Growth rarely happens without some collateral damage. Tanner Dane’s “Hardest Lessons Learned” confronts that uncomfortable truth as it traces the lingering aftermath of a relationship that changed him—but only after someone else paid the price.
“I realized I’d grown and matured as a human and intimate partner, but only at the expense of someone else’s heart,” says Dane. “Although it was too late to undo the damage and pain I’d caused, there was a lesson in the heartbreak that would change the way I acted in life moving forward.”
Best known as the frontman for soul-flavored Chicago-based indie rockers Hollyy, Dane launched his solo career last year with a pair of EPs, Cut Me Loose and Pull Tabs, via Easy Does It. His latest single emerged from a writing trip to Nashville with country/Americana songwriter Levi Foster. The session got off to an unconventional start.
“One of the first things he asked me was, ‘Are you hungry for some duck?’” says Dane. “He’d just returned from a duck-hunting trip—in a town called Weiner, Ark., by the way—and he made the most life-changing duck I’ve ever had.”
With lunch behind them, the pair set about refining an idea Dane had been carrying around for months following the difficult breakup.
“Levi is a great lyricist and really helped me dig deep into everything I was trying to convey without overthinking it,” says Dane. “What I like most about the lyrics is that they say everything in a bit of a poetic way—but, most importantly, an authentic way.”
We’re proud to premiere Tanner Dane’s “Hardest Lessons Learned.”
—Hobart Rowland
