a sweet love song about her grandparents for their 60th anniversary called “The Fields,” she said. 

She is unsure of what her performing schedule will look like. Fields said she is looking at playing at one of ACM’s Live Rooms, but is trying to lock in her recording schedule first.