How Nikki Lane found guitar empowerment with Josh Homme and an all-star band on her gritty new album

When it comes to playing guitar, Nikki Lane likes to refer to herself as “Clangity Lane”. Her playing is fairly straightforward. Nonetheless, it’s vital to her songwriting process. “My guitar playing has always been for the purpose of writing,” she says. “It’s not a natural thing for me to play guitar. It took a lot of work for me to have the muscle memory to do it. So now I say my style is just indicative of the tone I’m trying to write.”

Even so, Lane felt her playing took a step forward on her latest album, Denim & Diamonds, which was produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme. Homme, who also played guitar, assembled an all-star backing band featuring QOTSA collaborator Alain Johannes on guitar, Dean Fertita on organ and Michael Shuman on bass. Arctic Monkeys’ Matt Helders, Autolux’s Carla Azar and Lane’s go-to pedal steel player, Matt Pynn, are also featured.

“There’s nothing those guys couldn’t play, so that makes it really easy to make a record,” Lane says.

In the past, Lane would demo songs on guitar but would “always encourage it to be replaced by someone who played guitar solely for a living.” However, this time she decided to use more of her own playing. “I was proud that so much of my acoustic playing showed up on the record, because I had never felt confident enough to play in those settings,” she says. “It was fun to have a little bit more ownership, musically, in the studio.”

For Lane, each record is like a mixtape of her emotions. Working with Homme gave the country music-leaning artist confidence (as well as some tips on guitar playing) to embrace an edgier and grittier rock sound that compliments her spirited, take-no-BS lyrics. She sees herself as a rhythm player and “a player that fills a space so that these guys can ice the cake.”

“I was able to dictate melodies more than I had before. I was encouraged to bring things that I was curious to hear to the table,” she says. “It really gave me a chance to blossom as an equal… Now I feel like my record sounds exactly like I do.” For example, album closer Chimayo is purely driven by acoustic guitar.

The acoustic nature of the song stands out in stark contrast to the album’s more boisterous songs. Its lyrics were inspired by a former coworker who stole items from her house, including her one-of-a-kind Chimayo jacket.

“It’s different for me, and I think that’s what I liked about it,” she says. “I never want to experience something like that again, but it did create a beautiful creative moment.”

• Denim & Diamonds is out now via New West Records.